[OlympicExplorer]

A few people on here are aware of the old homestead property at the end of Palo Alto Rd, including myself. I was recently looking over Google Topographic maps and noticed an odd/out of place opening in the trees northwest of Schmith Knob. Across the Dungeness River (west side of bank) you can clearly see a large/flat opening in the forest. Zooming in, it very apparent that a large pond is at the south end of the field/opening. To me, this appears to look man-made and the area looks to be oddly graded flat. I have not personally investigated this spot with boots on ground. Looking at forestry maps, the closest road is 2870 (west side of Dungeness/Grey Wolf). In theory a person could navigate an abandoned logging road down into this place. My original thought was that this might be private property, but it shows on maps as USFS land. Could this be another Schmith homestead property across the Dungeness River? If anymore has explored this area, I’d love to know the history.

[IanB]

Topography might suggest an old lake almost completely filled with sediment and decayed organic matter and transitioning into meadow?

[onthefly]

Looks a lot like a bog to me. You can see small pools of water here and there in addition to the big pond. It looks really flat because of the way floating mats of vegetation settled on the surface of the bog.