Elephant Mountain Lookout Site Traditional Cache
Elephant Mountain Lookout Site
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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In 1928 a 20' round pole tower with an open platform was erected on Elephant Mountain. Then in 1932 a 14' x 14' L-4 hip roof lookout house was built on a 20-foot round timber tower. A small cabin was also onsite. The lookout was destroyed in 1963. All that remains are some timbers, the concrete footings and the incredible view! You can see Thielsen, Crater Rim, Diamond Lake and Mt. Bailey.
The road to this old lookout site is passable by any vehicle when there is no snow. You need to park where the old road takes off to the left. From here it is about 750' up the road that is strewn with downed timber. We were able to follow the road right to the top, making our way over and under all the debris. The geocache is a regular size container with log and trade items. Elevation is 5,884'
Be sure and use bug spray! The mosquitoes were the size of small voracious birds!
In Ray Kresek's book "Fire Lookouts of the Northwest" we found a very interesting story about this lookout:
The lonely fire guards on the mountaintops seldom had an opportunity to take in a Big Top Circus show. But one afternoon when a young fellow up on what was then called Lemolo Lookout called in to tell his boss that an elephant was walking up the trail towards the tower, the Fire Control Officer knew it was sure sign that it was time to bring the boy down off the mountain. The lad did his level best to reassure the FCO that he was okay, that there really was an elephant at his lookout. The harder he insisted the more his boss was convinced that he’d gone off his rocker.
Finally when the lad began shouting into the phone that the elephant now had backed up against one of the tower legs and was rattling the windows as it scratched its rump, the veteran FCO dropped the receiver and headed out on the double up the hill, for now he knew the kid was in real trouble.
An hour later, the old smoke-eater rounded the final bend in the trail. In front of the tower, dead ahead stood… you guessed it… a ten thousand pound African elephant! The beast had wandered away when a circus truck broke down along the highway, and had been lost for days deep in the “jungle” of Oregon’s Umpqua National Forest. Now there’s one war story that won’t die by the usual fate of time: for ever since that day, Lemolo has gone by the name ELEPHANT MOUNTAIN.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
ybbxbhg qroevf
Treasures
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