Story by Samanth Tisdel Wright • Photography by Kathryn R. Burke
All content © San Juan Publishing Group, Inc, All rights reserved.

ANY EXCUSE IS A GOOD EXCUSE to have a parade in Silverton. Major events call for major parades. Like Fourth of July — the biggest of them all. It's an event that goes back to the historic mining days. Floats start lining up when the morning chill still hangs heavy in the air. On a good year, they’re backed up all the way to Memorial Park. And any year, they're just plain wonderful!

At 10 a.m. sharp, the parade begins to move — with the American Legion Post 14 Color Guard and growly old command car leading the way down Blair Street and back up Greene. (In the late 1980s, this spectacle was enough to start a stampede on Blair St., when a group of  late-arriving horsemen trying to catch the tail end of the parade, instead came face to face with a bagpiper marching alongside the color guard, caterwauling “The Battle is Over.”)

Seems like a lot of parades these days are short on floats and heavy on flashy cars and advertising. Not in Silverton. Here there are floats and plenty of them, full of kids tossing candy, shady ladies tossing Mardi-Gras beads, politicians doing their best to look happy yet sincere. There are fire engines, men on horseback, kids on bikes, and moms pushing buggies. The Silverton Brass Band dresses in period finery, stopping once a block or so to play a tune.

Hundreds of people line the streets to revel in the spectacle beneath a balmy blue sky. Even rain (or in some years, snow) never dampens the spirit of parade participants and the crowd. Umbrellas (or parkas) come out instead of sun-shading parasols, and people still park curbside on their camp chairs. When it’s over, the parade turns into a party as people stroll up and down the streets in their costumes, stopping in shops, relaxing in restaurants.

The Fourth of July isn’t the only occasion for parades and “dress-up.” The Victorian Aid Society and Camptown Ladies and Gents are based in Durango, but very active here in Silverton as well. They, and other townsfolk who just love dressing up, find many “excuses” throughout the year to parade their ornate Victorian finery, gunfighter get-up, or saloon girl froo-froo, including First Train Day, Step Back in Time, the Murder-Mystery Train, Railfest, the Bordello Ball, the holiday season, and Snowscape Winter Carnival.

It’s part of what makes this place so distinctively charming. If you’re going to live in one of the tiniest, highest, most rugged and isolated mountain towns in the country…you might as well celebrate! Come see for yourself. Savor the flavor of this very unique community; take a step back in time into a place that actively celebrates its heritage all year long. Come celebrate Silverton!