At each waypoint you will find a small container. The first container is waypoint #1 and is at the posted coordinates listed at the top of the page. At all waypoints and the final you will be looking for pill bottles of various sizes. The final is a regular size container with plenty of room for trading. Unfortunately they have bulldozed the old Preston Mill sign during a grading project in 2016, so the location where the final was and the historica mill sign are gone now. With that there are really only 4 spots of value here left to visit so the WP4 which is a pill bottle will have to serve as the final now. Inside each container is a piece of paper with a historical photo of the area and the coordinates for the next waypoint. There are four three waypoints plus the final. With the final being the fourth. In some spots your GPS readings maybe a little off, due to the trees and buildings. I would recommend that you use your GPS to get you in the general area of the waypoints, and then use the hints to zero in on the location. Particularly on the first waypoint, which the hint will make it much easier to locate.
Waypoints 1 through 3 will have the coordinates to the next waypoint, as well as a historic picture. Waypoint 4 is now the final.
The King county parks department has owned the old mill site since 1995. It had at that point already been closed for many years. The county was supposed to develop the mill site into a multi-use park with a ball field and an interpretive center, as well as trails. For years nothing happened and the buildings were left to detriouate. Now in the fall of 2015 plans have been revived to develope that mill site into a park. The last plan I saw proposed tearing down most of the buildings as they are in such bad shape now.
During August of 2012 I (SirKarp) adopted this cache and I have changed it some to include a little more of the history here at the Preston mill. This cache originally was called Preston Mill Haiku. In an attempt to keep with the history of the cache as well, I have kept the Haikus. This is what the original cache owner JMG&son had to say about the Haikus. "Each waypoint information is written as Haikus, which are Japanese verse forms, notable for its compression and suggestiveness. It consists of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables." If you’re feeling creative feel free to write your log as a Haikus.
The Haikus, can be found written below, but are no longer needed to find the cache. In order to find each waypoint and the final, you must get the coordinates which are inside each one of the waypoint containers. There are also historic pictures inside the waypoint containers, for you to look at while on your tour.
Waypoint #1 Haikus:
Eighteen Ninety Two
Preston Shingle Mill opened
Near Raging River
Waypoint #2 Haikus:
Saw blades were made dull
Sixteen needed sharpening
This man did the job.
Waypoint #3 Haikus:
Mill Pond is in sight
This building is number three
Please do not enter
Waypoint #4 Haikus:
Nineteen Ninety Five
King County Park property.
Improvement someday?
Now it is time for you to enjoy your historic mill tour and you should do it soon. If you have been watching this cache you know I have been saying that it is drawing to a close for various reasons. And that the time is getting closer and closer. I don't have nor have I ever had a timeline on the park developement. What I know for sure is that there have been plans since the late 90's to develope the site into a park. Nothing happened for many years but in the fall of 2015 those plans were revived. The biggest differance I can see is they now plan to tear down most of the buildings because they are no longer salvagable following years of neglect. When the buildings come down that will put an end to this cache, as they are an intergal part of the cache and the history. During the summer of 2016 there was a grading project at the mill site that involved removing the Preston Mill sign which is where the final container had been located for 9 years. During this grading project the mill site was closed and the cache disabled for several months. In October of 2016 I got the cache is up and running again but with one less way point. Rumor has it that nothing more will happen at the mill site until the spring of 2017, when that happens cache will be finished. That's not to say that another cache won't go in after the park is developed, but sadly it won't be this one. So I think we will be ok though the winter with this one, but beyond that it looks like this one will be shutting down in the spring of 2017. Update: Obviously that didn't happen and the cache is still going. As of June 2019, there is suppose to be movement forward in the developing of the site into a park which should occur in 2020 or 2021, with covid-19 and the problems that has created I'm guessing we'll have a few more years with this cache, but I don't know that for sure and the best way of getting to do this cache with the historic buildings still intact is by doing it sooner than later.