Pictures of flooding in the Mineral area

The Elbe bridge over the Nisqually:

East Creek in Pleasant Valley:

Kootney Creek in Pleasant Valley:

Mineral Creek:

Baby, it’s cold outside

It’s been a cold winter for Mineral. The lake is even starting to freeze over, and Alder Lake is looking pretty solid, too.

On Wednesday, we got a substantial snowfall.

Oh, and for the kids sledding down the road at the cemetery? Not a good plan. That’s a blind hill, and if it’s slick enough for sledding, it’s too slick to stop well.

More pictures below.

Santa and the new fire truck

Mineral got a new fire truck just in time for Santa to borrow it and go around to visit all the kids in Mineral.

Famous, at least in Tacoma

Did you see that The News Tribune had a big picture of the Snowball Express on the front of the local news section?

It’s nice to know that they sent a photographer out to take that picture.

There’s also a long writeup on Eatonville resident Josh Morgan, who was hit by a falling tree during Thursday’s storm. It sounds like Michele and Jeff Canlas saved his life. It pays to know who around you has medical training, because the phones aren’t always available, as we’ve seen. And here in Mineral, when the phones are out, we can’t rely on the cell network.
In other good news, officials up at the park say that the road up to Paradise will look almost the same.  I hope that I will have time to go on the walking tour of damage and get some pictures.

And finally, the Soundlife section had a great story about things to do in Ashford. For instance, did you know that Catt Creek Road has some play potential for families? We’ve always gone up to Paradise, but that is looking difficult this year, so I am happy to have an alternative for all our snowball and kiddie-sledding needs. There’s a plug for Dan Klennert’s sculpture park. If you think that name sounds familiar, he did the gates at the Mineral Lake Storage facility, and the barbeque-thing up at the Event Center, AND the dinosaur outside the McDonald’s across the road from the South Hill Fred Meyer. His onsite stuff is even more fun. My particular favorite is the motorcycle that incorporates an old sewing machine.

I didn’t know that Ashford has scheduled a series of holiday events, but I am excited about them:

Saturday: National Park Interpretive Seminar at Wellspring Spa, 7 p.m.

Dec. 26: Comedy and Magic Show at Nisqually Lodge, 7 p.m.

Dec. 27: Mountaineering movie night at Nisqually Lodge, 7 p.m.

Dec. 28: Mountaineering game night at Nisqually Lodge, 7 p.m.

Dec. 30: National Park Interpretive Seminar at Copper Creek Inn, 7 p.m.

Cost: Free.

More info: Go online to mt-rainier.com, or call 1-877-617-9950.

Pictures of windstorm damage

I have taken some pictures of the windstorm damage to Mineral. If you have others, please send them to mineralledger@gmail.com and I’ll upload them.

As bflynn said, Mineral was remarkably lucky to get power back so quickly, and that no one was injured. Hey, at least most people around here know how to use a chainsaw safely!

As of Sunday morning, it sounds like some Mineral residents were still without power, those in the  easternmost part of town. Eatonville got power back on Sunday, and by Monday, South Hill was no longer a nightmare of uncontrolled intersections. We’re recovering really well, but I think we are all ready for our usual winter.

I am putting the pictures below a links so dial-up users can take this on their own time.

Link sausage

These are things that I’ve found while doing research for this blog.

Did you know there is a mystery novel about Mineral? It’s called Nobody Drowns in Mineral Lake. You can buy it from Amazon. Although reading the reviews, it’s obviously fictional. “Mineral Police Department” indeed!

There’s also an academic paper on pollen. As near as I can tell, it says that during the ice age, Mineral was tundra, but about 7,000 years ago, it started looking like it does now.

Here’s a pretty picture from the far side of the lake, looking toward the Resort.

Mineral Festivities, Tree Lighting

I am splitting the posts up because I know that not all of you have fast connections to view photos over. I’ll tell you the story, and then you can click the link below to see the photographs.

At about 4:30, a bunch of people wandered down to the Lion’s Campground to stand by the big Christmas tree. Parents attempted to prevent their children from playing with the guy wires, and Stan distributed firewood for small contained bonfires.

The brand-new fire truck came by. Goodness, it’s shiny and modern. I will try to get a picture for you sometime when it’s not dark. The dedication for it is supposed to be sometime in mid-January.

Then we all wandered down to the lakefront and sang songs while Santa, on his pontoon boat with one reindeer orbited out in the lake. Evidently, the fish are on his good-kid list. The low-boy trailer arrived. Reports indicate that it has 10,000 lights, two real Christmas trees (not counting the one on the grill), and a generator to run it all. It was very impressive. I was also impressed that they could maneuver it into the campground even though someone had parked the entrance in a bit.

All the kids hung out by the lake, and the grown-ups slightly further back. Santa finally docked, and we followed him back up to the tree. The tree was lit, and then Santa spent some time talking to the kids. Afterwards, a bunch of us climbed onto the low-boy and got to ride back to the school. Kids got to take turns saying Merry Christmas over the PA system. All the lights at the school Event Center were on, and it was a very festive sight.

Reports from the brunch on Saturday at the Event Center indicate that the Alaskan Grill is up to its usual excellent standards. You can go this weeked and sample for yourself, and do some shopping at the Holiday Bazaar.

Follow this link for pictures:

Report on the Christmas festivities in Mineral

Did you all see that Mineral’s tree-lighting made the front page of the Eatonville Dispatch. They have pictures, so go look!

Before that, it was the first day for the Snowball Express to run out of Mineral.

Here is the train as it arrives down by the lake:

Santa passes out candy canes to all the kids waiting to talk to him:

We all loaded up on the train, and steamed out toward Murray yard, then backed up to go out to the Divide. You could see a lot of the flooding damage on the Cowlitz.

Rumor has it that the afternoon trains are selling out quickly, so if you and your kids want to spend a pleasant couple hours, contact the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad soon!

Oh, and I should mention for people who have been on it before that I think MRSR has pulled out every piece of rolling stock they have that rolls! I had never seen the plushy 40’s era car that we were in before. It is, as scenic trains go, pretty long. For those of you with kids like mine, this is a blessing, because you can be inside and far away from the whistle, so they don’t spend the whole trip with their hands over their ears.

The characters of Mineral

Back when I was in college in New England, it was always fun to try to explain to my Massachusan classmates what Mineral was like. I often told them the stories about the funny signs that Mineralites had posted — whether they were intended to be funny or not, I never knew.

Here’s a web site I set up, many years ago, with pictures of the signs and a description of Mineral.

http://tiltedworld.com/brenda/mineral.html

Snow over Mineral Lake

Snow over Mineral Lake

Originally uploaded by ly.chand.

This is a test of posting pictures from Flickr. This is a snowy shot of Mineral Lake, taken by ly.chand on February 20th of 2006.