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Dossier 3553SiteMedium 59

Anchor Dam

Owl Creek, Wyoming1 min readFile amended Directions

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.

Archive note: 2 claims in the record
LegendGeological
Status
Operating
Coordinates
43.782, -108.568 · Approximate (city centroid)

Is Anchor Dam haunted?

The record holds 2 claims, 1 legend, 1 named entity — filed as reported, not verified. The heaviest filing is classed documented legend. The archive documents the claim; it takes no position on the ghost.

The record — long form

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.

The sink

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.

Why this file matters

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.

Anchor Dam
Reference shelf · Wikipedia

Anchor Dam is a dam in Hot Springs County, Wyoming, about 35 miles (56 km) west of Thermopolis. The 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. During 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

Anchor Dam

The record of claims

Documented legendLegend“The sink”

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.

Media reportedGeological

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.

Documented legend

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.

Alleged entities

The sinkidentity unresearched

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.

Documented history

  • 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.

    Verified historyWikipedia

Sources on file

Field notes & open questions

MTWY batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.

"Anchor Dam." HauntHunt dossier 3553, https://haunthunt.com/place/anchor-dam-owl-creek-wyoming/ (file amended October 2, 2026).

Same signal — geological

Within ~50 miles

End of file · continue the hunt
Kirby / Hell’s Half Acre
19 mi away
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