San Juan Legacy: Life in the Mining CampsAs early as the eighteenth century, Spanish explorers left place names, lost mines, and legends scattered throughout Colorado's San Juan Mountains. In 1869 and the early 1870s the legends lured hopeful prospectors to the area, ushering in its greatest mining era and transforming it into one of the country's most celebrated mining districts. Faced with a boom bust economy, unpredictable weather, and the risk of violent death, mining camps and towns