Babe
Ruth’s Piano
This is a 2 part multi cache that
will bring you to a very interesting location.
The legend of Babe Ruth’s
Piano has many variations. The one with the most credibility
comes from Curtis Garfield, Sudbury’s Town Historian.
Garfield writes that after Ruth joined the Red Sox in 1914, the
pitcher visited teammates who kept cottages “where they could
fish, hunt, and party without being disturbed.” Ruth later
rented a cottage on Willis Pond where friends would visit him every
weekend. One of these friends Ralph Sheridan, according to the
Boston Globe, remembers watching Ruth “try their skis on the
15-foot incline in front of the cottage”. ”Helen Ruth
spent time out with us frolicking and laughing at Babe trying to
ski and skate,’ Sheridan wrote. ‘After each visit we
were invited into the cottage for hot cocoa and cookies. Mrs. Ruth
would play the piano and we would all sing-along, including the
Babe.’”
One winter night while having a
party at his Willis Pond cottage, Ruth felt the room was getting
crowded and stuffy. He decided to open up the front doors and push
the piano he’d been playing outside. Well, he kept pushing
and the piano ended up on the ice while the party continued. When
it came time to return the piano to the cottage, it couldn’t
be done. The push uphill was simply too hard, even for the Babe!
That spring the ice melted and the piano ended up at the bottom of
WiIllis pond.
Shortly after this fateful night,
Ruth was sold to the Yankees and the Red Sox were unable to produce
a World Series win for the next 85 years. Many folks believed
that it was this infamous piano that had cursed the Red Sox.
Fortunately this “curse” was broken when the Red Sox
won a World Series in 2004, but the piano is still
missing! This cache will bring you to the spot where
the Babe partied with his friends and pushed his piano onto Willis
Pond.
The cache is located just outside
of the Assabet Wildlife Area. If
you choose to walk through the Assabet
Wildlife Area en route to the cache, please note that hunting is
permitted deep within the park at certain times of the year.
Also, please be careful near the cache site as there is an open
well.
There are 3 ways to approach this
site;
·
Park
at: N42 24.560 W071 26.958 (Old Marlboro
Rd) - Enter the Wildlife Area and take very grassy
trail on the left - This is the shortest and most direct route,
however the trail is overgrown with long grass and could be muddy
at times. (Approx 1.25 miles round trip)
·
Park
at: N42 23.707 W071
28.137 (Assabet Wildlife
Lot) - Enter the Wildlife Area, follow the road,
then bear right onto a grassy trail - This is the longest but
easiest route. (Approx 2.25 miles round trip)
·
Park
at: N42 23.655 W071
28.093 (Hudson Rd) - Take trail into the
woods and follow gas line - This is the most difficult route, but
it avoids the Wildlife Area. The path is overgrown and could
be under water at spots. (Approx 2 miles round
trip)
Note: This cache is different from
the original Babe Ruth’s Piano cache placed by Team
GeoDat in 2002. A new hide was
necessary after the original cache and Team GeoDat went missing. Special thanks goes to Team GeoDat for coming up with such an interesting
cache.