History Quest - Issaquah
Parking for this cache is available right in front of the road barricades at N 47° 32.879 W 122° 02.188 for up to two Geo-Mobiles or one Geo-Rv, just don't forget to set the brake as it's on a bit of a slope. Please be aware that you cannot access this cache from the Home Depot parking lot, though you will have a beautiful view of the roof from cache. Once you are parked the best route of choice to the cache is going to be walking around end of the barrier on the far right. This cache is intended to be an easy find, though there are some young trees near the end of your short 50 foot walk from your car to the cache. You are looking for a regular sized, camoed plastic container. The hint should lead you right to it.
At the cache site is a beautiful view of the rear Home Depot shopping center and if you look hard enough off to the left you might catch a glimpse of I-90!!! But it wasn't always this way. Heck the road you just drove up isn't that old. If you were standing on this spot 50 years ago, you would have been standing on a hill of trees looking down on the Valley. Off to the left there was no I-90, but there would have been highway 10. Today that stretch of highway 10 is better known as Gilman Boulevard.
An Aerial Photo of Issaquah from a Post card I believe the post card must be from the early 70's and if you look closely you can see the then new I-90.
Here are a few businesses that use to reside on Highway 10 about 50 years ago:
Johnny's Grocer
XXX RootBeer
Coast To Coast Hardware
Highway 10 Lumber
Foothills Restaurant
As far as I know the only surviving business on highway 10 from those days is the XXX Rootbeer, though the building has been drastically remodeled since then.
The Highway 10 Lumber building, became Issaquah Auto Tech and since Issaquah Auto Tech moved the building has under gone massive renovations and is now a paint store.
The Foothills Restaurant also had a near by Greyhound bus stop. It was torn down and I-90 Motor Sports resides where they were.
Oh, where I-90 is now, there was an edge of town business there. It was the Kaiser-Frazier car dealership. As a side note my Dad bought a Jeep there in the 60's.
If you remember Issaquah from yesterday I invite you to share a memory or place or business you use to like to go in your log if you want to.
02-17-16 Issaquah overlook changed it's name to History Quest - Issaquah and received a total make over, which included updating the information on the cache page, a new, slightly, relocated bigger cache container.
Congratulations goes to Princess Trouble & Dsvaughn as CO - FTF
 This cache was placed by a WSGA member. If you are a geocacher in the state of Washington, please consider joining Washington State Geocaching Association. See the WSGA website for details. |