[5] Charles Baker's group of prospectors found traces of placer gold in the San Juan Mountains in 1860 at Eureka.

Forced out by the Ute Tribe in 1861, who had been awarded the area in a US treaty, the prospectors returned in 1871, when lode gold was found in the Little Giant vein at Arrastre Gulch near Silverton, Colorado.

In exchange for giving up 4 million acres, the Southern Ute Indian Reservation received $25,000 per year.

Although the community grew steadily — not like a boomtown — it quickly declined after 1939, when the Sunnyside Mill closed for the last time.

Today, the original townsite gravel roads remain, and debris litters the area.