Historical Sign

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drm
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Historical Sign

Post by drm » August 19th, 2014, 8:25 am

How's this for serendipity? Bumped into this on the trail this weekend:

Image

The Columbia National Forest was renamed to be the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in 1949, and a Forest Service historian has told me that signs of this type were in use between 1936 and 1942. The Forest Service was already aware of the sign but has not gotten around to collecting it yet for it's collection, so I'm not going to say where I saw it. But I was at the same place not long ago and it was not there. So one of these recent thunderstorms must have created a gully washer that washed it down to this visible spot. Note that it is (was, actually) still nailed to the log it was mounted on. When I went by the next day it had come off of that log.

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Splintercat
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Re: Historical Sign

Post by Splintercat » August 19th, 2014, 6:08 pm

Dean, are you saying that it disappeared after you spotted it? That would be a shame -- definitely worth saving as an artifact!

Tom

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kelkev
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Re: Historical Sign

Post by kelkev » August 19th, 2014, 6:16 pm

Awesome sight. I knew of 2 of these old porcelain enameled signs, but my recent hikes in the past couple of years have found them gone from their former locations on big trees - - one on the West Metolius Trail, about 1.5 miles downstream from Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery, and one on the Independence Rock Trail at Marion Forks. Hopefully both ended up in Forest Service collections somewhere, but I have my doubts....
"Going to the mountains is going home."
— John Muir

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RobFromRedland
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Re: Historical Sign

Post by RobFromRedland » August 19th, 2014, 7:43 pm

That is really cool - I've seen a similar sign in a different forest - I'm amazed it is that old! That one looks like it went thru a fire.
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: WOW! What a ride! - Hunter S. Thompson

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drm
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Re: Historical Sign

Post by drm » August 20th, 2014, 8:30 am

Splintercat wrote:Dean, are you saying that it disappeared after you spotted it? That would be a shame -- definitely worth saving as an artifact!

Tom
No - just that it came off the log section it was nailed to and was sitting in the creek.

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Splintercat
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Re: Historical Sign

Post by Splintercat » August 20th, 2014, 8:53 pm

I think it would be (ethically) okay to collect it and turn it over to the USFS, especially if you could give them coordinates for where you found it. Otherwise, it will surely be lost -- or become part of a personal collection, somewhere. I'm torn on when to collect these, but if it has fallen from where it was originally posted, that's pretty straightforward. It would be a harder call if it were still intact on a living tree (I've seen a couple of those in the Roaring River area).

Tom

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drm
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Re: Historical Sign

Post by drm » August 21st, 2014, 6:25 am

Splintercat wrote:I think it would be (ethically) okay to collect it and turn it over to the USFS, especially if you could give them coordinates for where you found it. Otherwise, it will surely be lost -- or become part of a personal collection, somewhere. I'm torn on when to collect these, but if it has fallen from where it was originally posted, that's pretty straightforward. It would be a harder call if it were still intact on a living tree (I've seen a couple of those in the Roaring River area).

Tom
In retrospect I kind of wish I had taken it down for them. But I also know they know about it and plan to collect it. I hope they get up there in time.

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Re: Historical Sign

Post by Tyee55+ » January 19th, 2015, 5:48 pm

In the mid 70's we were replacing all the signs in the Three Sisters Wilderness. There were a number of these in the Mink Lake basin. Our instruction were to remove then and throw them as far as we could. Then put up the new oak sign. There a lot of those out to be found with a good metal detector. They are vary durable as long as they did not get chipped.

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drm
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Re: Historical Sign

Post by drm » January 22nd, 2015, 3:46 pm

Tyee55+ wrote:Our instruction were to remove then and throw them as far as we could.
That's weird. They didn't want you to have to carry them out? Did you take any home with you instead?

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