Quick Facts
- State
- Colorado
- County
- La Plata County
- Status
- Unknown Status
- Access
- Unknown Access
- Coordinates
- Not recorded
Animas City doesn't need a haunted reputation — the empty streets do the talking. A ghost town of unknown status in La Plata County, Colorado.
Colorado's high-country ghost towns sit at altitudes that would give a flatlander nosebleeds — silver camps killed by an 1893 vote in Washington.
La Plata County holds 6 documented ghost towns, including Griffth, Logtown, Mayday — Animas City keeps them company on the map.
The story of Animas City
Getting ore out of the high Rockies was an engineering war, and towns like Animas City were its base camps. Narrow-gauge railroads clawed up grades that standard locomotives couldn't touch; aerial tramways carried ore across valleys; and every winter buried the whole works in snow. The men who stayed did so because the rock paid — gold, silver, lead, zinc, in combinations that shifted with the market. When the mines closed, the railroads pulled up their tracks for scrap, and without the railroad a mountain town had no reason to exist. That's the short version of what happened to Animas City, and the long version isn't much kinder.
Calling it Animas City was either optimism or a very good joke — boomtowns were never modest about their ambitions.
What you'll find today
The on-the-ground condition of Animas City is unverified — it's listed here with unknown status. That could mean standing buildings, or an empty field. Go prepared for either, and consider sharing what you find so the record improves.
Nobody has confirmed the access situation, so treat any visit as reconnaissance: verify land ownership first, and be ready to admire from the road.
Getting there
Here's the honest truth: access to Animas City is unverified. We couldn't confirm whether the site sits on public land, private property, or something in between — so verify land ownership and local rules before visiting, and respect private property at all times.
Good to know
Ghost-town etiquette is simple: take only photographs. Removing artifacts is illegal on public lands and disrespectful everywhere else — and on federal land it can be a serious offense.