Twenty-Five-Year-Old Stakes in the Monte Cristo Wilderness

In exploring the ragged fastnesses of the Cascades a fellow quickly comes to the conclusion that he is the discoverer of a region hitherto untrod by civilized man, said Joe Pearsell, the discoverer of the Monte Cristo mines. But even in these wilds he will find evidences here and there that other white men have been there before him. Last summer I was prospecting about six or seven miles north of Monte Cristo, near the divide, and in an almost inaccessible region, surrounded by giant glaciers, when I came across a small cleared spot about fifteen feet in diameter. Extending north from this place was a line where the trees had been felled by an ax, and in looking around I found several three-cornered stakes with figures marked on them in red, showing just as plainly as the day they were painted. The cleared spot and felled line had become covered again with a younger growth of trees, so it was evident that many years had elapsed since the parties had placed those stakes there.

I could never imagine what they meant until in talking with railway engineers they told me that they were railway grade stakes and had probably been placed there twenty-five years ago by the Northern Pacific surveyors. I was astonished to think that surveyors should ever have attempted any work in such a country, to which there is no outlet and hardly even an entrance. Again, not far from the same place, I discovered as I thought a beautiful little lake, on the shores of which I observed a strange mound of brush and earth. I was still wondering about it when I ran across some old sluice boxes, which told me that the hardy, daring, restless gold seekers of the early '50s had penetrated even into these hidden recesses.

I have traveled through many rugged regions in this country, and have been lost for four months in the mountains of Idaho, but I have never seen such a terrible country to penetrate as the Cascades in the vicinity of Monte Cristo. I think that when the railroad up there is completed that section will become a great tourist resort. In grandeur of scenery it cannot be surpassed anywhere, and there are unique features in the way of glaciers, falls, etc., which no other accessible mountain resorts in this country possess. From a peak near Monte Cristo sometimes, after the early spring rains, when the atmosphere is clearest, one can see almost the limits of the state in every direction. From Puget Sound and the Olympics on the west to the Big Bend country on the east, from Mount Baker to the north to Mount Hood on the south, is the grand panorama which unfolds itself to the sight. Unfortunately, however, the days when this grand view can be obtained are very few.