[RAW-dad]

Recently hiked the Skyline Trail in ONP and spent a night immediately SW of Kimta Peak at about 5150 ft on a rocky knoll. Came across some milled lumber including shingles, a bunch of nails, rusty cans, and some cylinders that look to have burned. Does anyone know what the cylinders are? Was there ever a mine in that area?

general location

nails_etc

closeup of cylinder pieces

[Pyrites]

Old dry cell battery components.

[RodF]

Jim Taplin's Olympic Trail Guide, 1933 edition, shows a "T." designating a telephone at Kimta, where the Queets Skyline Trail ended, at the top of the Promise Creek Trail. However, while the 1933 Olympic National Forest map does show the telephone line coming up Elip Creek Trail, then south to Three Lakes and Finley Peak Lookout, it does not show the telephone line extending north to Kimta. The 1940 Olympic National Park map shows the telephone line extending only to Three Prune Shelter, but not continuing north to Kimta. So this is probably the remains of the old Kimta fire reporting telephone box from the early 1930s. Nice find!

[Mike Collins]

[Malachai Constant]

Those are old school 1.5 v dry cell battery guts. The black rod (+anode) is graphite and was originally in a zinc can (- cathode) used in WWII lanterns and old battery radios. They were surrounded by a black powdery electrolyte that included MnO2 and ZnCl2 they supplied 1.5 v at substantial amperage. Technology is still used in cheap dry cells more sophisticated cells use alkaline electrolytes or Lithium hydrides. Used in old telephones and in Model T ignitions a vibrator converted to AC and a coil stepped up the voltage.

[RAW-dad]

Thanks all for your thoughts on this mystery. Sounds like dry cell batteries it is. There were probably about 25 scattered about. I like RodF's idea that this is a telephone box, as that is consistent with the amount of milled lumber and rusty metal scattered around. There just was not that much, so not likely associated with a room-sized structure. Fun to think that no one has been there for close to 90 years. Possibly.

[JonnyQuest]

And I thought it was a lint roller for goat fur...

[Klondike Ken]

Thank you for answering a couple-year-old question of mine too. I found a bunch of these graphite rods in the old burn pile at the site of the Strawberry Mountain Lookout. The lookout was located 12 miles NE of Mount St Helens, at the edge of the Tree Sear Zone, but was torn down well before the eruption. Nearby Strawberry Lake has a great ghost forest of trees killed standing, but it is quickly being hidden by new trees. The lookout site is on the boundary of the Volcanic Monument boundary. A science teacher friend thought they were battery parts, but was puzzled by their long length.

Dry cell graphite from Strawberry Mountain Lookout Mount St. Helens

Strawberry Mountain Lookout 1936 artist unknown MSHNVM

[Eric Willhite]

Just for clarification, in your picture, is that Kimta Peak on the right (even though it looks lower), with the trail that is dropping down (on the south side of Kimta) from the trail highpoint in that area?

[RAW-dad]

Nope. The true summit is off to the right out of the frame.