Quiet now, an abandoned railroad bed winds its way across the prairieland of northwestern Iowa. Back in its heyday, huge freight and passenger trains rolled like thunder along this section of the Rock Island Road (much more familiarly known as the Chicago and North Western Railway here).
The demise of the Rock Island Railroad is a sad story - after a prolonged and eventually scrapped merger proposal it was basically forced into insolvency, and ceased operations in 1980, with much of its equipment and routes sold off to competing railroads. Some of its old rail lines are still in use today, however this section was closed and the ties and rails were removed. The upside is that there are plans to transform the old railbed into a continuation of the Ed Winkel Memorial Trail, eventually running from Sibley east to Superior.ROAM!!
This is a two part letterbox hybrid cache. Roam along the old railbed to the posted coordinates. There you will find a remnant of the railroad that will provide you with the coordinates to the letterbox container (look carefully). Cache contents include a stamp and logbook, a pencil, some trade items, a TB, and an un-activated traveler for the first finders, if they want it. The stamp is not a trade item, please do not take it. No ink pad is included, letterboxers should bring their own. This cache has been placed with permission from the Osceola County Conservation Board.