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The Request

    At the request of Recon Team R-54, the Mountain Walkers gathered information about possible Morrow Project caches, boltholes and bunkers in the spring of 2140. Locations mentioned were all in Washington and Oregon. The list was briefly stolen by a pair of Mountain Walkers, but recovered by team R-54 in late June.

     The question was, "We are looking for concrete underground structures, each with a circular steel manhole leading down into it. The manholes are about 4 feet in diameter -- big enough for a truck tire. A yard or so below the manhole will be the concrete structure, at least ten feet on a side. The most recognizable feature of the manhole is the use of six five-sided bolts to keep it closed. Please don't open them. Any mysterious bunkers in the mountains should also be reported." Unfortunately, Project cache covers mostly have different graphics and logos.

     The diameter of the manhole provides about two inches of clearance around a 14.5x20 tire, and at least two inches over the "lip" of the opening.. Oooh, the tire has a rock video! Alas, it is missing Tawny Kitaen and some macho lyrics.

     In the list below, we'll use the abbreviation MW for "Mountain Walker". 

Five Sided Bolts

     Penta-head bolts are used on water meter covers, electric utility vaults, and (most often) fire hydrants ... they are opened with pentagon keys, or penta-sockets. A lot of water meter covers use five sided bolts, but usually with only one bolt, either 1" across or 13/16" (penta-socket).

The Cache List

     There are about sixty locations given on Luke Robbins' list. Of those:

• Thirty are probably not Project caches or secret bunkers (well, one or two may be old fallout shelters). This includes bolted-down manholes where the MW didn't note the bolt description. These all have location information sufficient to find them.
  

• Ten might be caches (bolt descriptions unclear), but are located where a V-150 couldn't get to them. As far as the Project teams know, the Morrow Project didn't put caches were nobody could get to them in a Project vehicle.
  

• Twelve are vaguely described, without sufficient information to locate them. "It was east of Seattle."
  

• Three are probably Project caches that were emptied (the five-sided bolts weren't usually present, but they had about the correct configuration and dimensions). These were at:

• north of McCredie Springs, Oregon, a bit west of the Willamette Pass

• at Tombstone Summit in Oregon, on US 20

• near Packwood, Washington, along US 12

• Five have descriptions that match caches, with closed covers, locations that make sense for the Project (not in cities, not near military targets, accessible for Morrow Project vehicles), and the locations are sufficiently described to find:

• at Stevens Pass, Washington, on US 2, near Scenic, WA.

• between Lyman and Hamilton, in Skagit county, WA, on state route 20

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MORE TO COME