Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
When the railroad arrived in August 1881, the train stopped in a jubilant Durango, not Animas City. The railroad pushed on up the Animas River, reaching Silverton in July 1882, passing through Animas City without a stop. Animas City subsisted as a "de facto" suburb of the Durango area before annexation by Durango in 1948. The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, a heritage railroad and successor to the Rio Grande in La Plata County, still passes by the townsite.