Dakan was a short-lived mining town, now a
ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...
, in western
Douglas County,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, in the
Front Range
The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado, and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encountered ...
of the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...
.
History
The town was founded in 1896 by prospector William Wanner, who announced that he had made a shipment of ore worth $35 per ton in
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
and
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
from his claim, and the Castle Rock ''Journal'' declared “The future of Dakan is assured.”. By Christmas 1896, there were about 300 people in Dakan, and a United States post office opened in Dakan on December 30, 1896.
In January 1897 Dakan was described as having eight buildings, including hotel, restaurant, saloon, and grocery store, and contracts for five additional buildings as soon as lumber could be delivered. But the ore did not live up to the hopes of the prospectors and promoters. By August 1898 the post office was closed, and the town disappeared.
[Josephine Lowell Marr, ''Douglas County, A Historical Journey'', (]Gunnison, Colorado
Gunnison is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Gunnison County, Colorado. The city population was 6,560 at the 2020 United States Census. Gunnison was named in honor of John W. Gunnison, a Un ...
: B&B Printers, 1983) 213.
Geography
The town was said to be “in the shadow of” Dakan Mountain, which is .
See also
List of ghost towns in Colorado
This is a list of some ghost towns in the U.S. State of Colorado. Colorado has over 1,500 ghost towns, although visible remains of only about 640 still exist. Due to incomplete records and legends that are now accepted as fact, no exhaustive l ...
References
{{Douglas County, Colorado
Ghost towns in Colorado
Former populated places in Douglas County, Colorado