Telluride City Map Poster

About Telluride

Telluride is named after the ore tellurium, and many of its residents are involved in mining or work at one of the various ski resorts. The town was originally named "Columbia", but due to confusion with Columbia, California (and because a U.S. post office already had that name), it was renamed Telluride in 1887 for the ore mineral "tellurium" (TeO). The area around Telluride was first inhabited by Paleo-Indians who migrated into Colorado about 9,000 years ago during the last glacial period when receding glaciers left them isolated on mountain tops as high as . They hunted game and gathered nuts and seeds along forested streams until about 7500 B.C., then were replaced by Archaic peoples who migrated up from Arizona beginning 5000 B.C..