Park in the parking lot of Lake Tye Park at N 47 51.704 and W
122 00.606. From here it is a little more than a half-mile of
pleasant walking along the south and then west side of the lake on
a hard-packed trail (you cannot walk around the north side of the
lake). No need to fight blackberries and any stinging nettles you
may think you see are probably mint (although there reports of
stinging nettles in the area, too), which used to be farmed
here.
Lake Tye is a 40-acre man-made lake surrounded on three of its
sides by a twenty-acre city park complete with swimming beach,
small boat launch, skateboard park, ball fields, tennis and
basketball courts, large equipped children’s play area, picnic
shelter, clean restrooms and walking trails. Most of the facilities
are on the south side of the lake by the parking area. It is part
of the new Fryelands development at the west end of Monroe, which
has both commercial and residential areas.
But seventy years ago the park was part of the 1200-acre Frye
Lettuce Farm that at its peak employed as many as a thousand people
during the Great Depression. This is the same Frye— Charles and Emma
Frye—that created Seattle’s Frye Art Museum. The
Monroe Historical
Society website has more information and photos about the
Frye
Lettuce Farm. The above photo is from their collection,
#1322.
As you walk toward the Cache think of all those acres of lettuce
spreading away from you in a carpet toward the mountains in the
east. Look north and you will see the remains of the shipping and
packing complex including the old cold storage plant that at one
time manufactured the ice used to keep the lettuce cold in the rail
cars of the time.
This one of a series of caches that focus on Monroe-area
history. You are looking for a water bottle type container
inside an old flexible drain pipe very close to the base of the
utility pole.