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

More prospectors returned in 1871, when lode gold was found in the Little Giant vein at Arrasta Gulch, near Silverton, Colorado.

In 1984 an area of 1,230 acres (5.0 km2) was acquired by the Canadian-based Galactic Resources Ltd. subsidiary Summitville Consolidated Mining Company, Inc. (SCMCI).

The mining operations were finished in October 1991 with the leaching continuing until March 1992, when Galactic Resources filed for bankruptcy.

SCMCI then closed the site and converted on-site equipment for the detoxification process, with around 160 million U.S. gallons (610,000 m3) of stored water needing treatment.

The site clean-up was undertaken by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), from 1994 under Superfund Emergency Response.

Heavy metals and acid from the mine are suspected to have killed stocked fish in downstream reservoirs on the Alamosa River in 1990.

Extensive remedial efforts are required to isolate both unweathered sulfides and soluble metal salts in the open-pit area and mine-waste piles from weathering and dissolution.

Results of studies as of late 1993 indicate that mining at Summitville has had no discernible short-term adverse effects on barley or alfalfa crops irrigated with Alamosa River water.