Leaving the punch bowls the river runs another mile and a half before the North Fork from Lead King Basin joins it. This tributary drains another scenic valley. Snowmass Peak (14,077 ft. El.), Maroon Peak (14,158 ft.) and Hagerman Peak can be seen in the background. Beautiful trails wind through the various draws leading to Geneva Lake and the Maroon Belles where fishing is at its best. This is also a highly mineralized valley: silver, copper, lead, and zinc predominating. The Copper King, 20th Century, Winchester, El Negroero and half of the Richardson, all located in this basin, belong to Lee Sperry of the Ragged Mountain district. [Illustration: CRYSTAL CITY MAIN STREET—Crystal Club, printing office, and hotel are some of the buildings still standing. —_Photo courtesy_ John B. Schutte, Glenwood Spgs., Colo.] _CRYSTAL, The Miners’ Ideal Camp_ (_Elevation Approximately 9,000 Feet_) One half mile beyond the junction of the North Fork with the Crystal River it reaches the little hamlet of Crystal City, magnificently located in a small dale surrounded by several lofty peaks: Sheep Mountain, Mineral Point, Crystal Peak, Bear Mountain (the one covered with tall pines), White House, and Treasure Peaks. Crystal City was another typical mining town of 70 houses, several general stores, a school house (still standing), Crystal Club (still standing) and several other saloons, a newspaper—_The Silver Lance_ followed by _The Crystal River Current_ (still standing), a concentration mill and a smelter. The peak of its population was about 650 inhabitants (some say 2,000). While a railroad was never completed from Crested Butte, a telegraph line was installed. John Davisson, now of 855 Elm St., Grand Junction, Colo., patrolled this line on snowshoes as “trouble shooter” during the Winters of 1906-’07-’08. The demonitization of silver in 1893 and the inability to get adequate means of transportation for lead, zinc, and other ores, the town of Crystal City was practically depopulated soon after the turn of the century until 1916. Then it again looked as if the prospectors’ dream might come true: the population again rose to several hundred; the Lead King mine, the Black Queen mine, and the Sheep Mountain tunnel were reopened; the smelter and concentration mill were reconditioned; a blacksmith shop, cook house, and bunk houses were located two miles above Crystal City on Rock Creek. But by the middle of 1917 everything again shut down and the people drifted away. Aug. 25, 1917, _Marble Booster_ newspaper: “Crystal mines are in their infancy. It would take a million men a thousand years to exhaust the hills up that way of their silver, copper, lead and zinc.”