bansome.] 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 
shipped 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 ''4 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 
in 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 aboul *25,000. 
In 1879 a road was com] deled from Silverton up Cement Creek to 
the head of Poughkeepsie Gulch, where prospecting and mining was 
going on with great activity on the Old I. out, Alabama, Poughkeep- 
sie, Red Roger, Saxon, Alaska, Bonanza, and other claims. Chlori- 
nation and lixiviation works were erected at Gladstone about this 
time, to treat these ores by the Augustin process. Their capacity 
was about G tons per day. 
During the seventies t lie eastern and northeastern portions of the 
quadrangle were actively prospected, and nearly every lode which has 
subsequently proved valuable was then located. In some cases pay- 
ing ore was taken out in large quantil ies, as from the North Star mine 
on Sultan Mountain and others already referred to. But this activity 
was in great part feverish and unwholesome. The success of a few 
encouraged extravagance in the incompetent, and opened a rich field 
to unscrupulous and dishonest promoters. Smelting plants and mills 
were erected before the presence of ore was ascertained. Reduction 
processes were installed without any pains having been taken to 
ascertain their applicability to the part icular ores to be treated. Thus 
in 187(5 Animas Forks was a lively town of some 30 houses and 2 
mills, and in 1883 boasted of a population of 450. But there was 
never any real justification for its existence. Built upon hopes never 
realized, its decline was almost as rapid as its rise, and the town is 
now ruined and desolate. Its principal mill was put up in 1875 or 
187(5 to treat ore from the Red Cloud mine, but was never successful. 
The Eclipse smelter, erected by James Cherry as late as 1880, at the 
nouth of Grouse Gulch, ostensibly to run on lead ores from the 
VIountain Queen and other claims, was also a costly failure. The 
bonanza tunnel, a mile and a half west of the town, was run 1,000 
