The small Summit Meadows Pioneer Cemetery holds just 3 graves.
The first stone, on the left, is for an unknown infant pioneer - birthdate unknown, died in 1847.
The third, and largest stone, is for Baby Morgan Barclay. The stone inscription reads:
Babe
Infant son of WL B Barclay
Born July 18
Died Sept 14, 1882
and on the side of the stone is engraved
A Mother's Love
The second stone shows the burial location of Perry A. Vickers.
He arrived in Oregon in 1865. While looking for work, Vickers fell in with a group of three other men. While in their company, the four were arrested and jailed at Fort Vancouver, on the charge of horse thievery. Perry pleaded guilty by association, but with a trial pending and fearing an unsympathetic court, the men decided to make their escape. Vickers separated himself from the others and headed for the Columbia. With the law in pursuit, Vickers was said to have swam the Columbia River, to the Oregon side, with a 7 pound "Oregon Boot" attached to his ankle.
After a short stay with his brother in Powell Valley, Perry hit the Barlow Trail and headed East. When passing through the Sandy area, Vickers met Stephen Coalman, who was superintendent and caretaker of the Barlow Trail. Coalman offered Vickers a job on the Trail, which later turned into the position of Tollgate keeper.
Perry Vickers was the first permanent white settler at Summit Prairie. For hundreds of years it had been used by the local Indians, as their Summer encampment. Vickers filed a squatters claim in 1866 and built the first cabin at that location and named it Summit House. It was used to welcome vacationers and provide rest and support for immigrants coming over the Oregon Trail.
It is thought he was the first to have scaled Mount Hood (See article below) and he became the first Alpine guide.
NEW YORK TIMES - Sept. 14, 1873
"Perry A. Vickers is reputed to have climbed to the top of Mount Hood, Oregon, on the 16th of August, encumbered with blankets, a telescope, thermometer, provisions, fuel, &c., to over sixty pounds in weight, and to have remained on the summit all night, giving at appointed hours ten lights by means of magnesian wire, which were distinctly seen by friends below. He proposes to illuminate the top on the 4th of July next, and wished to test its feasibility."
-- Newspaper Source found at: The New York Times Archives, 2008
In 1883, he accompanied Sheriff Rorke and a deputized friend, McIntire, in pursuit of a horse thief named Steele, who had stolen a rifle. While approaching Steele's campsite, at White River, Perry Vickers was shot and died of his wounds the following day. Mr. Steel managed to escape. Vickers body was returned to Summit Prairie and buried next to the grave of the Barclay infant, subsequently, creating the Pioneer Cemetery now at Summit Meadows.
The second waypoint is directly across the gravel road. At the trail entrance is an Oregon Heritage Trail sign. (updated sign info 07/30/2023)
Let the audio only phone number be ABC-DEF-GHIJ
Let the site number be KLM
Let the year Perry Vickers built the first log cabin equal WXYZ (found on the cache page)
Trailhead parking can be found at: North DG LK.KBK West W(A-C)L ID,CLE (checksum is 53)
The cache can be found at: North North DG WK.KYK West L(A-C)W ID.DIK (checksum is 64)
There are coordinates for a bonus cache in the lid to this cache. They are also on the inside cover of the log.