The mining boom is long over for San Juan County, though it left a trove of golden real estate opportunity.
Provided the buyer doesn’t mind primitive living, a plot to build a rustic mountain cabin can come cheaply. Today, about 40 claims are listed in rural San Juan County, and most are under $255,000.
Rick Lorenz, a broker at The Wells Group in Durango, specializes in patented mining claims and has bought and sold them since the 1970s, when each claim was about $3,000 or less. Over the past 40 years, Lorenz said he’s sold only two, north of Hesperus, in La Plata County; most claims are outside Silverton town limits with the exception of a few commercial properties.
Lorenz purchased his first 43 mining claims in the early 1970s for $100,000.
As opposed to placer claims and mill sites, most of the area’s thousands of mine claims are lode claims, which are long and rectangularly shaped to follow subsurface mineral veins. Patented claims, the only type Lorenz works with, give the owner exclusive rights to the property and allows the owner to build.
Claim value is driven by whether the terrain is accessible and buildable.
In recent years, San Juan County policy has been tightened, so mining claim buyers must address sewer facilities and accessibility if they intend to build.
Steve Leisle, a broker with Silverton Realty, said the regulatory crackdown impacted a once-thriving market for him. Leisle moved to Silverton in 2000, and since then, said he has sold fewer claims.
“It’s definitely still going on, but not like in the past,” Leisle said. “It was really hot then. People were buying them to build cabins, and it was the main part of my business. Now, the regulations are so strict, I barely deal with them.”
Depending on regulations, requirements like septic and water may or may not apply.
Seth Furtney of Durango bought a 9.5-acre claim 2,000 feet up Kendall Mountain about 10 years ago, which came with a cabin’s foundation. Excluding remodeling costs, Furtney paid $175,000 for the claim, which is accessible off Lackawanna Road with four-wheel drive in warm months. Winter requires skis or a snowmobile.
“Our dream was a classic cabin in the woods,” Furtney said. “We haul water and food.”
It was difficult to find an insurer. Title insurance on mining claims often comes with stipulations because transfer of ownership can be complex, particularly because deeds changed hands with less formality decades ago.
Rob Ptolemy, president of Colorado Land Title in Durango, said the status of the title can take some investigation.
“A lot of times these claims were abandoned, then sold for taxes, so a treasurer’s deed is in there,” he said. “Tracking that chain of title can be complicated by what we call breaks in the chain. Sometimes you end up with something you can’t resolve, in which case we make an offer that is subject to some exceptions where we won’t protect the buyer.”
Lode claims often overlap, which presents a complication in determining the superior claim.
But the nature of the transaction is what buyers find appealing, said Lorenz.
“I think people are interested in owning a piece of history,” he said. “It’s almost like you get gold fever.”