Dana Common
Dana Common is a ghost town in Petersham, Massachusetts, listed on the National Register of Historic Places (2013). Unsubmerged archaeological landscape of a town removed for Quabbin Reservoir. The archive files it under ghost towns and dark history. The dossier holds 1 documented fact — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. The site is open to visitors.
Managed by Massachusetts DCR; public hiking access via Gate 40 off Route 32A.
· in your passport — stamped · open it
Is Dana Common haunted?
No claims are filed here — the record keeps this place for its documented history, not for a haunting on file.
The record — long form
Dana is the drowned — the 'Quabbin' that's the reservoir's name, the 'four towns' that's the drowned count. The 'disincorporated' is the erased — the '1938' that's the legal death, the 'cellar holes' that's the remains' form. The 'not flooded' is the spared — the 'above the line' that's the common's luck, the 'foundations' that's the town's bones.
The 'five churches' is the emptied — the 'Swift River Box' that's the mill's name, the 'moved or razed' that's the buildings' fate. The 'graves moved' is the displaced — the 'Quabbin Cemetery' that's the dead's new home, the 'eleven posts' that's the fence's remnant. Dana Common is the walked — the 'no cars' that's the access's rule, the 'marker' that's the memory's stone.
The file keeps Dana: the drowned town, the spared common, the emptied churches, and the walked foundations.
Dana Common is the archive's Massachusetts file — the town Boston drinks.
Why this file matters
Dana Common is the archive's Massachusetts file — the sacrifice for two million glasses of water.
A common keeps its cellars — the file's suggestion being that Dana's hold is the spared: the 'above the line' that's the survival's geography, the 'foundations' that's the town's archaeology, and the 'marker' that's the apology's stone.
Documented history
Dana's buildings were removed for the Quabbin project and its final residents left in 1938. The common was above the reservoir waterline and never submerged. Dana Common's history is documented — boom, bust, and desertion all on record, the lore layered on top. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. Sources including 'Dana Common' carry the record. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.
Verified historyNational Park Service
Sources on file
- 01Dana CommonNational Park Service · government · A1
Field notes & open questions
Do not label Dana Common submerged; source explicitly distinguishes it from flooded parts of former Dana. Visitor center address is not the common address.