Veins, rich in gold and silver, lured miners and prospectors to the San Juan Mountains during the early 1860s. Our modern history begins here with gold discoveries and mining settlements, but the period between the 1300s and 1800s is a most intriguing time for Native Utes, Apache and Navajo. Before the Spaniard's arrival, these tribes had no horses or domesticated animals. Equipped with new ideas from the Spanish, the Native Americans quickly learned the advantages of horses and guns. Their culture underwent radical changes, and by 1680s Utes and Navajos forced a Spanish to retreat to El Paso.
     In 1868, yet another treaty with the Utes allowed them to keep their land, but excluded mineral rights on the mountains. Eventually overrun, the Utes ceded all of the San Juan area and were forced onto a reservation to the south.