Sheridan – the sunken city
We’ve all heard the story of the lost city of Atlantis – the ancient city that sunk to the bottom of the ocean, never to be seen again. Well, it’s not exactly Atlantis, but there is definitely a sunken city or two in the Black Hills.
Now nestled on the bottom of Sheridan Lake are the remains of an old town by the same name, except for the “lake” part. The town of Sheridan, South Dakota was founded in 1874-75 and originally called “Golden City” – a name that was eventually changed in honor of General Phillip Sheridan.
It sprang up quickly and became home to hundreds of miners who were hoping to strike it rich. According to some reports, the town really thrived for several years, as it was an important stop on the Denver to Deadwood stage coach route. At its peak, Sheridan had churches, schools, general stores, saloons and even a rarely mentioned “red light district.”
Around the turn of the century, rail lines were increasing elsewhere in the Black Hills and the gold supply near Sheridan was drying up. Because of these changes, resident miners and other locals began drifting north towards Deadwood and other potential gold mining hot spots.
As residents packed up and left, the once vibrant mining town of Sheridan made the transition to just another one of western South Dakota’s ghost towns.
Details are few and far between, but sometime in the mid 1930’s, the Civilian Conservation Corps began building a dam on Spring Creek, just outside of the now extinct Sheridan. Work on the dam was slowed and halted a few times during World War II, but was eventually finished in 1942.
The result of the dam was the complete flooding over of the town and the creation of the modern Sheridan Lake. Now some 30-40 feet under water, the dreams of many past gold-miners rest quietly on the lake floor. High above on the surface, people come and go, many never knowing the history that lies beneath.
Great article! However, I believe the phrase should be “lie in state”, rather than “estate”. I love all of the BHTB posts – keep them coming!
Darla – thanks for catching the typo! I’ve tweaked the post so it makes a bit more sense. Happy reading.
The article makes me wonder about grave sites…most towns of any size would have had a cemetary. I wonder if there was one for Sheridan and what happened to it when the town was flooded?
Very interesting point, Peggy. I hadn’t thought of that. In writing the post, I didn’t come across any mention of a cemetery; I’m an optimist, so am going to hope that issue was thought of before the area was flooded. Thanks for reading!
Years ago I saw old photos of the Sheridan store, which was the last surviving business before the site was flooded. It was kind of a popular stop, akin to the Three Forks store, in its day.
I shot some photos of a house that was “rescued” from Sheridan before it was flooded — from what I understand a lot of those homes were really cute Victorian styled. This one was. It had been turned into a cabin of sorts up by Terry Peak.
Very cool story. I’m sure you already know that Pactola Lake holds a similar secret. Back in the early 80s while canoeing on Pactola I spotted an old car sitting below the water. I’m surprised I didn’t see it pop up with the low water levels the last several years.
http://dlsd.sdln.net/u?/sdsmt,2722 Here’s a picture of Pactola in the early days.
Are there any photos of Sheridan before it went under? How big was it in terms of sq. miles?
The town of Sheridan was, for all practical reasons, a mining camp. The population changed frequently as miners came and went, but was never more than a few thousand at any one time. One of the only photos we’ve seen is of the old Sheridan school, which later became the Pennington county courthouse. It can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/yb7jpvs.