The Finnish don't "LIVE" here Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Barking Frogz: Unfortunately I haven't heard from the cache owner, so I must regretfully archive this cache.

Thanks,
Barking Frogz

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Hidden : 4/27/2008
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:


8/3/08 NOTE TO ALL: There seems to be a LETTER BOX near this cache, it is in a small lock-n-lock type container. THIS IS NOT OUR CACHE. Our cache is in a container that can not be removed from it's location and a lot of people are logging this letter box and not finding the real cache. Please make sure you are logging the real cache, our cache is marked Official GeoCache Site...Thanks: Shelrik

The cache is located Between Brush Prairie and Hockinson, although The original name for this area southeast of Battle Ground was Eureka, a Greek word meaning "I have found it." The early settlers here were Finns and Swedish-speaking Finns from the Aaland Islands...

A Swedish man Ambrosius Hakanson was the first postmaster in 1884. His name was anglicized to the present spelling, and the town Hockinson: was named for him.

Brush Prairie was named by Elmarine Bowman, for a brushy prairie and swamp near her father's homestead. The Bowmans were one of the first white families to settle in the area.

As you enter the area of the cache and the place to park, on your left you will see stones of many sizes, look closely and you will find one with the etchings of Brown upon it.

A pioneer of the area born in Finland and at the age of 15 he went to sea, at 25 his ship landed in America he decided to seek his fortune in this new land hoping to make a home for his first wife he left in Sweden.

He worked on a steamboat on the Mississippi River until he could come to the Washington Territory at the age of 27 to join his brothers Andrew and Leonard who had already homesteaded here.

He secured a homestead of 40 acres on the hill directly east and above what is now Hockinson (which has often been known as Charlie Brown's hill)he then sent for his wife & 2yr old son he had never seen.

The cabin he built stood well into the 30's it was constructed of cedar which he hand cut and carried a quarter of a mile uphill.

Eventually 10 acres of land needed to be cleared around the cabin to keep it safe from the tall trees in case of severe wind storms that has been well known in history to have hit these areas up to the recent one on 2008.

All was handwork, no blasting powder or stump pullers yet and the 14 miles to Vancouver over a dirt road took two days for the roundtrip when provisions were needed.

The loads of wood he haled to town provided the necessary money for supplies, it took 4 to 6 months to clear an acre of land to grow grain and vegetables and he fished in the Columbia River during the summer months, when the boys were old enough to help he bought & cleared another fifty acres of land at $5 to $15 per acre eventually owning about 190 acres valued at $10 dollars per acre, his sons, Carl, Alfred and Otto Brown were probably the Brown Boys referred to in the Vancouver newspaper -- the Eureka Etchings as sinking the dugout canoe in Battle Ground Lake, they would have been the right age for that kind of an adventure & this could be the dugout boat in the museum now.

Charles Brown used a horse to turn the wood lathe with which he fashioned many pieces of furniture for himself and neighbors.

During these years many families turned to him for help during sorrow and the old cemeteries near Brush Prairie still have crumbling cement tombstones made and crudely engraved by him.

He also "laid out" the dead and made their coffins as there were no funeral parlors until the early 1900s.

With a few scattered neighbors, he helped build the cabin that served as the first real schoolhouse in Hockinson, Carl Brown, the oldest son, was in Elim's first confirmed class.

When his first family was grown and gone and his second wife deceased, his farm was a prosperous 4000 acre tree prune ranch Mr. Brown married Ann in 1910 and brought her and her small son Homer to life in a new home built to replace the house which burned in the 1902's Yacolt burn.

Charles Brown died in 1923 at the age of 76 and is buried beside his third wife Ann in the Elim cemetery, Brush Prairie.

The pioneer graves of his first wife and children are in the old Baptist Church cemetery south of Brush Prairie.

After you have paid your respects to this Finnish pioneer who no longer lives here, look over to your right for a set of twins one which has an abnormal Siamese growth.

We hope you enjoy this bit of history and the finding of this cache and please respect all the Finnish pioneers and all the others that don't live here, there is approx 400 residents on this plot.

Visit the Portland Geocaching group on Facebook. (visit link)

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Orgjrra 2 ybaryl ohpxf naq n Tenl Oryyr, Vqn guvax lbh jvyy svaq vg.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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