The Oregon Surveyor July/August 2018

19 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org The Lost Surveyor mountain on this adventure, I did make a quick trip off of Highway 101 to locate and visit the final resting place of Simon Bolivar Cathcart. Cell phone technology is an amaz- ing thing. Cruising south on I-5 we located Cathcart’s obituary, grave location, and his- tory and navigated our route on the fly. His grave is located in the northwest quadrant of the Coos River Cemetery on the South Fork of the Coos River. This cemetery also appears as the South Fork Cemetery de- pending on which map you refer to. His headstone and that of a child remain in tact, however, the headstone of his wife has been severely damaged at some point in the past. With Mount Bolivar, the south coast has a surveyor’s landmark with quite a history in their midst. Next time you are down that way set aside some extra time to visit and give a salute to Simon Bolivar Cathcart, Coos County Surveyor and Civ- il War Veteran. A challenge from the author—In research- ing this story I found that the USDA Forest Service Rogue River-Siskiyou National For- est site claims Mount Bolivar to not only be the highest point in Coos County, but the highest point in the Coast Range at 4,319 feet. Now remembering back to my youth at good old OSU College of Forestry, I had always been told that Mary’s Peak in Ben- ton County was the highest peak in the Coast Range… Sure enough the USDA For- est Siuslaw National Forest website claims that Mary’s Peak is the highest point in the Coast Range at 4,097 feet (4,101 feet on Wikipedia)! A 222 foot difference! We’ll get to the challenge only after you get over laughing about the lack of com- munication in government and facts like the highest peak is always the one you can drive to the top of, etc... Now some web- sites do recognize Mount Bolivar as the highest peak in the Coast Range, but here is the challenge. I have thrown out a lot of ideas in this col- umn about things that PLSO could take on for projects that included fixing mon- uments, correcting museum displays and general community goodwill, but to my knowledge none of them have ever been acted on. This, however, is an EXPEDITION in themaking for a few hearty souls to drive to the top of Mary’s Peak (stop laughing!) with their GPS in hand and then hike the 1.4 mile trail to the top of Mount Bolivar and finally set the record straight. PLSO could get some good PR out of this one and put Coos County on the map so to speak. Are you up to the challenge this time? I’m in! x