# Dawson Butte

- URL: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/dawson-butte/
- Also known as: Dawson Mountain
- Kind: Landmark rocks, buttes and mountains
- Status: Living today
- County: Douglas County, Colorado
- Point: 39.3002, -104.9377 (USGS GNIS point for the feature itself (a few hundred feet))

- Updated: 2026-10-07

## What we know

Also called Dawson Mountain; named for Thomas Dawson, who came to West Plum Creek in the early 1860s and took squatter's rights below the butte, a landmark for both Plum Creeks. The Larkspur Historical Society's handout says settlers told time by the shadows in its washes, that the Long expedition climbed it in 1820 to fix its position (unconfirmed), and that the Dawson arkose takes its name from Dawson and the butte (Penny Burdick, LHS handout, S-0005, Book 1 p. 281). 'Thom. H. Dawson, J.P.' performed a marriage at Huntsville in 1865 (S-0005, p. 27), and Dawson is named as the first Bear Canyon postmaster (Douglas County landmarks, S-0126). Fourteen inches of rain fell on the butte in four hours on June 16, 1965, by flood watcher H. F. Mattai's report to the USGS (PLHS newsletter, 2022, S-0002). The Dawson arkose is the sandstone and mudstone that underlies much of the Divide (Wikipedia, S-0150).

## Where it was

USGS GNIS summit 'Dawson Butte', Douglas County (2021 Colorado file, S-0007). Good to a few hundred feet.

## Sources

- S-0002: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0002
- S-0005: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0005
- S-0006: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0006
- S-0007: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0007
- S-0045: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0045
- S-0048: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0048
- S-0126: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0126
- S-0150: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0150

## Nearby

- [Sinclaire House](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/sinclaire-house/): 1.5 mi south
- [Kinner house](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/kinner-house/): 2.2 mi southwest
- [Fort Washington (1868)](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/fort-washington-1868/): 2.4 mi south
- [Tomah](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/tomah/): 2.6 mi east
- [Lone Tree School](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/lone-tree-school/): 2.6 mi northwest
- [Glen Grove Cemetery](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/glen-grove-cemetery/): 2.6 mi southwest

Source numbers (S-0000) refer to https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/. Compiled by Michael Christensen for Palmer Divide Research; CC BY 4.0.