The Ute-Ulay Mine and Mill Complex drove Lake City's initial boom and sustained the town through the mid-1900s, tying it closely and irrevocably to Hinsdale County's county seat and only incorporated town. Preserved architecture in Lake City's historic district recalls the period when miners spent their earnings there and mine owners, merchants, and artisans worshipped, entertained, and conducted business. New production from the Ute Ulay helped bring the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad to Lake City in 1889, and successive owners who invested in the operation made it a benchmark of resilience and an embodiment of Hinsdale County's character and promise. In August 1871, Henry Henson, J.K. Mullin, Albert Mead, and Charles Godwin discovered parallel veins of silver and lead ore while trespassing on Ute land, and the claims were named Ute and Ulay. After the Utes ceded the San Juan Mountain mining area to the United States in 1873 under the Brunot Agreement, the four men re-staked ownership claims in 1874. In 1876, the Crooke Mining & Smelting Company bought the Ute-Ulay for a record $125,000, helping draw Lake City into prominence as a San Juan mining center. On January 30, 1879, the Ute-Ulay became the first patented mining claims in Hinsdale County. From 1874 to 1903, production of more than $12 million in gold, silver, lead, copper, and zinc helped spur regional development and power Lake City's economy for decades. From 1903 to 1984, operations were sporadic, though major improvements between 1925 and 1930 added a steam power plant, machine shop, locomotive house, concrete dam, and mill. In 2012 and 2013, the town site, mill, and mine site were transferred to Hinsdale County, including 12 acres and historic structures such as the boarding house, blacksmith shop, headframe, assay lab, powerhouse, and mill buildings, some dating to the late 1800s when 250-300 miners worked the galena veins. Preservation efforts by local government, a private mining company, nonprofit organizations, and state and federal agencies are transforming the mines, mill complex, and surrounding Henson town site into a heritage tourism destination that preserves one of Colorado's most intact historic mining communities.