The last coin telescope on Lake Hollis Bluff

LAKE HOLLIS — At the end of the gravel turnout on Hollis Bluff Road stands a green coin-operated telescope that, by most accounts, has been there longer than the turnout.

It takes quarters. It gives you about ninety seconds of the far shore, which on a clear day includes the water tower at Grebe Point and on a very clear day includes a second water tower nobody has been able to identify.

Who keeps it running

Earl Mattson, 81, has emptied the coin box every Sunday since 1979. He says the telescope earns about four dollars a week in summer and "whatever the wind brings" in winter. The money goes to the bluff cemetery's flower fund.

"People ask me what they're looking at," Mattson said. "I tell them it's the other side. That's usually enough."

In the photograph

Above, we would show you the telescope at dusk, with Mattson's thumb on the coin slot and the lake behind him turning the color of a nickel. The Beat's photo budget did not stretch this week, so please picture it. It looked exactly like that.

The telescope is free on the first Sunday of the month, when Mattson leaves it unlocked. He asks only that you look at the second water tower and tell him if you figure it out.