{"id":2198,"slug":"slide-rock-bolter-country-lake-city-colorado","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Bolter is the lumberjack's — the whale-shaped that slides down mountains, the '10 Cox book that's the source. The hook is the tail — the anchor that holds it to the peak, the release that's the attack. The tourists are the prey — the gulped parties that the tales claim, the absence of evidence that's the proof.","The ranger was the decoy — the dummy tourist with the dynamite, the trap that the bolters saw through. The mountains are the range — the 45-degree slopes that it needs, the Colorado that's the home. The Slide-Rock Bolter is the tall tale — the lumberjack explanation for the missing, the gravity whale that slides.","The file keeps the Bolter: the Cox book, the hooked tail, the tourist diet, and the dynamite decoy.","The Slide-Rock Bolter is the archive's Lake City file — the lumberjack's whale."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The Slide-Rock Bolter is the archive's Lake City file — the fearsome creature.","A mountain keeps its slider — the file's suggestion being that the Bolter's hold is the tall tale: the lumberjack's explanation, the hooked tail, and the tourists who don't come back."]}],"name":"Slide-Rock Bolter country","aliases":[],"type":"MOUNTAIN_AREA","type_label":"Mountain Area","cats":["FOLKLORE_CREATURE","TALL_TALE"],"groups":["historic-sites"],"desc":"The fearsome critter that slides down mountains to swallow tourists.","full_desc":"The Slide-Rock Bolter is a \"fearsome critter\" of Colorado lumber-camp tall tales—a whale-like beast that clung to mountain slopes and slid down to swallow anything below, leaving a \"slide-rock\" scar. First printed in the 1910 Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, it explains real avalanche chutes on San Juan slopes like those around Lake City.","address":null,"city":"Lake City","county":null,"state":"Colorado","postal":null,"region":"West","lat":38.03,"lon":-107.3153,"coord_kind":"EXACT","status":"NATURAL_SITE","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":null,"research_notes":"Cryptid/folklore wave-2 batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":70,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0.85,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":1535,"type":"FOLKLORE_CREATURE","description":"A tall-tale beast said to slide down slopes after prey; the stories explain real slide chutes. The figure answers to Slide-Rock Bolter in the retellings. Slide-Rock Bolter country in Lake City, Colorado carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. 'Slide-Rock Bolter' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. The creature is part of the place's name now — whatever it was.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"Slide-Rock Bolter","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Slide-Rock Bolter","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide-Rock_Bolter","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The creature entered print in 1910 as a lumber-camp tall tale. Slide-Rock Bolter country's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath whatever lore attaches. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The record appears in 'Slide-Rock Bolter'. It is the kind of fact the rest of the dossier leans on.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":"1910","confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Slide-Rock Bolter","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide-Rock_Bolter","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"A tall-tale beast said to slide down slopes after prey; the stories explain real slide chutes. Slide-Rock Bolter country's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. 'Slide-Rock Bolter' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. Legends accrue where records go silent; this one filled the gap and stayed.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Slide-Rock Bolter","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide-Rock_Bolter","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"Slide-Rock Bolter","claimed_identity":"Slide-Rock Bolter","verified":null,"summary":"A tall-tale beast said to slide down slopes after prey; the stories explain real slide chutes. The presence goes by Slide-Rock Bolter. Slide-Rock Bolter country's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. The account appears in 'Slide-Rock Bolter'. Named presences persist where anonymous reports fade — the file's name here is Slide-Rock Bolter.","behavior":"A tall-tale beast said to slide down slopes after prey; the stories explain real slide chutes.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Slide-Rock Bolter","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide-Rock_Bolter","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":"Slide-Rock Bolter","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide-Rock_Bolter","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":1,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}