The first mining claims were made in mountains above the Silverton in 1860, near the end of the Colorado Gold Rush and when the land was still controlled by the Utes.

Originally called "Bakers Park", Silverton sits in a flat area of the Animas River valley and is surrounded by steep peaks.

Silverton's last operating mine closed in 1992, and the community now depends primarily on tourism and government remediation and preservation projects.

[6] Settlements in the area surrounding present-day Silverton began in 1860 after a group of prospectors led by Charles Baker made their way into the San Juan Mountains searching for gold.

[10] Long before settlement, the area was regularly explored by the Anasazi, and later the Utes, who hunted and lived in the San Juans during the summer.

[10] The region boomed after George Howard and R. J. McNutt discovered the Sunnyside silver vein along Hurricane Peak.

[9] The mine was shut down after the 1929 stock market crash, but was acquired by Standard Metals Corp. in 1959, and reopened, finding gold in 1973 with the Little Mary vein.

[18] Tourism continued to increase in the latter part of the 20th century, but Silverton's harsh winters and isolation made it a summer-only attraction.

[19][20][9] The town's scenic 3 ft (0.91 m) narrow-gauge railroad, originally built by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (later renamed the Denver and Rio Grande Western or D&RGW) primarily to haul ore to Durango, became popular as a tourist attraction, and this traffic increased after World War II when the line was featured in several popular western films and its staff began actively promoting tourism.

[21][22] The Silverton–Durango line now served tourists exclusively, and in 1980, the D&RGW sold it to an independent operator who renamed it the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNG).

[24] The area surrounding Silverton has been the scene of several well-documented disasters, many of them due to avalanches and mining accidents.

[28] This gave Silverton the dubious honor of having the highest mortality rate for the Spanish Flu in the entire nation.

[28] On June 4, 1978, when the water from Lake Emma collapsed into Sunnyside mine, shooting out of a portal with a force that toppled a 20-ton locomotive.

[29] In 2015, the EPA and its contractors caused an environmental catastrophe when they accidentally destroyed the plug holding water trapped inside the Gold King Mine, which caused three million US gallons (eleven thousand cubic meters) of mine waste water and tailings, to flow into a tributary of the Animas River.

Silverton sits in a flat area of the Animas River valley and is surrounded by several thirteeners, the highest being Storm Peak, at 13,487 feet.

[34] Shaun White's secret training facility for the Vancouver Olympics (2010) called "Project X" was located on Silverton Mountain.