And the West is History: Animas City aerial photo – ca. 1920

This photo is one of the first taken of Animas City from the air by W.R. Rowland around 1920. It clearly shows how sparsely settled the area around the 32nd Street bridge (now the Emerson-Parks Bridge) was just over 100 years ago. The bridge is clearly seen, and if one looks closely, the Animas School (now the Animas Museum) can be seen at the top middle of the photo. After Durango became the dominant business district in the area, many commercial structures along Main Avenue in Animas City were removed, and the property was reclaimed as farmland. Although the town was platted in 1876, it is difficult to see Mountain (West Second) and River (East Second) streets in this photo. The original street names in Animas City were changed to match the numerical system in Durango after 1948 when the town was annexed. – Ed Horvat for Animas Museum, edhorvat@animasmuseum.org (Catalog Number: 92.22.186 from the La Plata County Historical Society Photo Collections, colorized)