Our  Historic District encompasses the Lake City's mining town history (1874-1904) to its growth as a tourist and recreation destination up until 1954.  What roles did the area within Lake City's historic district play in our history? The original buildings show us how people lived and worked in the spectacular gold and silver rush days when Colorado was on the verge of statehood and the nation was expanding west. The remaining businesses and homes of those earliest settlers are rare living testimony to how our country developed. After 1904, when mining died out in Lake City, the new form of gold came to Hinsdale County in the form of the tourist.
 
Never overlook the impacts of the tourists, whose traveling habits first supported railroads and stagecoaches, and later influenced which Colorado highways would be built and/or paved.  Tourism, a massive economic generator in Colorado, is a major historic theme in the development of the state. Our tenacious longing for a "rustic" life that we may never have lived is so poignant Lake City's modern log cabins built by vacationers from the city. One of only a few communities with a series of historic examples of early tourism, Lake City's historic district illustrates an extraordinary insight into our past.
 
This excerpt from the Buying History guide clearly demonstrates the importance of our connection to the past.  Lake City maintains a rare mix of frontier, Victorian, and mining flavors in our well-preserved historical structures.  Thanks to the forethought of our community leaders, protective guidelines are in place for this continued feel.  It only takes a stroll down the Silver Street boardwalk and a tad bit of imagination to be transported back 50 or even 100 years in time.