Olga Little
When Olga Little came to Durango in 1895 as a teenager, she was already an experienced horse handler. She then became Colorado’s first woman “jackpacker.” Miners depended on Olga and her string of surefooted burros to come to them high in the mountains with loads of supplies, then pack gold and silver ore out. Olga was so well regarded that the railroad extended a line all the way to her house.
When one of her burros fell into a deep snowy ravine and couldn’t get out, Olga brought it hay every few days until the snow melted months later. Another winter, she found eighteen miners stranded in ten feet of snow, on the brink of starvation. She roped them together and took them on a sixteen hour trek to safety. Her 40-year record of bravery and kindness to animals made her something of a legend, which lives on in Olga Little Mountain in the Las Platas.
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