MINERAL POINT
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MINERAL POINT |
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NAME: Mineral Point COUNTY: San Juan ROADS: 4WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: Impassable winter snow BEST TIME TO VISIT: Summer |
COMMENTS:
The topo maps show a road passing through
Mineral Point, connecting between the road to Engineer Pass from Silverton
(Animas Forks) and the road to the Pass from Ouray. This road has been blocked
off. You can get to the Mineral Point site from the Animas Forks side; take
the fist left trail after heading north out of Animas Forks. There is a
mine onyour left and further down another trail off to the left. Stay right
till the trail ends. At the road end, there is a mine with some equipment
on the left up hill and two partial cabins on beyond. The area beyond theroad
end has become very swampy. Careful, hiking to the cabins is through the
swamp. HOWEVER, near the other end of the Mineral Point road from the Ouray
side, there is a large collapsed mining structure and a nearby nice two-story
building. The mining structure includes an ore crusher which is exposed
in the debris and a few wooden tanks off the end. You can also get to this
point by going on beyond the Animas Forks side turnoff to MP. Stay left
when you get to the trail leading up to Engineer Pass. You can see the ruins
at a point above just before the road goes down a hairpin. The access road
is at the bottom of the hairpin. After visiting here, be aware that of the
four Alpine Looproads, the one from Ouray is by far the worst. OK for SUVs
but very slowgoing in several strectches. REMAINS: 2 delapidated cabins and one mine at main site. Collapsed mine structure and nice 2-story house toward ouray from the main site. |
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Mineral Point was founded in 1873 by Charles McIntyre and Abe Burrows.The name derived from a quartz formatio which runs for several miles and along which many gold camps were located. To attract interested parties, brochures were printed depicting steam ships plying theAnimas River between Mineral point and downriver Animas Forks. If you've been to the area, you know what a "challenge" that would have been. Ore was shipped to either Silverton, Lake City or Ouray--no doubt using one of the roads now known as the Alpine Loop. Mining activity began to fall off in the 1880's and the city died in the early 90's. Ref.: Perry Eberhart, "Guide to the Clorado Ghost Towns and MiningCamps", 1969, 4th ed. revised, Swallow Press, Athens OH (best Colorado ghost town book I've seen.--HF) Submitted by: Harold Frodge
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