{"id":3553,"slug":"anchor-dam-owl-creek-wyoming","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Anchor Dam is Wyoming's failed reservoir — the dam built on a sink that drains the water it was meant to hold, the reservoir's drainage being the engineering embarrassment that made the site famous: a dam that can't keep its lake.","The file's documented spine is the sink: a dam built on ground that swallows its reservoir, the engineering failure being the record the lore decorates."]},{"heading":"The sink","paragraphs":["The lore is documented — the file's register being the sink itself as the legend's center: a hole that drinks a reservoir, the dam's failure being stranger than any ghost.","The sink is the file's signature — a dam defeated by the ground beneath it, the water's disappearance being the story's only ghost: the lake that keeps vanishing into the earth."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Anchor Dam is the archive's engineering file — a reservoir that drains through a sink, the failure being the site's legend. The documented drainage is the record; the sink's hunger is the lore of a dam that was never going to work.","A dam that can't hold water keeps its sink — the file's suggestion being that the ground beneath Anchor Dam still drinks whatever they pour in."]}],"name":"Anchor Dam","aliases":[],"type":"SITE","type_label":"Site","cats":["LOCAL_FOLKLORE","LEGEND_SITE","GEOLOGY","ENGINEERING"],"groups":["legends"],"desc":"The dam that doesn’t hold water—the karst swallow it.","full_desc":"A site in Owl Creek, Wyoming, Anchor Dam is filed here for what the record attaches to it. The dam that doesn’t hold water—the karst swallow it. The file’s recurring figure goes by a name, not a description: the sink. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 1 legend and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Owl Creek","county":null,"state":"Wyoming","postal":null,"region":"West","lat":43.781866,"lon":-108.56782,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"MTWY batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":3916,"type":"LEGEND","description":"The dam’s lore is documented. Witnesses name it The sink; the name travels further than the proof. The site in Owl Creek, Wyoming gives the account a documented setting: real place, real history, unresolved reports. The account has a collector's pedigree — written down as legend, which is the most honest status it can hold. The tale is the site's other archive — oral, embroidered, and outlasting the documents.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"The sink","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Anchor Dam","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_Dam","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":3917,"type":"GEOLOGICAL","description":"The karst is documented geology. The reports at Anchor Dam are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. Media accounts carried the story further than the evidence ever did. The reports keep the place on every haunted list it qualifies for. The telling survives; the proof stays folklore.","evidence":"MEDIA_REPORTED","evidence_label":"Media reported","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Anchor Dam","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_Dam","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The dam’s drainage is documented. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. Sources including 'Anchor Dam' carry the record. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from. The reports keep the address on the map.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Anchor Dam","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_Dam","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"The dam’s lore is documented. The site in Owl Creek, Wyoming gives the account a documented setting: real place, real history, unresolved reports. 'Anchor Dam' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. The account appears in 'Anchor Dam'. The tale is the site's other archive — oral, embroidered, and outlasting the documents.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Anchor Dam","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_Dam","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The sink","claimed_identity":"The sink","verified":null,"summary":"The dam’s lore is documented. The sink is what the reports name it. The reports at Anchor Dam are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. 'Anchor Dam' carries the account. The name travels further than the proof; the sightings keep renewing the lease. The report keeps its place in the record.","behavior":"The dam’s lore is documented.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Anchor Dam","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_Dam","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site access varies; verify before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Anchor Dam","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_Dam","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Anchor Dam","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_Dam","desc":"Dam in Hot Springs County, Wyoming","extract":"Anchor Dam is a dam in Hot Springs County, Wyoming, about 35 miles (56 km) west of Thermopolis.\nThe concrete thin-arch dam was completed in 1960 by the United States Bureau of Reclamation as a water storage project.  The 208-foot (63 m)-high dam structure impounds the water of the South Fork of Owl Creek, with the spillway as designed as a central overflow.\nDuring construction, the discovery of solution cavities in the bedrock forced the re-positioning and re-configuration of the dam, causing delays and added expense. The same karst solution cavities prevented Anchor Reservoir from filling its design capacity of 17,400 acre-feet (21,500,000 m3). It has never been full. More than 50 sinkholes","img":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Anchor_Dam_2.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","score":104,"lat":43.6641,"lon":-108.8245},"counts":{"claims":2,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}