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2001 Map of Howardsville

Name: 2001 Topographic Map of Howardsville
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 2005
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 2005

About this map

Howardsville and the high mountain valley of the Animas River define this survey of San Juan County's mining heartland. The map provides an exceptionally detailed record of the region’s industrial history, documenting a dense concentration of mineral claims and infrastructure along the Continental Divide. Prominent industrial sites include the Old Hundred Mine, the Pride of the West Mill, and the Shenandoah Mine near Cunningham Creek. The presence of the Howardsville Cem and former settlements like Middleton ground the landscape in its late 19th and early 20th-century human history.

To the south and east, the industrial character gives way to protected lands within the Weminuche Wilderness and Rio Grande National Forest. High-altitude features such as Crystal Lake, the Highland Mary Lakes, and the summit of King Solomon Mountain dominate the terrain. A complex network of aerial tramways, many marked as abandoned by the turn of the 21st century, connects peaks like Galena Mountain to the mills below, illustrating the vertical scale of the historic silver and gold operations.