KANsoME.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 21 
Grande, by way of Antelope Park and Cunningham Gulch. Over this 
route the first ore sold from the Pride of the West mine, in Cunning- 
ham Gulch, was taken out in 1874. It was not until 1879 that the 
wagon road from Antelope Park was completed by way of Stony 
Gulch, and ore could be hauled out to Del Norte by teams at $30 a 
ton. 
The founding of Lake City, about the year 1875, and the establish- 
ment there by Crooke & Co. of a smelting plant, afforded a market for 
the ores of the northeastern portion of the quadrangle. The first ore 
si Opped out from this part of the district was from the Mountain 
Queen mine, at the head of California Gulch, in 1877. It amounted 
to 370 tons, and contained 64 per cent of lead and 30 ounces of silver 
per ton. It was carried by pack animals to the end of the road at 
Rose's cabin, at a cost of $3 per ton. Crooke & Co., of Lake City, and 
Mather & Geist, of Pueblo, both had ore-buying agencies in Silverton 
n 1879. During this year about 500 tons of ore, worth about $60,000, 
were sent to the Lake City smelter, and about 185 tons went to Pueblo. 
The value of the latter was probably about £25,000. 
In 1879 a road was completed from Silverton up Cement Creek to 
he head of Poughkeepsie Gulch, where prospecting and mining was 
joing on with great activiiy on the Old Lout, Alabama, Poughkeep- 
ie, Red Roger, Saxon. Alaska, Bonanza, and other claims. Chlori- 
lation and lixiviation works were erected at Gladstone about this 
ime, to treat these ores by the Augustin process. Their capacity 
ras about 6 tons per day. 
During the seventies the eastern and northeastern portions of the 
uadrangle were actively prospected, and nearly every lode which has 
ubsequently proved valuable was then located. In some cases pay- 
tig ore was taken out in large quantities, as from the North Star mine 
n Sultan Mountain and others already referred to. But this activity 
r as in great part feverish and unwholesome. The success of a few 
ncouraged extravagance in the incompetent, and opened a rich field 
) unscrupulous and dishonest promoters. Smelting plants and mills 
'ere erected before the presence of ore was ascertained. Reduction 
rocesses were installed without any pains having been taken to 
scertain their applicability to the particular ores to be treated. Thus 
i 1876 Animas Forks was a lively town of some 30 houses and 2 
tills, and in 1883 boasted of a population of 450. But there was 
ever any real justification for its existence. Built upon hopes never 
jalized, its decline was almost as rapid as its rise, and the town is 
)w ruined and desolate. Its principal mill was put up in 1875 or 
>76 to treat ore from the Red Cloud mine, but was never successful, 
he Eclipse smelter, erected by James Cherry as late as 1880, at the 
outh of Grouse Gulch, ostensibly to run on lead ores from the 
ountain Queen and other claims, was also a costly failure. The 
Dnanza tunnel, a mile and a half west of the town, was run L,000 
