Animas Forks, one of the many towns in the San Juan Mountains that was created by gold fever and then died when the fever ran its course, is glittering again today.
The occasion is the restoration of the nine surviving buildings in the ghost town 12 miles northeast of Silverton and the 25th birthday celebration the Alpine Loop, 65 miles of unpaved road that links Animas Forks, Silverton, Ouray and Lake City.
The structures – four houses, the jail, a carriage house and three buildings of speculative use – are all that remain of a community that in its heyday boasted a hotel, general store, post office and newspaper.
Sweeping fires in 1891 and 1913, cruel winters at 11,200 feet elevation and vandalism took their toll.
Efforts to snatch a period of mining history from the march of time has been a decades-long labor of love by community members and organizations.
Community interest has been instrumental in keeping Animas Forks alive materially as well as in memory, said David Singer, the principal of Silverton Restoration Consulting and the restoration manager. He did the drawings and construction specifications.
“It’s been a community stewardship,” Singer said. “In the 1970s there was Animas Forks Day when townspeople would work on a project there. The historical societies of San Juan, Hinsdale and Ouray counties also took an interest in the project.
Bev Rich, chairwoman of the San Juan Historical Society, recalled that numerous community groups have contributed day labor and money to preserve the ghost town for more than 40 years.
Material support and encouragement came from outside groups, Rich said. She mentioned the Ghost Town Club of Colorado, a statewide group founded in 1958 whose members have contributed financial and onsite help.
“If we hadn’t intervened, there would be nothing but a pile of wood out there,” Rich said.
The first cabin in Animas Forks, located at the confluence of two draws that contribute the first water to the Animas River, was built in 1873. A decade later, the town had a population of more than 450 residents.
Animas Forks enjoyed a little more than 25 years of prosperity, but the precious metals petered out shortly after the turn of the century.
Stabilization of the crumbling mining center got a boost in 1998 when the Bureau of Land Management and the San Juan County Historical Society joined forces to stabilize the site. A grant to San Juan County initiated restoration of dilapidated structures.
The involvement of the San Juan Mountains Association and the Mountain Studies Institute brought monitoring, maintenance, visitor services and financial support to the project.