For the past 150 years Golden has continued to accumulate a fair collection of ghosts with their own stories, and here are a few more to mention:

Long of local legend is the ghost of Highway 93, stretching north from town and over the Rocky Flats, as they'd been known since the time the highway first started in the 1860s. During the 19th Century a railroad was constructed which also went through this area. One day one of the trains' engineers noticed a man on the tracks but was unable to stop the locomotive in time, and there was a collision. Fearing what had happened, the engineer went around to see who the train had hit, and was startled to find it was a deer instead. However, from that point onward a ghost has been known to haunt passsers-by along this route, first frightening passengers on the trains which would roll by, then in later years in automobiles. Sometimes the visible apparition was known to attempt to seize control of the car. As time went along, however, reports of this ghost had its appearance taking on a wispier and less embodied form, and it has been some time since I have known of any accounts of him.

In downtown Golden the historic Dollison Building was built in 1880 as the dry goods store of George W. Dollison and John Nicholls. Originally it was two stories tall as it is now, but quickly a third floor with a mansard roof front was added as a public hall available for lodge use. And so the building proceeded in active use downtown, but as time went along things kept happening upon the premises, as related by the Transcript newspaper in 1912, when the building had since passed to Dollison's son:

"Ed Dollison, is generally a staid, hardworking citizen, and not inclined to believe in "ha'nts" or spirits, but he believes now that the ghost of old Snake Face, an Indian chief, has got his goat. Legend has it that away back in the forties a bloody battle was waged by the Indians on the ground where the Dollison building now stands. Snake Face was killed, but his band was victorious, and they buried their chief under the sod upon which he fell. Before the Dollison building was erected a party of pioneers sunk a well there and unearthed the old Injun's remains. They didn't take the trouble to dig him all up, only so much as interfered with the well, leaving the rest of the bones. Now, everytime the wind blows the scuttle on the Dollison roof blows off, in spite of all efforts to fasten it down tightly, and Ed Dollison firmly avers that it is all caused by the restless spirit of old Snake Face going out in search of the rest of his bones."

The third story of the Dollison Building was demolished in the 1920s not long after. In the early 1990s Ken Middlemiss, second generation proprietor of The Fair five and dime store which his father Ralph had run in the Dollison Building, told me the reason folks had destroyed the third floor was because the winds kept shaking it quite violently. Since it was taken down the building seems to have continued along without incident.

One last Golden ghost story comes from the Golden Globe, as related on December 3, 1898:

"A rather startling story comes to us the scene being laid not far from Golden. Of course we have heard similar stories but have never placed much credence in them, but this one is so well authenticated and happened so near home, that we are forced to believe it to be true. We are requested to suppress the names of the parties, and comply with the request. The substance of the story is this - A man dreamed that he was led by an old miner's ghost to a spot where a prospect hole had been opened many years ago, and was told that there was a great fortune there for him within a hundred feet down from the bottom of the hole. The ghost revealed his identity, he was the spirit of the grandfather of the man to whom he appeared. This dream was repeated three times and finally so impressed the man that he went to work. He hired help, neglected his other business, and expended several hundred dollars and finally came to a lead that looked good. He could see the gold in the rock, plenty of it. He took out about 300 pounds, and then took 100 pounds to each of Denver's best assayers and awaited results. They were astonishing. Each assayer gave a verdict that there was absolutely no mineral of any kind to the value of one cent in the samples."

Moral of the story: Just because your miner's a ghost does not mean he is any more skilled at prospecting than miners among the living.