Paul Powell's Shoebox

You must be logged in with an account to view the detailed Location Information. It's free!

N/S ? ??.??? W/E ??? ??.???  [] In Illinois, United States

Print: [5 Logs] [10 Logs] |

Download: [Read About Waypoint Downloads]

| | |

Please note: To use the services of geocaching.com, you must agree to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

One of the most notorious caches in Springfield history was Paul Powell's shoebox. This two-stage geocache is a tip of the hat to Illinois' many corrupt politicians.

Some of you may be too young to remember this story. Personally, I was just a lad when Paul Powell died and his cache of cash was discovered. I placed this geocache on October 5, 2002. Powell would have been 100 years old now but he died 32 years ago, almost to the day. So who was this guy?

Paul Powell was born in Vienna, Illinois on January 21, 1902. He was a big wheel in the Illinois Democratic Party since WWII. Eventually, he became Illinois Secretary of State during the same year I was born, 1965. In 1966, his office was investigated for corruption; he was exonerated, but his chief investigator was indicted for theft of state funds. He was still in office when he died in Rochester, Minnesota on October 10, 1970. Shortly thereafter, a shoebox full of money was found in his room at the St. Nicholas Hotel here in Springfield—the infamous cache.

The famous Paul Powell shoebox was actually more than one box, and not all were shoeboxes. There were also metal boxes, briefcases, and envelopes. This treasure trove—roughly $800,000 in cash—was discovered two days after he died, when Powell's staff and his estate executor gathered his belongings from the hotel room and storage area. The other, less famous findings included 49 cases of whiskey, 14 transistor radios, and two cases of creamed corn. This guy was prepared; for what, I don't know.

The St. Nicholas Hotel property has changed hands several times. It has not been a hotel for many years. Chicago developer Irving Barr purchased the St. Nick in 1999 for $2.5 million at a bankruptcy auction. Gee, if Paul had invested that $800k, it would be worth about $16 million by now. That's a lot of St. Nicks!

So, about this geocache. The posted coordinates will take you to the St. Nicholas Hotel. At this spot, you are looking for fancy awning on the west side. Count the number of light bulbs under the awning. Let this be X. Now look over the doors and count the number of "urns" that are over the doors. [Note: It seems that both of the "urns" fell off. Until the pair gets replaced, you'll need to guess how many there were. Checksum: Your total of urns and bulbs should be lucky 13.] This will be F. Now for some calculations:

A = F + 1
B = F - 1
C = X - 7
D = F + F - C
E = X - 6

Plug those values into the coordinates below to find the final geocache:

N 39° 47.ABA'
W 89° CD.EEF'

Of course, you are looking for a shoebox but it is inside a .30 cal ammo can, with a geocaching.com label. Please rehide it with the label side UP and cover it well. The original contents included:

• Souvenir Paul Powell money (1 per family please)
• "Where's George Dollar"
• Shark pencil toppers
• Marvin the Martian
• Mouse pad
• Plastic walking guy
• Crazy Eights card game
• Seattle radio station stickers
• The Lock-a-Bye, Baby! Travel Bug

Additional Hints ( Decrypt ) 

Decryption Key
A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z
(letter above equals below,
and vice versa)

[FIRST WAYPOINT:] JRFG FVQR BS FG. AVPX [GEOCACHE:] ORUVAQ (JRFG) YNETR GERR, ARNEYL GUERR SRRG VA QVNZRGRE, HAQRE YRNIRF, GJVTF, VIL (Decrypted Hints)

Find...

• ...other caches hidden or found by this user
• ...hotels near Springfield

Original contents of the geocache

The shoebox

SEMI SPOILER: Social trail is behind here.

The geocache is not on the social trail, but near it.

Logged Visits ( 203 total. Visit the Gallery (8 images) )

161

22

16

1

1

1

1

Cache Logs

November 14 by rcawley (282 found) We found this one a while ago but aparentlyu never logged the find. TFTC [view this log]

August 29 by susanron (4247 found) Well a little more help w/ the numbers would have saved us time. Oh well. T4TC SL [view this log]

August 4 by Piglet209 (2656 found) The cache page is a good read - I enjoyed it thoroughly so I had to try the cache as well. Everything works out great mathwise, and the coords are very good. Cache is well-stocked and dry. All around great execution on this multi! Surprised to see GO John and Carol on the log as they are from my hometown of Oswego 150 miles north of here. I guess they like to travel as much as I do. Thanks for the nice job on this fun multi. [view this log]

July 18 by geecmom (386 found) Found the tree, found the trail, found lots and lots of sticks, leaves, and ivy, found two tennis balls, found a jar of dried up paint (I think), but didn't find the cache. In the process, I'm afraid I left a number of local spiders homeless as I checked out every possible hiding place in the immediate vicinity. Oh well, it livened up their afternoon. Could this one possibly be missing? I ran out of time to look any further today, but I'll try again. [view this log]

July 1 by osmond4 (238 found) After searching & searching & searching.... we finally found it. My GPSr was all over the place Thanks for the cache and the history lesson ~Osmond4 [view this log]

Current time: 11/21/2009 7:04:34 PM
Last Updated: 11/14/2009 6:57:29 PM
Rendered: From Database
Coordinates are in the WGS84 datum