Painting of Otto Mears by Juan Menchaca. Catalog Number: 84.9.2
Final Years
Mears lost control of the Rio Grande Southern in the Silver Panic of 1893 and never quite regained his financial position. He took his family and moved back east where he built a railroad from Washington, D.C. to the beaches of Maryland.
Always interested in investing in new technology, Mears worked with and became president of Mack Truck.
In 1906 he moved back to Colorado, living in Silverton in order to manage his three railroads there as well oversee mining interests. He continued to promote the town of Durango, even supporting Judge W.N. Searcy’s appeal to the State Highway Commission in 1910 to build a highway from Denver to Durango and then on to Silverton and Ouray.
In 1933, at age 91, Mears passed away in California. His ashes, along with those of his wife and daughter, are scattered over the San Juan Mountains.
To learn more about Otto Mears, check out "Otto Mears, Paradoxical Pathfinder" by Michael Kaplan.