Durango

In the mid-1870s, Animas City, two miles north of present-day Durango, was a thriving town with some 2,000 people and its own newspaper. When the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad pushed through, in 1880, it bypassed Animas City and built its own town.

Almost immediately, most Animas City residents transplanted themselves south to the new community, Durango, named by a railroad stockholder who had recently returned from Mexico. By late 1880, Durango was home to about 2,500 people, and 500 buildings had been erected.

With a reputation for being a rowdy, shoot 'em up town in its early days, Durango and the surrounding area was frequented by ranchers and rustlers, miners and claim jumpers, as will as railroad workers and vigilantes attempting to maintain some semblance of order. Between 1880 and the turn of the century, Durango served as a supply center for the mines in the region and also as an ore-processing center.