Ouray County, Colorado

Ouray County is one of the 64  of the  in the. The county population was 3,742 at. The is the. Because of its rugged mountain geography, Ouray County is also known as the Switzerland of America.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 1,404 (542 ). 1,400 km² (540 sq mi) of it is land and 5 km² (2 sq mi) of it (0.32%) is water.

Adjacent Counties

 * - north
 * - northeast
 * - southeast
 * - south
 * - southwest

History
Ouray County was formed out of on , the first county designated by the newly formed Colorado State Legislature. It was named for, a distinguished chief. was designanted county seat on. On,  was formed out of Ouray County.

On, Ouray County was split into and what is currently Ouray County. The portion that became San Miguel County almost retained the name Ouray County when the initially renamed Ouray County as Uncompaghre County. Four days later on, the General Assembly changed its mind and changed the name of Uncompaghre County back to Ouray County.

The was constructed in Ouray in 1888 and is located on the.

Mining operators in the of Colorado formed the  (SJDMA) in 1903, as a direct result of a  proposal to the Telluride Mining Association for, which. The new association consolidated the power of thirty-six mining properties in, Ouray, and counties. The SJDMA refused to consider any reduction in hours or increase in wages, helping to provoke a bitter strike.

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 3,742 people, 1,576 households, and 1,123 families residing in the county. The was 3/km² (7/sq mi). There were 2,146 housing units at an average density of 2/km² (4/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 96.34%, 0.08% or , 0.94% , 0.35% , 0.05% , 0.53% from , and 1.71% from two or more races. 4.06% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 1,576 households out of which 28.60% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.40% were living together, 6.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.70% were non-families. 23.50% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 2.77.

In the county the population was spread out with 22.50% under the age of 18, 4.10% from 18 to 24, 27.20% from 25 to 44, 34.10% from 45 to 64, and 12.20% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 102.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.80 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $42,019, and the median income for a family was $49,776. Males had a median income of $35,141 versus $26,176 for females. The for the county was $24,335. About 6.00% of families and 7.20% of the population were below the, including 8.00% of those under age 18 and 2.90% of those age 65 or over.