The town of Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of
San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado.
The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western
San Juan Mountains. The first gold mining claim was made in the mountains above
Telluride in 1875 and early settlement of what is now Telluride followed. The
town itself was founded in 1878 as "Columbia," but due to confusion
with a California town of the same name, was renamed Telluride in 1887, for the
gold telluride minerals found in other parts of Colorado. These telluride
minerals were
