Animas Forks

Animas Forks was established in 1875 at 11,200 feet in the San Juan Mountains, between present-day Silverton and Lake City, and grew through speculative mining investment before becoming a ghost town by the 1920s. A dozen or so buildings still stand, including a two-cell jail, and the site is managed by the Bureau of Land Management as part of the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway, drawing an estimated 250,000 visitors a year — free to enter, though a high-clearance or four-wheel-drive vehicle is needed to reach it. Visitors touring the buildings describe an otherworldly presence they can't quite place; local telling attributes it to the miners who worked the district, though no specific death or name has been documented behind the claim.