BAYVIEW - A mountaintop memorial to a Bayview man was untouched by the July wildfire that consumed Cape Horn.

Ray Eaton's wife, children and grandchildren made the hike up Cape Horn Mountain on July 5, 1991, to place the memorial with a plaque and Eaton's ashes. The plaque read: "May your ashes flow with the mountain breeze and mix with the sands of time."

Eaton's daughter, Karon Green, said something magical happened that day.

"As we walked to Dad's resting place, there were two eagles playing in the currents of the wind, as if to be waiting," Green said. "As we placed the ashes on the ground, the eagles each screeched and swooped down to the earth as if to carry the spirit of Dad away into the heavens above."

Dawn Freeman, Eaton's granddaughter, said her family believes the eagles were there to comfort them and let them know Eaton was OK and watching over them.

Exactly 24 years to the day the memorial was placed, a wildfire swept over the mountain. The Cape Horn blaze was detected July 5, 2015, and spread across 1,326 acres before it was contained.

Tyler Nimke, a representative of Stimson Lumber Co. was sent in to assess the damage to timber owned by the company on Cape Horn.

He stumbled across something that amazed him.

Attached to a tree surrounded by charred ground was Eaton's memorial, still on the tree, untouched by the fire.

Nimke snapped some pictures of the plaque and searched Facebook for any information he could find about its origin. After posting pictures and a brief explanation, Nimke heard from Freeman, who had been contacted by a friend who saw Nimke's social media post.

"The memorial means so much to our family, to know that grandpa is always up there, watching over all of us," Freeman said. "It makes us feel safe and also there is a feeling of peace."

Freeman said Eaton was a strong man, a good husband, an amazing father and "a one-of-a-kind grandpa."

Eaton moved to Idaho from Nebraska as a young teen. When he was 22 he married Alice Hammond.

Alice, now 90, grew up in Bayview. She went to school in Athol, walking 8 miles from home and back each day. Alice was a teen when the naval base was built at Farragut, when Bayview was a tent city for young sailors. She recalled hearing "row, row, row," echo through the town as Navy men in boats made their way across the lake.

The Eatons made a life together, raising their family on Cape Horn Road.

Alice still lives there. She was evacuated with other Bayview residents when the wildfire burned the mountain, and gave up any hope that Ray's memorial would survive the fire.

She said she didn't know what to bring with her when she had to leave.

"I had my daughter grab my pictures. It's all I had of my husband left," Alice said.

She was already worried for her friend of 40 years, Marlene Irwin, who days before the fire suffered a massive stroke and was taken to the hospital. Alice said Irwin's home was lost in the fire, and days later Irwin passed away, never knowing the fate of her home.

With devastation all around her, Alice and her family assumed the memorial was gone. Ray's beautiful spot couldn't have made it through the fire.

"What an emotional few days," Freeman said. "There are still moments that my family is just amazed how the fire burned all around it and even up the side of the tree that the plaque was on but didn't touch the plaque."