Rock inscribed on Pikers Peak, Mt Adams

Rock inscribed on Pikers Peak, Mt Adams

Arthur Jone's 1923 inscription at Pikers Peak
Malibu
on Aug 8, 2009 4:15 pm
Image Type(s): Alpine Climbing
Image ID: 538505

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lcarreau

lcarreau - Aug 10, 2009 9:17 pm - Voted 10/10

Who was Arthur Jones?

A miner? A climber? A miner who liked to climb? What is a piker ...

Is there a story behind this?

Deltaoperator17

Deltaoperator17 - Aug 10, 2009 9:35 pm - Voted 10/10

Re: Who was Arthur Jones?

Piker via Websters:

one who does things in a small way! Arthur Jones was the lookout guard for the mining company and he inscribed the rocks at Pikers Peak. Tale was he taunted the hikers and climbers out of boredom. Further tale tells us he went missing and they never found his body.

lcarreau

lcarreau - Aug 10, 2009 10:13 pm - Voted 10/10

Re: Who was Arthur Jones?

What were they mining for? Sulphur?

I remembered smelling sulphur the last time I
climbed Adams.

They really had it tough back then.

Deltaoperator17

Deltaoperator17 - Aug 11, 2009 12:10 am - Voted 10/10

Re: Who was Arthur Jones?

Yes but they failed.

Malibu

Malibu - Aug 11, 2009 10:09 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Who was Arthur Jones?

Pretty much what Steve said. The building at the summit was originally a fire lookout that was begun in 1918 and took 3 summers to haul material up to and build. It was abandoned as a lookout after 2 years of operation because it was too impractical. That would have been around 1923, the summer Arthur made his mark. From what I read, he worked as a fire watcher and that the sulfur mining came later. That idea, too, was abandoned as impractical.

Malibu

Malibu - Aug 11, 2009 10:51 am - Hasn't voted

Interesting web page...

http://www.firelookout.com/wa/mtadams.html

lcarreau

lcarreau - Aug 11, 2009 12:00 pm - Voted 10/10

Re: Interesting web page...

Thanks! I climbed Mt. Adams with my brother
in 1983, and I've never heard of this until
now.

For some reason, we didn't see the fire tower. It must have been covered with snow.

Viewing: 1-7 of 7