Baker's Bridge

The first mining camp in the Animas Valley was built on the east side of the river at this site in 1860 and 1861 by a group of 100 people under the leadership of Charles Baker. They originally called this camp Animas City, and the log bridge that was built to span the river at this spot was called Baker's Bridge. At the time, there was only minute traces of placer gold to be found in the river and the camp was under constant threat from the Ute Indian tribes in the area. As news of the Civil War finally reached the camp, most of the people living here went east. A year after the settlement began, it had dissapeared. It wasn't until fifteen years had passed that the name Animas City was resurrected as a settlement on the northern end of present day Durango.  This location was also used in the movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It was in the scene in which Butch and The Kid keep asking "Who are those guys?" and make a daring leap into the river from the granite cliffs.

 This photo show the view south of the bridge.

Here is the historical marker for the site