Although the City of Happy Valley did not incorporate until 1965, the settlement of the valley began long before then, when the Deardorff family claimed hundreds of valley acreage as donation land claims in 1851. Christian Deardorff, of German ancestry, was born in Virginia on January 15, 1805. He was the first of thirteen children born to John and Catharine Deardorff. His future wife, Matilda Landers, was born in Virginia on August 31, 1802 to Christian and Elizabeth Landers. Christian and Matilda married in early 1824 in Indiana where they had the first of their six children, John Martindell, who was born on October 10th of that year. While in Indiana, Christian worked as a farmer and a miller.
The family next lived in Illinois before going overland from Iowa in 1850 to the Oregon Territory in a train of 30 wagons. After arriving in Oregon, the Deardorffs were among thousands of other emigrants who took advantage of the 1850 Donation Land Claim Act, created by Congress to grant 320 acres to an individual and 640 acres to a married couple as a way of encouraging American settlement in the newly created U.S. Territory of Oregon. In 1851, Christian and Matilda settled on 640 acres in Clackamas County between a cinder cone that would later be named Mount Scott and a knoll now known as Scouters’ Mountain. As they were the first to settle there, the area became known as the Deardorff Valley, Deardorff Settlement and Christilla Valley, a combination of Christian (Chris) and Matilda (Tilla). Once they settled, Christian continued his trade as a farmer.
About 1900 John M Deardorff felt that there should be another way out of the Cristilla Valley besides the difficu ltroad over Mt. Scott, and he persuaded the county commissioners to have a new road surveyed and built going north to Foster Road. He also helped with the building of this road and it is now called "Deardorff Road"
Parking is across the street above the curve.
This cache is located off a busy section of Deardorff Road where they have just installed a new telephone pole to mark the trail into the "Nontingham Forest". There used to be a 25MPH sign there, but it is gone and a new telephone pole makes the spot instead.
Vehicles frequently travel much faster and kids (old and young alike) come here to test their vehicles coronering abilities...so be careful crossing the street!
The cache itself is a black OLLY container that will hold small swag items and is within 100 feet of the road. The trail entrance is by the speed limit sign.
While you are there, whay not go up the old logging road and get GC28FMM/ Nottingham Forest Catch...it's a beautiful area and well worth your effort to see this beautiful area.
“This cache complies with geocaching policies for Portland Parks & Recreation properties. Please respect park hours when caching." The park is open from 5AM to 10PM daily.
Please follow these simple guidelines or simply do not look for this cache:
BYOP - Bring Your Own Pen.
Sign the log sheet - do not claim to find this or any caches without signing the log please.
Carefully open the container/baggie, completely seal baggie with log inside and tightly close container.
Replace cache out of plain view to same location in description/hint.
The cache itself is s rather unusual, it is a puzzle of sort that my tease your brain, please handle it gently and replace all parts firmly so the next person can enjoy.
If you do not like the posted coordinates then post your own but do not move the cache to a new location.
Congratulations FTF: RedsWife & redhead3902