The Ute-Ulay Mine and the ghost camps explain Hinsdale's high country

The reason rough roads climb so many of the gulches in this part of the San Juans is mining. Lake City was the supply town, but much of the work happened up in the high country, and the ruins are still there.

One of the largest operations was the Ute-Ulay Mine and Mill, west of Lake City along Henson Creek. It was a big silver and lead mine and mill, among the most productive in the district, and it ran in different forms across several decades. Other places were whole towns that did not last. Capitol City, for example, was a mining settlement that is now largely a ghost town, with only traces left behind.

This is the pattern that shaped the county: a metal strike, a camp, a mill, a road to haul ore and supplies, and then a slow fade when the ore or the prices ran out. That boom-and-bust cycle is why the high country here is dotted with old workings and faded camps instead of lasting towns.

For visitors, the practical note is that many of these sites are fragile, and rules at many of them ask you to stay out of old structures and away from open mine hazards. Look, photograph, and leave them be.

For the documented history of the Ute-Ulay and Hinsdale’s mining camps, see History Colorado’s Hinsdale County metal mining materials.