CHS: Red Town Site Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This was the location of the Red Town section of old Newcastle, so named because all of the houses in the area were painted red. From 1909 to 1929, this would have been a very busy place. The nearby Bagley Seam Trail is where the water level drift mine known as the Bagley Tunnel, which operated from 1902 until all mining shifted to the nearby Ford Slope Mine, was located. 
The Ford Slope Mine, located just down the hill, was the most successful mine of the Newcastle/Coal Creek area and operated from 1906 to 1926. 
The population at the height of the mining during WWI was 1000 people, with 400 men employed in the mines. Suprisingly little remains now to indicate the level of activity in this area. Look around and marvel at how nature has reclaimed this area in the 79 years since!
The cache is a small camouflaged lock and lock hidden along the Red Town Trail in Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park.
As always when visiting Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park, please stay on the trails, due to the danger of cave holes, both known and unknown. The cache is just off the trail. There is no need to brushwack.
Cougar Mountain is open from Dawn to Dusk. You can find a park map here. Thanks to hydnsek for the inspiration to hide this cache and the updated coordinates!
Information is from the book The Coals of Newcastle: A hundred years of hidden history, by Richard K. McDonald and Lucile McDonald.
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 This cache was placed by a WSGA member. If you are a geocacher in the state of Washington, please consider joining the Washington State Geocaching Association. See the WSGA website for details. |
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ng onfr bs zncyr gerr, whfg n ovg abegurnfg bs genvy fvta ba gur bgure fvqr bs gur Erq Gbja Genvy.