Basins of Silver-Softbound

Basins of Silver, softbound, covers the Las Animas Mining District in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. By its description, the district's mines began with the 1860 Colorado Gold Rush but depended on silver for more than a century of work.

The description says the district was home to many firsts for Colorado and the San Juans. Two early mineral rushes passed through it, and it had the first hard rock mine and ore treatment mill in the range. Builders put up the first aerial tramway and the longest one there, a step toward working low grade ore. Its power plants and grid were among the earliest and most advanced for mining.

The description finishes with a claim about what that machinery meant: when silver prices collapsed, these methods helped save Colorado mining. The publisher's old product page for the softbound edition names Eric Twitty as the author and says he is an owner of Mountain States Historical in Boulder, Colorado, who has documented and assessed the historic mines of the Las Animas District for many years. Our record has no year or page count for this softbound listing, so we state none. The library also carries a hardbound edition of the same book, and our separate page for it has more on the district and the book.

Choose this edition if you want the Las Animas Mining District story in a softbound copy. It suits readers of San Juan Mountains mining history, people who study how mills, tramways and power plants changed hard rock mining, and Silverton area visitors who want the technology behind the ruins they see.