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: Palmer Lake Historical Society website (palmerdividehistory.org)
- S-0005: Larkspur Historical Society, "Historical Site Survey Binders"
- S-0006: USGS Geographic Names Information System, Colorado file, 2021-08-25 edition
- S-0007: USGS GNIS DomesticNames, Colorado (current edition)
- S-0045: Larkspur Historical Society website (larkspurhistoricalsociety.org)
- S-0048: Wikipedia: "List of ghost towns in Colorado," the populated-places lists by county, county articles, and articles on vanished places
- S-0126: Douglas County Historic Preservation Board and Landmarks Program: landmark pages (2010-2022), board minutes and documents, the 2009 landmarks map and the 2010 Historic Resources map PDF (douglas.co.us, via the Wayback Machine)
- S-0150: Wikipedia articles on landmark landforms: "Castle Rock, Colorado" (rev. 1375089669), "Cathedral Rock (Colorado)" (rev. 1365424290), "Corral Bluffs" (rev. 1362716791), "Dawson Arkose" (rev. 1321242418)
Sources are named in the text above. Numbers such as S-0080 refer to our source list. Most newspaper quotations were read in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. Long quotations from recent books are shortened here.