I couldn't help but laugh a little bit when I first heard of Poo Poo Point on the west side of Tiger Mountain near Issaquah. One day as I was working, we were hearing on the police scanner about a paraglider stuck in a tree near Poo Poo Point.
At the time I heard this, I thought Who would name a place Poo Poo? I'll freely admit my response was a bit juvenile.
Finding the answer wasn't easy. A search on the Internet revealed three similar results, but each with distinct differences.
I got my answer thanks to the Washington state Department of Natural Resources. According to one of the hiking guide books written by the late hiking and environmental advocate Harvey Manning, the name came courtesy of the logging industry about a century ago.
Loggers used whistles to communicate from the logging tower operator to the workers down the hill. According to the Issaquah Historical Society, the whistle would be a signal that two logs were tied to a cable, ready to be towed.
The whistle made a sound like poo poo, hence the name Poo Poo Point.
Today, Poo Poo Point is a popular launching location for paragliders. If you aren't feeling like that much of a daredevil, it's a great photo op for views of Lake Sammamish, the Cascades, Olympics and Seattle.
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