Although this land was Ute territory, prospectors first settled the upper Animas River Valley in the spring of 1860. Returning from the mines north of Silverton, Charles Baker established Old Animas City and built the first bridge across the Animas River, but the community lasted less than a year before being abandoned. During the summer of 1875, James Harvey Pinkerton settled in the area now known as Pinkerton Hot Springs with his wife, three sons, and four daughters, raising dairy cows and producing dairy products for sale in mining camps in the San Juan Mountains. In the spring of 1876, the family sold 116 pounds of butter for a dollar a pound to miners north of Silverton. Pinkerton had a fine ranch with several warm mineral springs, especially soda springs, and by September 14, 1878, he had erected an extensive bath house near the larger spring for the use of his family and guests. James Pinkerton became a La Plata County judge in the late 1870s before moving to Georgia. Judge Pinkerton used many log structures from Old Animas City on his ranch, including one log building that became a school for local children. Pinkerton-in-the-Pines Resort later offered swimming, music, and dancing in the 1920s, and in 1892 soda water from Pinkerton Hot Springs was bottled and sold in Durango. Hot springs in the San Juan Mountains, including Pinkerton Hot Springs, are fed by groundwater that percolates downward through the earth, is heated by contact with magma deep below the surface, and then rises again as hot springs.