Animas Canyon Toll Road added to National Register of Historic Places

Durango, Colorado – April 20, 2017 – The San Juan National Forest is proud to announce that the Animas Canyon Toll Road, which was part of the Animas City-Silverton Wagon Road, has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is a national program that supports public and private efforts to identify and protect America's historic and archeological resources.

The Animas Canyon Toll Road was a wagon road constructed in the late 1870s to transport supplies and ore between mining camps in the Silverton area and the Durango area. Sixteen segments surveyed on the San Juan National Forest, totaling about four miles, still retain the construction techniques and setting of the original wagon road. Other portions of the wagon road, located on both public and private lands, have been obliterated over the years by modern-day development and construction of the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and Electra Dam.

“The listing heightens the awareness of this historical resource on the National Forest and the need to preserve it,” said Julie Coleman, San Juan National Forest Archaeologist.  “It further reinforces the importance of the wagon road and alerts the public to its history.”

The Animas Canyon Wagon Road was about 10 feet wide throughout its length and operated only for a few years before construction of the railroad. Today, the segment between Chris Park and Haviland Lake campgrounds is mostly intact and easily followed, with few modern intrusions.  In this area, its surface is leveled and occasionally lined by the rocks, without formal construction. North of Electra Lake, the wagon road drops into the Animas River Canyon, where stone retaining walls were constructed to allow for a gentler grade. In 2014, the Forest Service conducted stabilization work on a section of the rock retaining wall near Cascade Creek.  The wagon road crossed the Animas River in places on wooden bridges and followed narrow benches or was cut or blasted into cliffs, with large retaining walls constructed in at least four places. The northern terminus was near today’s railroad bridge just south of Silverton.

The National Register listing of the Animas Canyon Toll Road resulted from surveys and historical research conducted by San Juan National Forest archaeologists and contractor, Alpine Archaeology.  The Animas Canyon Toll Road joins Chimney Rock National Monument and the Falls Creek Rock Shelters as San Juan National Forest sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

For more information, please contact Matt Janowiak, Columbine District Ranger, 970 884-1438.