Late last year, a Chinese vase found in the attic of a house in London sold for
$83 million at an auction. Stories of other treasures discovered in storage –
baseball cards, paintings, furniture and more – can be heard on the TV during
episodes of “Antiques Roadshow.”

Who knows what’s stashed away in the corners of old houses?

One such discovery didn’t make the discoverer wealthy, but soon will be
treasured by visitors to Mount Hood: a plaque commemorating the first Magic
Mile chairlift, dedicated by Norway’s Crowned Prince Olaf on May 21, 1939.

Christy Covington, special uses permit coordinator for the Zigzag Ranger
District, learned about the plaque last year when a man called and said he
found it in his mother’s belongings as they were moving out of her house. The
man, who wishes to remain anonymous, offered to return it and after a series
of e-mails, he shipped it to Covington.

Originally placed at the first tower of the Magic Mile, the story behind the
disappearance of the brass plaque – measuring approximately 22.5 inches by
14.5 inches – is unknown.

“That’s the mystery,” Covington said. “We don’t know how it came to be in
the possession of this family.”

The Magic Mile is considered to be the first ski lift built and fabricated with
steel towers and was the first lift to serve Timberline Lodge. The present-day
towers are the third generation to be installed.

With the plaque’s place in Timberline’s history in mind, Covington plans on re-
installing it at the Silcox Hut, noting it also has a connection to the lift.

“When people go to stay up at Silcox, they don’t realize that was the original
terminus of the magic mile,” she said. “We want to show the history of that.”
“It’s another piece of the puzzle at Timberline that we can reconnect,” said Bill
Westbrook, district ranger. “It means a lot, I think.”

Unfortunately, the plaque is not the first historical treasure to disappear, or
even reappear, at or around Timberline Lodge. Covington reported that items
are discovered from time to time, although “not a lot” of property is taken.

“One year we got an ashtray back,” Covington said. “Somebody actually saw
it being sold on eBay and called us; and we got it back.”

The ashtray and the plaque are both government property, and Covington
said that people who steal such things could face jail time and a fine for their
actions.

But she also noted that they are happy to get things back and encourages
anyone with items from Timberline to return them, particularly because it will
celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2012.