This cache commemorates the possible ghost towns of Moncton and/or Cedar Falls. The coordinates take you to an educational sign along the asphalt walk trail at Rattlesnake Lake. Rarely, you might actually get to visit one or both - sort of, but most times of the year, you will be looking at Rattlesnake Lake with Rattlesnake Mountain and Rattlesnake Ledge on the far side of the lake.
Foundations of the town of Moncton are beneath the waters of Rattlesnake Lake, but can occasionally be seen if the lake level is very low.
The remaining houses and streets of the town of Cedar Falls are beyond the gated entrance to the Seattle Public Works that can be seen by looking up the path to your left. Once or twice a year there are small scheduled tours that you can sign up for at the Cedar River Watershed Education Center up the hill behind you. The Education Center is a worthwhile stop to visit as well, but hours are still limited since the COVID shutdown.
First, rest assured, there are no rattlesnakes around here. An early road surveyor heard sounds much like the rattlesnakes heard elsewhere in North America, and apparently included that in his survey report. The sound he heard was actually the rattling dry seedpods of the Camas grass. The original First Nation peoples who inhabited the area occasionally harvested those seeds as a food source in times of need. Arthur Denny, one of the early movers and shakers in Seattle named the Mountain Rattlesnake when he read the report from the original surveyor. The small lake was called Rainy Season Lake initially.
Old topographical maps, 1910 or earlier, show the much smaller Rainy Season Lake, rather than the long oval lake you see before you. I suspect that the original lake was a kettle lake formed when a huge glacial ice remnant left behind by glacial melting kept that little spot from being filled with rock or sediment.
In 1906, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St Paul Railroad laid track to the village of Cedar Falls to provide access for the water department workers and their families. Shortly thereafter, another community sprung up a half mile north, along the northern shore of the small lake. The new settlement was called Moncton, after one of it's early settlers.
Cedar Falls was a company town, and the houses were owned by the Seattle water and power utilities for their employees. Merchants, loggers, railroad workers, or water workers who wanted to own their own homes lived in Moncton, although some sources suggest Moncton also was a company town for the rail workers. Some reports say that Moncton was officially renamed Cedar Falls in 1912, but most residents still called their town Moncton. By 1915, the community had a barbershop, saloon, restaurant, hotel, a few stores, and even an indoor swimming pool.
Problems started when the City of Seattle began building a masonry dam on the Cedar River upstream from Cedar Falls. The dam was sound and the new lake began to fill, but the lateral glacial moraine of valley was too porous to hold the water, which began to seep though, causing numerous new springs popping up in the surrounding clear-cut slopes around Cedar Falls and Moncton.
In May of 1915, the water level in Rattlesnake Lake began to steadily rise as much as a foot daily. By the end of the summer, the town of Moncton was inundated and abandoned. All structures of the town, other than their foundations, were removed by the City of Seattle.
The town of Cedar Falls persisted into the 50's or 60's as a company town - owned by Seattle to house the utility workers for the water and power plants. There was an elementary school on site, but to attend high school the children of the town were bussed to North Bend.
The Chester Morse Reservoir provides 60-70% of the drinking water for the greater Seattle area. Maintaining water quality was, and still is, the number one priority for the City of Seattle concerning this area, now known as the Cedar River Watershed. Gradually, Seattle accumulated complete ownership of the watershed lands. No one now lives or recreates in that watershed. The city has portable potty's scattered out along all their private gravel roads from Landsburg Park at the lower end, to the Cedar River head waters above Chester Morse Reservoir far up the valley. Even their workers cannot use a 'facili-tree' for calls of nature. Strictly speaking, Rattlesnake Lake seepage now flows into the South Fork of the Snoqualmie, which is why Rattlesnake Lake is open to visitors.
To get credit for finding this virtual geocache, please tell me ACCORDING TO THE EDUCATIONAL SIGN ON SITE the name of the lake where the Masonry Dam was originally constructed, that eventually led to the flooding of Moncton. I found the name of the lake as it is listed on the sign confusing - so please tell me the name as listed on the sign. Alternatively, should Moncton and Cedar Falls be called ghost towns? Why or why not?
Much of the history I have told here is from the web site of Seattle Public Utilities website History of the watershed
</p>GRATZ toWe4Fullers and 2nd1of3 for FTF!!
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.