Animas Forks, Colorado
Posted by: 
94RedRover
N 37° 55.752 W 107° 33.888
13S E 274582 N 4201062
"Three Forks of the Animus" as it was once called, was a prosperous mining town, is now a ghost town visited by 100,000 visitors a year.
Waymark Code: WM5PVM
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 01/31/2009
Views: 12
By 1876, in three short years, the town of Animas Forks had become a bustling mining community of gold and silver miners. The town had 30 cabins,a hotel, general store, saloon and post office. The residents would migrate to Silverton, a town just to the south and lower altitude to wait out the harsh winters. In 1882, the Animas Forks Pioneer, the only newspaper ever published at such altitudes was founded.
Mining profits began to decline and by 1910, the Gold Prince Mill closed, and most of its parts used for a new facility in Eureka. That was the beginning of the end for this old mining town. By 1920, Animas Forks was a ghost town.
Now managed by the Bureau of Land Management, visitors can take CR-2 to the old town, and visit a few still standing structures.
The sign here reads:
Animas Forks
The first prospectors wintered in the "Three Forks of the Animas" in 1873, looking for gold and silver. In 875, the name was changed to Animas Forks to accommodate the Post Office Department, and funds were committed by the San Juan County Commissioners to build a road between Silverton and Animas Forks to connect with the trail from Lake City, now known as Cinnamon Pass. By 1885, the summer population reached 450 people. Few people braved the harsh winters when most mining activity stopped.
The town weathered the boom and bust cycles of the mining industry until the early 1920s when metals prices fell worldwide and it began its slow transformation into a ghost town.