Oral history recounts that in the summer of 1883 a family was alerted by the screams of a small child playing outdoors at the base of Eagles Nest.
The great eagle that had nested on the brink of the precipice in a large pine as long as anyone could remember had snatched the child from the safety of his yard trying to carry him off into flight.
Family members fought off the avian attacker with brooms, rakes and other implements until it released the toddler from its talons, saving the child from what would have been certain death.
Local vigilantes determined this would never happen again and set out to empty the eagle’s nest of its eggs.
A young boy was lowered to the nest on a rope from above and the eggs destroyed and as the story goes, the eagle family returned no more to the nest.
Today, while there are no eagle nests in the park, local birdwatchers periodically see eagles from the Hawkwatch Platform, especially in winter.
This is just one of a number of versions of this story, none which may be based in fact!
