Summit

South Side

Marshall Pass connects Salida and Gunnison by crossing the Continental Divide at 10,846 feet just south of the Mt. Ouray summit. Before Marshall Pass, the regular route from the Salida area to the Gunnison Country was south over Poncha Pass to Saguache, then west over Cochetopa Pass.

The story of Marshall Pass begins In 1873 with Lt. William L. Marshall and party who were surveying the San Juan area near present-day Silverton. When fall snow came, they intended to return to headquarters in Denver by the regular route over Cochetopa Pass. However, Marshall got a severe toothache which swelled his jaw, causing him to consider an alternate route that could get him to a dentist in Denver as quickly as possible. He left the main party and set off with his packer, Dave Mears, intending to head north and then turn west to cross the Divide in the area of Independence Pass. They were blocked by heavy snows. Marshall and Mears then turned south until they found a low point on the ridge where the snow was less deep. Even so, it took them six days to manage 12 miles of wind, snow, and downed timber near the summit. After seeing that this gap took him in the right direction, Marshall halted for a day at the top and made surveys despite his agonizing toothache. He and Mears got to Denver four days before the main party, and saved about 125 miles in the process.

In 1877, Otto Mears got a charter to build a toll road over Marshall Pass, and in the early summer of 1880, he was advertising in Salida's Mountain Mail: "If you are bound for the Gunnison, take the Marshall Pass Road. The route is now open, and is by thirty miles the shortest road to Gunnison City, Pitkin, Ruby Camp, Virginia City, Hillerton, Gothic, Crested Butte and all other points in the Gunnison Country. It is only 60 miles from South Arkansas [Salida's name at the time] to Gunnison City."

By then, the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad had reached Salida. The railroad bought Mears's toll road for $13,000, and began extending its narrow-gauge rails west; the first train reached Gunnison on Aug. 6, 1881. Passenger service continued until Nov. 24, 1940. After that, the main freight was livestock from the Gunnison Country and coal from Crested Butte, bound for the steel mill in Pueblo. The coal mine closed in 1952, trucks were hauling cattle over improved highways and the railroad got permission to abandon the line in 1953. The rails came up in 1955, and the right-of-way became a county road in 1956.