1 place in town is on the National Register, among them the Telluride Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and a historic district with 305 buildings. Below: 11 old photos and papers, maps from 1886 on, and the census since 1890.
Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1880.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Telluride’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Telluride is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Telluride’s overall grade.
Few Colorado towns list much on the Register (a typical Colorado town has 1.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Telluride’s 1,412 sits above most of its state (100% of Colorado towns have fewer) while its 305 historic buildings outnumber those of 95% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.5 points). Two sources give 1878.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Telluride’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Gold was first discovered in Colorado near present-day Denver, setting off the Pike's Peak gold rush of 1858. The Smuggler gold vein above Telluride, and placer gold in the San Miguel River, were discovered in 1875. John Fallon made the first claim in Marshal Basin above Telluride in 1875 and settlement followed. The town of Columbia was founded in 1878. The Telluride, Colorado, post office opened at Columbia on July 26, 1880, since the United States Post Office Department would not approve the name Columbia. Columbia (Telluride since 1887) has been the seat of San Miguel County, Colorado, since the county was created on March 2, 1883. The Town of Columbia was incorporated on February 10, 1887, but the town changed its name to the Town of Telluride a few months later. The town was named after valuable ore compounds of the chemical element tellurium, a metalloid element which forms natu…
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
Canton MinemineCommercial MinemineCourt House MinemineDynamo MinemineElectric MinemineGlacier PlacersmineGold Medal MinemineGolden Rose MinemineGrace MinemineMountain Flower MinemineNorth Slope MinemineOhio MinemineTownsend Minemine
1cemetery inside Telluride
Lone Tree
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Finish Telluride’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
3 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
In 1878, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Telluride’s post office opened in 1880, and the census of 1890 counted 766 people here.
How does Telluride rank for history?
Telluride is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Telluride?
One place: the Telluride Historic District (listed 1966).
How old are the homes in Telluride?
10% of Telluride’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.5 points), against a typical 2.5% for a Colorado town; the median home was built in 1986.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (7), the Library of Congress (4), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
★ Landmark
c. 1903
1910
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1915