Crystal Mountain, Out Past Boondoggle

Really neat Ron, thanks for posting. I had no idea that the area had any mining history, but now of course, a lot of the place names make perfect sense.

JBAS?

Good call on the lengthy exposure times.

Joe's Bad Ass Shoulder.... see map. extreme bottom left.

Thanks for the great mining history Ron.  As a point of clarification, I believe that Blue Bell pass is misplaced on the USGS maps as shown here, and is actually E of Crown Point on the PCT.

Some additional history from an article published in the White River Recreation Newsletter (Excerpted with “History of the White River Summer Homes” edited by Stan Orton and published in 1988 by Valley Press)

Silver & Goat Creeks Early History
Cabin building started with the first Gold Hill (Silver Creek) Summer Home permit, issued in
1912 by the Forest Service to Dr. J.L. Reese from Tacoma on what is now Lot 8, once called
Lot A of the Silver Creek Summer Residences. The second cabin was built for Dick Hainsworth of Seattle in 1918. It faced Goat Creek on Lot B, now Lot 11. The third cabin, on Lot C, now Lot 9, was built for John A. Rademaker, PhD. of Salem, Oregon in 1918.

A permit was issued to Frank Kelley of Sumner in 1919 on Lot 6. Soon after, his brother,
John, bought one of two unfinished cabins built in 1920 by Andy Olson and Jim Farrell. John
worked for the State Highway Maintenance Department. Another early cabin was built for
Cece Griswold's father, V.L. Elson in 1922 or 1923 on Lot 64.The Loop Road at Silver Creek was cleared in 1922. At that time enough logs to build a
cabin cost $10 to $15. Hemlock was $1 per thousand board feet, Fir, $2 and Cedar, $3. The
first ranger at Silver Creek was Andy Olson.
The caretaker Forest Service at the time of the first home permits was also engaged in
timber sales, trail building, fire protection and land leases to sheep herders.
Recollections of Earlier Days in the Silver Creek Area by John A. Rademaker, Ph.D
Silver Creek lies between Crystal Mountain and Jenny Mountain, just west of the northeast
corner of Rainier National Park. In the days here referred to, it was a clear, beautiful, cold
stream derived from the winter snows and the summer rains and dews, and then, as now, it
ran into White River, the source of which is Emmons Glacier on Mount Rainier.
I was born in 1905, but the events of which I write happened beginning about 1910-1912.
At that time, Dr. J.L. Reese lost his only son, who was studying in medical school, and having
already lost his wife, he decided that civilization had no more attraction for him. He closed his
medical office in Tacoma, Washington, and set off to live in the wilderness, as far from city life
as possible.

He found an interest in gold mining and prospecting for precious metals, and established a
headquarters in a small log cabin on what is now Lot 8 of the Silver Creek Summer
Residences. Probably he located here because it was well away from the beaten track, and
still next to the trail from White River to Bear Gap, Jimtown, and Jack Campbell's Valley. There
was no road along White River, but a horse and foot-trail led from the nearest human
collectivity, the village of Buckley, up the north side of White River for thirty-five miles or so to
Silver Creek, and on up to Glacier Basin, Summerland, and the crest of the Cascades. Using
horses as pack animals, and walking with them, it took some three days from Tacoma to Dr.
Reese's log cabin. He named his location, appropriately, Gold Hill.

My uncle, Johannes Hendrickus Rademaker, commonly called Joe, agreed to join him in
1912 in a search for gold. They concentrated on a site in Summerland, below Frying Pan
Glacier, for some time. They told me of the times they started out from Gold Hill (Silver Creek)
early in the day, travelled up the White River Valley, walking many times in the ice cold water
of the river, and arriving at Summerland late in the afternoon. When they approached their
goal, it was often late, and Doc Reese would call out "Push on, Joe, Push on!" Others who
heard this happen several times, dubbed the slope up which they were struggling with laden
horses, "Joe Push Mountain." The National Geographic Board, later, named it "Governor's
Ridge."
Later, the present highway, 410, became a widened trail up which Model T Fords, and other
rugged creations of early automotive years could travel, at the owner's risk and with plenty of
bumps and hollows, and in some places, recourse to the shallow water and medium sized
boulders of the river bed.

Recollections of Earlier Days in the Silver Creek Area by John A. Rademaker, Ph.D
When Rainier National Park was made out-of-bounds for prospecting, Doc Reese had to leave
promising diggings in Summerland, and devote his attention elsewhere. He managed to eke
out an existence by trapping during the winter, hunting for food, picking and canning wild
blackberries and huckleberries, and purchasing a minimum of canned goods to see him
through the winter. I have a picture of him, with his alpenstock on Castle Mountain, where the
huckleberries were plentiful and large. There was also a patch on Jenny Mountain below
Jimtown, spreading clear down to the Silver Creek at the bottom of the slope. Part of this place
has been taken over by the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort, and the rest has grown over with
towering trees. The Castle Mountain patch has also suffered the same fate. Actually, both
patches owed their existence in the 1920's to a forest fire which ravaged the tops of Jenny
Mountain, Castle Mountain, and part of Crystal Mountain. A handful of pioneers set up a fire
line, felled trees, and cleared a lane to stop the fire from coming down the end of Crystal
Mountain. The cut stumps are still visible. A patch of wild blackberries on the flank of Jenny
Mountain, below Norse Peak, on the draw just below the junction of the Crystal Mountain
Highway and the road built up from Silver Creek Residence Area suffered a similar fate of
being overgrown by trees.
In the early days, the first Ranger Station was located facing where the hiway (410) now lies,
just below where the power substation is now located. Durgin, the road boss, had a house just
across the creek from that spot, and the "Inn" was built east of that. The first Inn was bur
down by a domestic fire, and the lady of the family was much bereaved because the large ham
she had hung up in the attic perished in the blaze.
The next year the Ranger Station burned down. One ranger, remembering the episode,
carefully took his gold watch out of his best suit of clothes, to make sure he did not lose the
watch-not thinking that he could as easily have saved the suit as well. The Station was rebuilt
by the combined efforts of all the members of the community, in the 1920's.
Andy Olson was the first Ranger at Silver Creek, and he had a weekly trip to make up Crystal
Mountain to Crown Point, and over to Bear Gap, to look for fires. Nowadays, vigilance for fire
watches is greatly improved, but Andy's was the first effort in that direction in the Silver Creek
area. Later the Ranger Station was moved up the road to its present location.
Building the hiway was a great undertaking and required many hands and long days and
months of effort. Once, our 1917 Ford car was picked up bodily by a crew to get it over a pile
of freshly broken detritus which covered the roadbed. The cookhouse was located just east of
Silver Creek for the thirty-man crew, and served for the part of the road from Huckleberry
Creek to Cleveland Flats.
In those days, the Park Entrance was reached by a bridge across White River, at the place
where the present hiway 410 starts up the hill on the left hand side of White River. It was a
long bridge, and frequently washed out in winter, so Durgin put his crew to digging a deeper
canal to prevent the washouts. His superiors overruled him, cut off his funds for the project,
and finally moved the entrance to its present location

^^^^ this kinda stuff is what i absolutely love about this place.  So much incredible knowledge and history to be passed along by TAYers.

Thanks Ron J & Paul.

Thanks, Seatown. It’s fun to get this kind of info together and compare notes.

Paul, that's great stuff. Thank you so much. I've downloaded it to my archives

... As a point of clarification, I believe that Blue Bell pass is misplaced on the USGS maps as shown here, and is actually E of Crown Point on the PCT. ...

This explains a mystery that I've wondered about for years:
According to what I recall reading, the Blue Bell mine was located “just below Blue Bell Pass” and for a time was quite an operation, boasting year round operation and even running three shifts of mining operations. According to various historians, they even had an arrastra and later a stamp mill below the mine in the Union Creek basin so they could pulverize the ore for the extraction of the gold and silver nearby, rather than transporting the ore to the nearest smelter.
According to an old retired FS ranger I know, the FS burned down the scores of miners cabins at Fog City in the 1950’s because they were “a hazard”. That saddens me as it would be such a great location for an overnight backcountry ski cabin.
While the FS may have obliterated nearly all traces of Fog City where the Blue Bell miners lived, they certainly could not have obliterated the huge mine dump that has to be located at such a mine site, without the use of heavy equipment.
I have been up and down the slope below the “Blue Bell Pass” shown on the USGS map and never found a trace of the mine dump. It would not surprise me if the tunnel portal was obliterated as it would be considered a huge nuisance/safety hazard by the FS and could have easily been closed with explosives. But the dump had to be where the mine was actually located so I knew something was amiss, I just didn’t know what.
Now I know where to continue my search.
I’m curious, Paul, How did you discover that BB Pass was mis-located on the USGS maps – is it marked otherwise on other maps?

Out past Boondoggle? Yoiks! I wouldn't go in there if I were you!

Just like to say thanks for all the info, it was a pleasant read and way more info than I had expected. So maybe if I'm feeling adventuresome I'll go see if I can find Jim Town, I don't usually end up enjoying crappy gullies, but I'm always up for an adventure. I would think that there wouldn't be much avalanche danger if I approach it from the boondoggle run, or out the bottom of silver basin instead of coming down off the ridge past three-way? Once again, awesome info folks.