Emil Fischer

Emil B. Fischer (1838 or 1839 in Dresden, Saxony – September 23, 1898 in Silverton, Colorado) published six detailed maps of the San Juan area of southwestern Colorado between 1883 and 1898. A surveyor's son, he came to America around 1872. He moved to Durango in 1880 when the building of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway to the San Juan attracted widespread attention, then to Silverton. These maps aided silver and gold prospectors to file their claims; they enabled investors to locate mines and view their proximity to famous neighboring mines; and they encouraged tourists to visit the depicted mining regions and invigorate the local economies.

This German immigrant made many mountain-climbing pilgrimages for his drawings of San Juan and adjacent counties, which he subsequently transferred to maps that were as attractive as they were functional. Fischer drew his finished maps, even the text elements, entirely by hand before engraving and printing, distinguishing them from the typeset variety that came before and after. They are scrupulously correct in detail and were regarded as authoritative for many years. He collapsed on the sidewalk in front of the First National Bank of Silverton, where he had just transacted business. Reportedly his only known survivor was a sister in Dresden.