Silverton folio, Colorado

The term San Juan region, or simply "the San Juan," used with variable meaning by early explorers, and naturally with indefinite limitation during the period of settlement, is now quite generally applied to a large tract of mountainous country in southwestern Colorado, together with an undefined zone of lower country bordering it on the north, west, and south.  The Continental Divide traverses this area in a great bow.  The principal part of the district is a deeply scored volcanic plateau, more than 3000 square miles in extent, drained on the north by the tributaties of the Gunnison River, on the west by those of the Dolores and San Miguel rivers, on the south by numerous branches of the San Juan, and on the east by the Rio Grande.  ALl but the latter drainage finds its way to the Gulf of California through the Colorado River.