The Prime Meridian Traditional Geocache
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BoJaB volunteer reviewer for Florida
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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THE PRIME MERIDIAN
Few of the early settlers of Tallahassee realized the importance of the beginning of public land surveys as readily as the new officialdom of the Territory. Governor William Pope Duval and Territorial Secretary, George Walton, recognized that the land titles of all settlers had to be clear and firm before anyone would risk life and limb on the frontier of Florida. When the orders for the institution of the surveys began, the Surveyor General or Florida, Robert Butler, had only been recently appointed and his staff and surveyors were not yet in place. Because Governor Duval was in St. Marks on an important mission to negotiate with the Indians, it left George Walton to assume the duties of placing the beginning point for the official land surveys.
There is the old legend that tells of the stone being hauled on a wagon to the point designated by the Secretary and falling off about 200 yards short of the point. However, whether this may or may not have been the case, it is immaterial to the actual location of the point of origin. Once the point was set and the surveys begun, the exact point hypothetically put down by Walton is of no value.
The first contract to survey for the prime meridian went to Benjamin Clements of Tennessee, a surveyor of vast experience, on the 16th of November 1824. Clements took his crew, which included his son Hosea, and began running the Prime Meridian. The job performed by Clements was the beginning line of all property lines in the State of Florida. It is at this very point of origin that all individual's property descriptions in this state begin, hence the very importance of this marker. Clements did his work well and accurately.
The city of Tallahassee, the site of an early native American village, also begins with this marker. Not until the marker was laid down and the surveys began could Benjamin Tennile lay out the pattern that became the central core of the Capital City. The Capital Square, part of the original quarter-section alloted to the town, was the center point of Tennile's plan. The town was surrounded be a 200 foot strip of land, cleared for the open fire upon any approaching enemy, especially the followers of Neamathela, upon whose land the capitol was raised. Indeed, some of Robert Butler's first dispatches were carried north by Indian courier. The major remnant of that 200 foot cleared strip is today's Park Street.
So much of the history of this State is tied to the Prime Meridian marker. All property designations begin here, all surveys begin here, the Capital City begins here and the famous Lafayette Land Grant also begins here. To honor and financially repair the fortunes of the Marquis de Lafayette, the Government gave him one of the first townships created. 1 North and 1 East, the corner of which begins right here! As one of three large land grants given by the Federal government to the Marquis, it represents part of the Revolutionary heritage of our country and ties this site to something sacred to all Americans.
The cords listed above are to the actual hidden cache, the cords listed here N 30 26.069, W 084 16.626 will take you to the Prime Meridian the real reason for coming to this park.
PLEASE! NO bubbles, they make a mess of the cache
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gurer jrer ab rttf va gur arfg.