Otto Mears Park

The bronze ends on Mears's friendship with Ouray, and the friendship had a price. In 1880 Mears sat on the commission sent to win Ute ratification of the agreement removing the Uncompahgre and White River Utes, the Nuuchiu, from Colorado. By the account of Sidney Jocknick, who knew him, Mears paid each Ute who signed two dollars of his own money; charged with bribery, he was cleared in 1881 by the new Interior secretary. Mears then helped judge the land near the Grand River unfit for the Uncompahgre, and they were moved to Utah. Ouray never signed the ratification.

What the plaque says

This tablet is the property of the State of Colorado Otto Mears Park This park is dedicated to Otto Mears, Russian-born Colorado pioneer, known as "The Pathfinder of the San Juan," who came to the San Luis Valley in 1865. In Saguache (a Ute Indian word meaning "blue earth"), Otto Mears was married in 1870, establishing his home across from this park. He built a toll road over Poncha Pass, the first one in the area; ran freighting teams; established mining camps; published two newspapers and constructed railways. He was for a time treasurer of Saguache County. As a commissioner he helped to build the state capitol, and suggested covering the dome with gold leaf. As a friend of Ouray, Mears induced the Utes to cede the "Mining Triangle" of the San Juan to the government. Erected by the State Historical Society of Colorado from the Mrs. J. N. Hall Foundation and by the Saguache Kiwanis Club 1959

Where it stands