Ghost Rails: #008 Kittitas Traditional Cache
Rock Rabbit: The cache owner is not responding to issues with this listing, so I must regretfully archive it.
Ghost Rails: #008 Kittitas
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Ghost Rails is an on-going series of caches dedicated to a time gone by, a time when the railroads were a major part of the lives of people and communities of this great country. In many places, the railroads have disappeared. No longer needed, the tracks were removed, and the remnants neglected and forgotten. Ghost Rails will attempt to show you some of these places for a short history lesson and your caching enjoyment.
Kittitas was founded in 1884 with the hopes of attracting the Northern Pacific Railroad, but was bypassed in favor of Ellensburg.
In 1905, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, or the Milwaukee Road as it was known, started it's expansion from Chicago to Seattle. In 1908, seeing the agricultural potential of the Kittitas Valley, the Milwaukee Road gained a right of way through the town of Kittitas and built a depot and yards in 1909.
In the early years, the Milwaukee Road was electrified. The Olympic Hiawatha, the longest electrified train in the world, would run from Chicago to Seattle in 45 hours.
The last Milwaukee Road train passed over the Cascades in 1980. The track was abandoned and removed. The Kittitas depot remains. Owned by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, it was placed on the National Historical Regester in 1993.
Close by is a memorial to R. "Chic" Hollenbeck. An avid horseman, he envisioned a trail system that would allow people to ride horses, walk, bicycle or drive a team across the state. Without his efforts, the John Wayne Pioneer Trail might not exist.
The cache container is a magnetic key holder, bring your own pen.
Cache on, dudes!!
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