The town of Red River began in earnest in the 1870s, when miners were drawn in by gold strikes in the area and trappers sought game. It was named after the perennial stream, Red River, that flowed through the town, coming from the northern slopes of Wheeler Peak. By 1895, Red River was a booming mining camp, with gold, silver, copper, and molybdenum in some abundance, and a population estimated at three thousand. The mines shut down a few years later. The population waned, but the town survived. By the 1930s, the remaining residents turned to tourism as their principal economic livelihood.