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<br />001125 <br /> <br />-9- <br /> <br />Delta to~n site was laid out in Deoember 1881, building was oom- <br />menoed in 1882 and the town was inoorporated in Ootober 1882. <br /> <br />Following olose after Delta. the town site of Montrose was laid <br />out in January 1882, and the town was inoorporated in Ma.y 1882. <br /> <br />The town of Ridgway was inoorporated in April 1891 and Olathe <br />in October 1907. <br /> <br />Other than these five towns there are only a few small village <br />sites scattered through the basin. ohiefly in the lower valley. The lar- <br />gest of this latter group is Colona. located at the head of the lower <br />valley. <br /> <br />8. Populationl <br /> <br />Complete information regarding populations in the Unoompahgre <br />Valley is laoking. It is especially diffioult to find details for years <br />prior to 1900. A reasonable pioture of population trends oan bB gained <br />from the following tables on town. oounty and basin populations for the <br />e.l"ea. <br /> <br />Approximate size and growth of towns follows in Table 31 <br /> <br />TABLE 3 <br /> <br />POPULATION OF TOWNS <br />lJrlCOiiPAHGllB BLSIJ.T <br /> <br />Per U. S. Census Reports <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />, <br />[ <br />I, <br /> <br />Town 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 <br />Ouray 2196 l6~ 1165 73l(a) 951 <br />Delta 819 2388 2623 2938 3717 <br />tlontrose 1330 1217 3254 3581 3566 4764 <br />Ridgway 239 354 <br />Olathe 458 491 593 705 <br />(a) Sum of preoinots inoluded in tom of Ouray. <br /> <br />It is evident from the Census data that the population in the <br />mln1ng area has been deoreasing with the drop in mine production, gain- <br />ing sarne in 1940 with inoreased aotivity and higher gold prioes, while <br />in the lower valley populations were fairly steady prior to 1910, having <br />jumped suddenly in the deoade 1900-1910, and steadily inoreasing sinoe <br />