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Chuck Johnson, Fairbanks, AK is the winner!

Castle Rock is the answer for Week 427 of Orofino History Trivia a special feature to celebrate the history and heritage of Clearwater Country.

Join in the discovery!

Monday: North Fork of the Clearwater River

Tuesday: Long ago, it had a nest on top of it.

Wednesday: It goes down into the water.

Castle Rock on the east side of the North Fork of the Clearwater River is about half a mile downstream from Pack Creek. It has also been known as Eagle Rock, according to The Clearwater Story by Ralph Space.

It was first known as Eagle Rock because of supposed eagle's nst on top of it. However, Space says that Walter Sewell told him that it was actually an osprey's nest. The nest area was burned in the 1919 fire that burned the Bungalow area and never rebuilt.

Many people assume that this name came from the shape of the rock, but it was actually named for Ralph Castle, a trail foreman who carved his name and the date in the rock when a trail was blasted through it. The rock goes straight down into the river, so the trail was carved into it.

An attempt to build a road during CCC days has halted near Castle Rock because of the hard work and expense involved in drilling and shooting a road through this hard, quartzite rock. The road ended there until Space came to the forest in 1954.

In 1955, it was decided to build a road downriver from the Bungalow at the mouth of Orogrande Creek. However, engineers soon ran into problems deciding what to do with Castle Rock. There were two choices, blast the rock or build it by filling out into the river. Space decided that blasting the rock was not a good option because there was a fault line or cleavage at the back and it was possible that blasting would cause it to break off and fall into the river. He decided that the rock should not be disturbed.

Space said in his book that if you look closely, Castle's name is still visible at the edge of the road.

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Window on the Clearwater
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Orofino, ID 83544
Orofino 476 0733
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