Mary Alice conceived the concept in an effort to highlight the rich history of Crystal Lake. Her extensive research took her on a journey that included historic locations like the El Tovar Vaudeville Theater .....
Check out the "stage curtains" on this cache....
and The Crystal Lake Pickling and Preserving Works . The pickle barrel was a fun concept....
Each cache page is loaded with interesting facts, descriptions and history about that unique location. Click on any of the links that I'm providing and you will be taken to the cache pages so you can at least check out some of the history for yourself. The 12 geocaches take you on a tour of discovery around the town. Learn about the original Crystal Lake volunteer fire department ....
or delight in the tales told by siblings Violet and Almeda who were born in the early 1900's and lived their entire lives in Crystal Lake. Read about a devastating tornado in 1965.....
For the Union Soldier Revisited cache you have to visit a memorial and take information from it in order to figure out the cache co-ordinates. The monument was very cool but I think the most interesting aspect was that the company name was mis-spelled on it. Can you find it?
Learn all kinds of cool things about the history of telephones....
The details for the Sears Kit Homes cache was the most extensive. In order to claim that geocache you had to drive through a neighborhood and match addresses to specific Sears kit homes. This cache was definitely the hardest, but it was also fun to see all the different styles of homes in the same neighborhood....
Find out how the library got it's start with 200 books in the year 1913 and visit the current library in the process....
My favorite cache of the series was Let's Go Fishing. It was a cute cache container with a unique twist before you could open it....
Now, another aspect for this series of caches is that you had to print out a master sheet. Each cache had a log book to sign and a Code Word that you have to copy down onto your master sheet. I'll show you an example, but I'm not showing you the code word....
Once you completed all the geocaches and gathered all the code words on your master sheet, you actually get a prize. Mary Alice had 250 geocoins printed up to honor Crystal Lakes centennial anniversary. For anyone who collects geocoins, like me, this was a real bonus! The coins are trackable, meaning they have tracking numbers on them if you want to leave them in caches for other geocachers to move around for you. But in my case, I keep all mine safely at home. Here's what the coins look like.....
It's a beautiful coin and it was a thrill to earn it and add it to my collection....
So many geoachers have already completed the series that less than 20 coins are left to be claimed. After that, the series will still be available to do, you just won't get a coin when you complete it.
I did a blog post a few years ago about another series of geocaches in Crystal Lake and you can go here if you want to read about them as well.
We had a great time driving around Crystal Lake and doing this great cache series. Mary Alice did a fantastic job and believe me, it was a lot of work for her to do. But as she said to me, "It was a labor of love." If you'd like to hear more about the series and what all went into creating it, come back on Wednesday for my interview with Mary Alice.
How fun to learn a lot of history while having fun geocaching!
ReplyDeleteAnd that's exactly what I like so much about geocaching!
DeleteWe did this series along with Kim. Definitely worthwhile and very informative about the area. Getting a geocoin for completing was an extra bonus and an incentive to finish it. Mary Alice, thanks for all your hard work
ReplyDeleteLooks like a good time
ReplyDelete