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Animas Forks

Ghost town · San Juan County, Colorado

Silverton quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1897, 1:62,500)
Silverton quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1897, 1:62,500) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Animas Forks is a ghost town in San Juan County, Colorado. It is one of 6 former communities in San Juan County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 9th among the 48 Colorado counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Animas Forks as a historical populated place on the Handies Peak topographic quadrangle: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 37.9311° N, 107.5714° W.

Key facts

USGS quadrangleHandies Peak
Elevation11,203 ft
Nearest living townOuray, CO
Distance to it8.7 miles
GNIS feature ID187373
Coordinates37.93111, -107.57145

Open the location on a map

What's there now

Animas Forks is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Ouray, CO (population 1,031), about 8.7 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 11,203 feet above sea level. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.

Images

Animas Forks, Colorado and Tuttle Mountain
Animas Forks, Colorado and Tuttle Mountain · Kimon Berlin / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0

Nearby places

Questions

Where is Animas Forks?

Animas Forks is in San Juan County, Colorado, at 37.9311, -107.5714.

How many ghost towns are in San Juan County?

San Juan County, Colorado has 6 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-05.