This Cache is just off of the Wynoochee Valley Road, 27 miles north of Montesano (on the way to Lake Wynoochee and the Wynoochee Dam). It is a short walk on a gravel trail to the Memorial and the Cache. The Cache is a plastic ammo can, and contains a 1 ounce silver ingot for the First to Find.
John Tornow is a local legend in Grays Harbor County, known as “The Wild Man of the Wynoochee” (he was also referred to as “Cougar Man”, and “a Mad Daniel Boone”). He was born in 1880 to a well-respected family who homesteaded on the Satsop River. From a young age, he was a loner and preferred the woods to people. As an adult, he was known to dress in animal skins and wore shoes made of bark.
He became more and more reclusive and strange, and his brothers became convinced that he was mentally ill. They captured him and had him committed to a mental institution in Oregon, but he was able to escape and return to the forests of Grays Harbor.
In September 1911, he shot and killed his twin 19-year-old nephews, John and Will Bauer (many guesses have been made why he did this, but no one knows for certain). A posse was gathered and went into the woods, hunting him without success.
In early 1912, a prospector reported seeing Tornow in the Oxbow area, north of Montesano. Deputy Sheriff Colin McKenzie and Deputy Game Warden Albert Elmer went into the forest after him. They did not return; their bodies were found weeks later. The bounty on Tornow’s head was increased.
In April of 1912, a man told Sheriff Schelle Mathews that he knew were Tornow had his camp. Sheriff Matthews sent Deputy Giles Quimby to investigate and told him to deputize two trappers (Louis Blair and Charlie Lathrop) who knew the area to assist him.
On April 16, 1912, the men came across a crude cabin made of bark. Deputy Quimby wanted to return to town for more men, but the trappers convinced them they could take Tornow (and keep the bounty for themselves). Deputy Quimby stayed a distance back while the two trappers tried to sneak up on the cabin. Tornow spotted them, and when the men were within a few feet he shot and killed them. Deputy Quimby returned fire, and on the seventh shot he saw Tornow’s head drop to his chest. Fearing the wily fugitive was playing dead to lure him in, he instead went to a logging camp five miles away to summon help. A posse responded, and returned to find Tornow dead, propped against a tree.
Tornow’s body was brought back to Montesano, where a large crown stormed the morgue to see the dead fugitive and tried to steal bits of clothing and hair from the body. Photographs were taken of the body and made into souvenir postcards.
Deputy Quimby gave this description of John Tornow to reporters: “The most horrible face I ever saw. The shaggy beard and long hair, out of which gleamed two shining, murderous eyes, haunts me now. I could only see his face as he uncovered himself to fire a shot, and all the hatred that could fire the soul of a human being was evident.” Deputy Quimby was offered money to tell his story on stage and film but declined. He felt it would be wrong for him to profit from this, when he was just performing his sworn duty as a Deputy.
This cache is placed at the location of that fatal shootout. John Tornow, along with two men hunting him, died here. A Memorial was placed here on April 20, 2013, and the names of John Tornow and his victims (his two nephews and the four men who tried to capture him) are on plaques on the monument.
12-30-2020 Congratulations to k7da for FTF!