Imagine a Northern California wilderness that spans 43, 000 acres. Now imagine a giant waterfall that hurtles down three tiers worth of that same virtually unspoiled wilderness into a creek. Sounds nice, huh? Sounds like a place that folks would be lining up to go visit.
Here's the kicker. No one barely knows this place exists. Boggles the mind, dosn't it? Oh, by the way, the name of the area in CA is the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. Oh, I know what you're thinking, I thought the same thing. Could whiskey could be blamed for misplacing a ... 400-foot waterfall?
92 year old Dick McDermott has lived in the park for over 70 years and he never saw this piece of natural beauty. Neither had Jim Milestone, park Superintendent. However, officials speculated that others had been to the falls at some point in the past; a choker cable and part of a bulldozer were most likely left behind by loggers from the 1950's. A knife stuck in a tree also points to some sort of visitor.
It wasn't until a few years ago, that the myth of the waterall became more tangible. Russ Weatherbee, a wildlife biologist was going through some old maps, and he found one with a notation of 'Whiskeytown Falls'. He decided to go searching, but couldn't find it. Then, in 2003 he was viewing global imagining maps on his computer and saw what looking like a waterfall, a stretch in Crystal Creek showing a dramatic drop in altitude, with a thin sliver of white through it. Bingo. Turns out the map he saw originally was over a mile off target.
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Article comments
1 - Tan The Man
It's awesome.
2 - Nancy
This is so strange that here in this country there might still be things that are 'undiscovered', but on reading another article about it, apparently it hasn't really been discovered so much as re-discovered & now it's to be marketed.
3 - Mary K. Williams
Nancy, I know what you mean. I came across the story this morning, while searching Google News for something else. Actually it ended up being on some other site, that I got linked to. Anyway -- as I then proceeded to 'Google' this waterfall story, most of the posts were current, meaning with today's dates, meaning it was like - news. It seemed pretty interesting to me, and then I found that other's had come across it as well, in recent years. But the initial news bit I read earlier, made it almost seem as if the thing just 'appeared'. It gave me a chuckle. : )
4 - Floris Vermeir
It makes one wonder, what would best be done, if something like that is found again.
Should it be made public, or should one keep it only for a limited number of people. If it is made public, then more people can visit it, and possibly spoil it.
While if its not made public, the magic of the place remains, and people can discover it time and time again. But then thats not really fair to other people.
Still for some place it is best, or seems best if they would not have been made public. The example is not in the US, but in the Synai Desert in Egypt. There used to be a valley, filled with laval colums, like a forest almost. And when one hears descriptiosn about it it sounds magical, until you arive at that spot, and find the little that is left of it.
If you'd ever visit that place, then maybe also want to visit the colored and the white canion, and maybe travel a bit by cammel/dromedare. You will see things in a different perspective.