Geo-cache hunting is a hobby enjoyed by many insulator collectors. Using Global Positioning Technology (GPS), enthusiasts search for hidden caches containing any variety of items. , Linda and I (using the moniker "Howl'n Banks) have started leaving insulators behind, in the prospect of starting new collectors among the "treasure hunters" who come along after us. 

The hobby has increased so significantly that there are now hundreds of thousands caches hidden in the United States. Many will be in your own neighborhood. We were surprised to find a half dozen caches hidden within five miles of our home here in Merlin, Oregon!

To find out where to look, log onto www.geocaching.com. Global positioning coordinates will be listed for each hidden cache, plus a generalized map and a list of clues by whoever hid the cache. You will need a GPS device to find actual caches.

To make geo-caching even more interesting for insulator collectors, Crown Jewels this month initiates our own version of geo-caching. Listed on the next page are the co-ordinates for a special interest site in Southern Oregon. But this site isn't a cache of items hidden in the ground. No, your treasure is a standing pole, complete with side pegs and a cross arm.

The goal of your search is a power pole placed in the ground in 1904 when the Rogue River Electric Company extended a branch line to the Granite Hill Gold Mine. The electricity operated a 150 horsepower electric motor that powered a 20 stamp mill used to grind gold ore into dust. Before the mine closed in 1908, the American Goldfields Company reported $75,000 in gold was mined there (about $1.8-million in today's economy).

This branch of the power line used M-2795's, the glass bottom / porcelain top multipart insulators made by Fred M Locke. These insulators are called "gutter tops" by collectors, because they actually have a gutter to drain rain water away from the cross arm. Another collector and myself recovered a half-dozen M-2795's in decent condition on this same branch line and very near this location in the late 1960's. Telephone lines on side pegs contained smaller Fred M Locke porcelain unipart insulators including U-39's, U-192A's, and U-611A's.

While the standing power pole you are looking for remains solid in the ground 100 years after it was installed, the cross arm 15 feet above your head likely is not. Be careful not to bring debris down upon you.

When you find the pole you are on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. You can follow the line by pole stumps and / or downed poles for approximately a mile up and around the mountain. The likelihood of finding any large power insulators is slim, as even broken fragments have been picked up by collectors over the years. But people still find the smaller insulators from time to time where they were discarded into the surrounding brush.

The coordinates are as follows:

N 42 30.859 
W 123 17.430

One way to get close is to take Interstate 5 exit #58 at Grants Pass, Oregon. Proceed north on Granite Hill Road for 5.1 miles, turn onto a dirt road up Morris Creek for 1/2 mile, and park at a junction. The pole is out of sight up a nearby draw containing a seasonal stream. Words of caution: poison oak abounds. In the summer, be aware of bees and rattlesnakes. Take drinking water. Due to the hazards just described, I'd rate the hike as a "2" on a scale of one to five, with five being the most difficult.

Overgrown by dense brush and timber, 
only the foundations remain of the 20 stamp 
mill once powered by electricity.

There is something to find at the site: we placed a CD 102 at the base of the pole as a token reward. The greater reward is just seeing the pole construction for a line built 100 years ago when the terrain lacked roads for easy access as it does today.

Note: if you drove from Grants Pass as described above, you followed the route of the line all five miles. However, clues are few and far between due to construction and development.

This geo-cache site is not being advertised on the geocaching website. The co-ordinates are only being revealed to readers of Crown Jewels, which assumes no responsibility for any risks you take searching for the site or walking the pole line. Enthusiasts of geo-caching are encouraged to contact us at Crown Jewels, as we intend to reveal other historic lines to our readership via this medium.

Sources:

Fred M. Locke, a Biography, by Elton N. Gish, Infinity Press, Buna, Texas, 1994. 
Oregon Metal Mines Handbook, Josephine County, by F. W. Libbey, Director of the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, 1952. 
Southern Oregon Historical Society, Medford, Oregon.