COLORADO BUSINESS HALL OF FAME
  • Laureates By Name
  • Laureates by Year
    • 2025
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  • Laureates By Name
  • Laureates by Year
    • 2025
  • Supporters
  • Junior Achievement
  • PBS Specials
  • Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce
  • Nomination Form

Otto Mears

Otto Mears is a pioneer credited for building the toll roads and railroads that opened southwestern Colorado for settlement and mining, earning the name “Pathfinder of the San Juan.”

Born in Russia and orphaned early, relatives sent Mears to England at nine years old and then to New York. From New York, he sailed to California, where he lived with his uncle. When Mears arrived, his uncle was gone, forcing him to live alone at age 11. He made his way by hawking newspapers on the Barbery Coast, tin-smithing, and working in the California and Nevada goldfields.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Mears enlisted as a volunteer in the First California Regiment, and when discharged in 1864, Mears moved to Santa Fe, where he worked as a shopkeeper for the Staab Brothers. Proving to be a valuable asset, the brothers offered to help open a store in Conejos, CO.

Mears’ interests eventually shifted from management to construction. He saw an opportunity in narrow gauge railroad, and with the help of financiers, he constructed his first line running from Silverton to Red Mountain. Later, Mears built the Rio Grande Southern from Ridgway to Durango.

In 1893, Mears lost control of the Rio Grande Southern railroad. The repeal of the Sherman Act caused a silver crash that closed the mines. Railroad workers left, there was no ore to haul, and the Rio Grande Southern went into receivership. Although Mears lost much of his wealth, he wasn’t discouraged. He went on to build a railroad from Washington, D.C., to Chesapeake Beach, MD.
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Among his successes in the railroad industry, Mears is credited with bringing the first telegraph to Fort Garland, negotiating the Brunot Treaty of 1873, and chairing the Board of Capitol Managers, which oversaw the construction of the Colorado State Capitol.
The Colorado Business Hall of Fame is co-presented by
Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain Inc. and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Videos produced by Becky Holden of Biography Media, [email protected]