airborne1092
Hero Member
While not treasure leads per se, These are my treasure leads. If this doesn't quite fit the bill for this section, then please Mods, by all means move it to more appropriate pastures!
I was a little reluctant to share my thoughts and research like a good little treasure hunter, but I also want to step out of ranks, and perhaps start a trend. The following information is simply me using the internet to push-pin locations on a map. The tools I use are available to everyone, at no cost. Google search, Google maps and a little bit of imagination and visualization. I would expect that, in some cases my theories simply don't work. In most cases, you'll be able to understand WHY I thought a certain way so please, feel free to correct me or set me straight. Lastly, there are three things I want to say, before I share this research with all of you, if you'll allow. I hope you all read these initial caveats versus simply bypassing them, and skipping to the meat;
1) If I unintentionally post someone's 'honey-hole,' then I apologize. Remember - many folks will not actually get around to some of these locations, so for the most part they should remain fairly unadulterated and unmolested. This is one of the main reasons why I ultimately decided to go ahead and post my research. If it is one of your sweet spots, by all means DON'T SAY ANYTHING! By you posting how angry you are and how you curse my ancestors every full moon when you sacrifice a goat to the Gods, asking them to visit revenge on me only confirms that site in question is a great place to dig!
2) Caveat Emptor. I have not researched any claim information. If you catch a bullet in the back of the head for jumping someone's claim, I do not take responsibility! Also, I have not researched private property boundaries, either. If you end up in the bottom of a really deep lake with your pockets full of rocks, I will simply use it as a lesson for my children, to always respect private property. If you end up in Walla Walla for looting native grave sites or stealing 'national treasures', I will not come and read bedtime stories to you every Friday! Use this info at your own risk.
3) If you DO know that some of these locations are great to explore, then by all means, share. The purpose of Treasurenet is to share information. I know, I know - we're all scallywags; "...there is no honor among thieves..."; and the whole "Pirate's creed," business, but I think I speak for all of us when I say, we enjoy living vicariously through other folks' (mis)adventures just as much as we enjoy finding a treasure ourselves. Please, by all means, share and feel free to add your views, opinions, professional experience and past findings. With that, Here goes...
Most of you are familiar with ghosttowns.com/states/wa. I tried to find out of the way and interesting ghost towns, that may hold more than just old buildings, relics and a few coins.
Okanogan Co.
The town of Ruby is long forgotten. When I searched Google maps, I drew an imaginary line due south from Conconully and used Hwy 20 as my 'back-stop.' It wasn't listed outright, but I noticed something odd when I switched from 'satellite' view to map view. Most counties in Washington State indicate the property lines in Google maps. What a handy coincidence! The town of Ruby still has the old town grid sectioned off, even if there is no physical evidence of the town left! Here are the Lat/Long for Ruby ( 48.49808, -119.72514 )
Half way between Riverside and Ruby, is Cave Mountain. Looking at it on a map, it doesn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary, let alone a cave. But when I looked at the small seasonal lake or spring NE of the 'summit', it does appear to have a deep center, that could be a cave in the dry season and filled with water in the spring. ( 48.53293, -11960115 ) No other lake/pond in the area seems to have as deep of a bottom as this one does, save one other: (48.54051, -119.58997 )
Nighthawk - pretty straight forward. A mining ghost town in Okanogan Co., west of Oroville and near the border with Canada. ( 48.96763, -119.6400 ) I did a search for property in this area using Hotpads.com and found several on the mountain above Nighthawk. All were about 20 acre tracts for about 14k - 25k. I would think it'd be nice to get your own piece of land with mineral rights and tool around at your leisure!
Traveling South-south-east, there is Loomis, a semi-ghost town. ( 48.82182, -119.6324 ) 3 miles east of town and just before Spectacle lake, take a left up Washburn Lake Rd. One place that interests me, is where the water supply flows into Washburn Lake ( 48.824, -119.597 ) I would be curious to dig around and pan a little at the inlet to the lake. Also, I would tool around at about the 3800' contour line up stream, near the source, as it looks to be a steeper grade in that location. Remember, Loomis wasn't founded here by coincidence!
Another place of interest for me is, near the end of Washburn Lake Rd. Perhaps 1/4 mile from the end of the road, another (no name) creek runs under (?) the road, and continues down the mountain. If there were a culvert, I would check both the inlet and outlet for deposits, and I would climb up stream about 250' where this creek has a bit of a steep run, down from this peak.
Chelan Co.
If I had the skills required for SCUBA and an underwater detector, I would certainly check this out. My grandpa was an apple knocker working in the orchards around Wenatchee when he was a teenager, and met my Grandma there. His family lived in Eniat at the time. He said to me once, when they built the Rock Island dam down stream from Weatchee, it backed up the river and flooded Orondo. For years, Orondo was considered a dead town but apparently as Boeing retirees started to move to Wenatchee in the mid 80s, the area started to come back along Hwy 97 and eventually regained its old name. If you look into the water north of the Orondo River Park, you can see the remnants of the old streets, extending from Howe's Landing from the east, and the extension from the siding, paralleling Hwy 97 east of the park. ( 47.65977, -120.21390 ) As to why the current name of Orondo is significantly south of this location, at the 2/97 split? My grandpa told me once that, Orondo and Eniat were just across the river from each other, and IIRC, he said that Orondo was the larger hamlet, but he never mentioned if Orondo actually sprawled farther in either direction. Eniat does seem to be on higher ground though and better positioned within the nearby canyon.
My grandpa also used to hunt almost exclusively for decades, in the Clockum pass area. He knew the area intimately. He told me there used to be logging operations up there and a regularly traveled wagon road from Wenatchee to Ellensburg, for mail and what-not. I've been up in the Stemilt basin hunting with his several times before he passed away, and I have on my own volition explored a little bit from Mission Ridge all the way south east to places like Ingersoll Rd., Kingsbury Canyon and Jump-off Ridge. I would love to find the old route over Clockum pass ( 47.20196, -120.27577 ) and search for relics and such, or even old logging camp locations.
From this site: http://www.soundrider.com/archive/rides/gravel_travel_3.htm
Colockum Road
With its modern roots going back to the 1880s, Colockum Road between Wenatchee and Ellensburg
was part of a larger system of routes in the Northwest linking California with British Columbia. It was
an important cattle drive route connecting with the Caribou trail which came north from The Dalles,
Oregon. In earlier times, the Colockum area was used by Native Americans as a rendezvous point and
an Indian race track is still visible. Today much of the land is managed by Washington Department of
Fish and Wildlife as a wildlife area. The road traverses Colockum Pass at 5373 feet.
Directions:
Northbound: From downtown Ellensburg, go east on University Way which continues as 10th Avenue
and then continues as the Old Vantage Highway. Turn left onto Number 81 Road, then right onto Brick
Mill Road, then left onto Colockum Road. Continue to Colockum Pass and Wenatchee.
Southbound: From downtown Wenatchee, go south on Wenatchee Avenue which continues as Malaga
Road and then continues as Colockum Road. Continue past the large aluminum plant and Rock Island
Dam along the Columbia River. At a fork in the road just before crossing under high tension power lines,
bear to the right. There is an information kiosk here. Continue up to Colockum Pass and onto Ellensburg.
Road Type: Pavement, dirt, gravel, broken rock, rip-rap. This route is very rough in some sections and
rather hard on tires so bring your flat fix kit and air pump. As you bounce across the summit imagine
stagecoaches clattering across these rocks!
Petrified wood. Not sure if this is an official collection site, but I've heard this is where folks can go and find some. ( 46.798, -120.873 )
This is just a start, and in the future with time a more preliminary research, I'll add more. Feel free to include your thoughts or experiences regarding this list of stuff - I'm interested in other views and aspects! Thank you all for reading!
I was a little reluctant to share my thoughts and research like a good little treasure hunter, but I also want to step out of ranks, and perhaps start a trend. The following information is simply me using the internet to push-pin locations on a map. The tools I use are available to everyone, at no cost. Google search, Google maps and a little bit of imagination and visualization. I would expect that, in some cases my theories simply don't work. In most cases, you'll be able to understand WHY I thought a certain way so please, feel free to correct me or set me straight. Lastly, there are three things I want to say, before I share this research with all of you, if you'll allow. I hope you all read these initial caveats versus simply bypassing them, and skipping to the meat;
1) If I unintentionally post someone's 'honey-hole,' then I apologize. Remember - many folks will not actually get around to some of these locations, so for the most part they should remain fairly unadulterated and unmolested. This is one of the main reasons why I ultimately decided to go ahead and post my research. If it is one of your sweet spots, by all means DON'T SAY ANYTHING! By you posting how angry you are and how you curse my ancestors every full moon when you sacrifice a goat to the Gods, asking them to visit revenge on me only confirms that site in question is a great place to dig!
2) Caveat Emptor. I have not researched any claim information. If you catch a bullet in the back of the head for jumping someone's claim, I do not take responsibility! Also, I have not researched private property boundaries, either. If you end up in the bottom of a really deep lake with your pockets full of rocks, I will simply use it as a lesson for my children, to always respect private property. If you end up in Walla Walla for looting native grave sites or stealing 'national treasures', I will not come and read bedtime stories to you every Friday! Use this info at your own risk.
3) If you DO know that some of these locations are great to explore, then by all means, share. The purpose of Treasurenet is to share information. I know, I know - we're all scallywags; "...there is no honor among thieves..."; and the whole "Pirate's creed," business, but I think I speak for all of us when I say, we enjoy living vicariously through other folks' (mis)adventures just as much as we enjoy finding a treasure ourselves. Please, by all means, share and feel free to add your views, opinions, professional experience and past findings. With that, Here goes...
Most of you are familiar with ghosttowns.com/states/wa. I tried to find out of the way and interesting ghost towns, that may hold more than just old buildings, relics and a few coins.
Okanogan Co.
The town of Ruby is long forgotten. When I searched Google maps, I drew an imaginary line due south from Conconully and used Hwy 20 as my 'back-stop.' It wasn't listed outright, but I noticed something odd when I switched from 'satellite' view to map view. Most counties in Washington State indicate the property lines in Google maps. What a handy coincidence! The town of Ruby still has the old town grid sectioned off, even if there is no physical evidence of the town left! Here are the Lat/Long for Ruby ( 48.49808, -119.72514 )
Half way between Riverside and Ruby, is Cave Mountain. Looking at it on a map, it doesn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary, let alone a cave. But when I looked at the small seasonal lake or spring NE of the 'summit', it does appear to have a deep center, that could be a cave in the dry season and filled with water in the spring. ( 48.53293, -11960115 ) No other lake/pond in the area seems to have as deep of a bottom as this one does, save one other: (48.54051, -119.58997 )
Nighthawk - pretty straight forward. A mining ghost town in Okanogan Co., west of Oroville and near the border with Canada. ( 48.96763, -119.6400 ) I did a search for property in this area using Hotpads.com and found several on the mountain above Nighthawk. All were about 20 acre tracts for about 14k - 25k. I would think it'd be nice to get your own piece of land with mineral rights and tool around at your leisure!
Traveling South-south-east, there is Loomis, a semi-ghost town. ( 48.82182, -119.6324 ) 3 miles east of town and just before Spectacle lake, take a left up Washburn Lake Rd. One place that interests me, is where the water supply flows into Washburn Lake ( 48.824, -119.597 ) I would be curious to dig around and pan a little at the inlet to the lake. Also, I would tool around at about the 3800' contour line up stream, near the source, as it looks to be a steeper grade in that location. Remember, Loomis wasn't founded here by coincidence!
Another place of interest for me is, near the end of Washburn Lake Rd. Perhaps 1/4 mile from the end of the road, another (no name) creek runs under (?) the road, and continues down the mountain. If there were a culvert, I would check both the inlet and outlet for deposits, and I would climb up stream about 250' where this creek has a bit of a steep run, down from this peak. Chelan Co.
If I had the skills required for SCUBA and an underwater detector, I would certainly check this out. My grandpa was an apple knocker working in the orchards around Wenatchee when he was a teenager, and met my Grandma there. His family lived in Eniat at the time. He said to me once, when they built the Rock Island dam down stream from Weatchee, it backed up the river and flooded Orondo. For years, Orondo was considered a dead town but apparently as Boeing retirees started to move to Wenatchee in the mid 80s, the area started to come back along Hwy 97 and eventually regained its old name. If you look into the water north of the Orondo River Park, you can see the remnants of the old streets, extending from Howe's Landing from the east, and the extension from the siding, paralleling Hwy 97 east of the park. ( 47.65977, -120.21390 ) As to why the current name of Orondo is significantly south of this location, at the 2/97 split? My grandpa told me once that, Orondo and Eniat were just across the river from each other, and IIRC, he said that Orondo was the larger hamlet, but he never mentioned if Orondo actually sprawled farther in either direction. Eniat does seem to be on higher ground though and better positioned within the nearby canyon.
My grandpa also used to hunt almost exclusively for decades, in the Clockum pass area. He knew the area intimately. He told me there used to be logging operations up there and a regularly traveled wagon road from Wenatchee to Ellensburg, for mail and what-not. I've been up in the Stemilt basin hunting with his several times before he passed away, and I have on my own volition explored a little bit from Mission Ridge all the way south east to places like Ingersoll Rd., Kingsbury Canyon and Jump-off Ridge. I would love to find the old route over Clockum pass ( 47.20196, -120.27577 ) and search for relics and such, or even old logging camp locations.
From this site: http://www.soundrider.com/archive/rides/gravel_travel_3.htm
Colockum Road
With its modern roots going back to the 1880s, Colockum Road between Wenatchee and Ellensburg
was part of a larger system of routes in the Northwest linking California with British Columbia. It was
an important cattle drive route connecting with the Caribou trail which came north from The Dalles,
Oregon. In earlier times, the Colockum area was used by Native Americans as a rendezvous point and
an Indian race track is still visible. Today much of the land is managed by Washington Department of
Fish and Wildlife as a wildlife area. The road traverses Colockum Pass at 5373 feet.
Directions:
Northbound: From downtown Ellensburg, go east on University Way which continues as 10th Avenue
and then continues as the Old Vantage Highway. Turn left onto Number 81 Road, then right onto Brick
Mill Road, then left onto Colockum Road. Continue to Colockum Pass and Wenatchee.
Southbound: From downtown Wenatchee, go south on Wenatchee Avenue which continues as Malaga
Road and then continues as Colockum Road. Continue past the large aluminum plant and Rock Island
Dam along the Columbia River. At a fork in the road just before crossing under high tension power lines,
bear to the right. There is an information kiosk here. Continue up to Colockum Pass and onto Ellensburg.
Road Type: Pavement, dirt, gravel, broken rock, rip-rap. This route is very rough in some sections and
rather hard on tires so bring your flat fix kit and air pump. As you bounce across the summit imagine
stagecoaches clattering across these rocks!
Petrified wood. Not sure if this is an official collection site, but I've heard this is where folks can go and find some. ( 46.798, -120.873 )
This is just a start, and in the future with time a more preliminary research, I'll add more. Feel free to include your thoughts or experiences regarding this list of stuff - I'm interested in other views and aspects! Thank you all for reading!
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