 'G' Is For Ghost Town
A cache by Buxley Hidden: 11/3/2001
Size:  (Regular) Difficulty:  Terrain: (1 is easiest, 5 is hardest)
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Seventh in my series of alphabetic caches. This one takes you
through a quicksilver mining town that is just a ghost of its
former self.
 The mining town of New Idria grew up around local
cinnabar deposits, a reddish ore that contains mercury
(quicksilver) that was used in the processing of silver. In the
1880s New Idria reached its peak, employing between 200 and 300 men
to mine the valuable ore. Today, many of the ore processing
buildings, the general store, the Mine Rescue station, and the post
office are all still standing. The town is not completely abandoned
however; the sign welcoming people to New Idria indicates that its
population is three. Yes, three. The structures that still stand
probably outnumber the population by ten to one.
Important note: All buildings in New Idria are
private property; you may not enter any of them. I spoke to
two-thirds of the town's population(!) and they had no problems
with people coming into town and taking pictures of the buildings
as long as visitors stick to the roads (which are all public.) Both
they, and the numerous "No Trespassing" signs, did make it clear
however that entering the buildings is not allowed. You do not have enter any man-made structure or area to
find this cache.
Continue through the town and up the road above it in search of the
cache. Four-wheel drive vehicles are not required, but you
will have to drive carefully in a few spots. The roads leading to
New Idria from the north are in remarkably good condition, but they
get a little rough starting about a mile before the cache. The last
mile or so is probably impassable after a heavy rain. Because of
the roads and the distance you'll most likely have to drive to get
to New Idria, I've rated the terrain and difficulty fairly high.
You can park within feet of your goal though and you won't have to
hike to get to the cache.
The cache itself is a green ammo box. Its initial
contents are:
- a Geocache welcome message (laminated)
- a log book with pen and pencil
- a disposable camera
- LEGO minifigs of R2-D2 and C-3PO
- a SJ Sharky plush doll from the T in the
Road cache
- "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
- a brass whistle
- a sealed pack of Cinnamon Altoids (always!)
- a purple carabiner keychain
- a Pokemon spinning top (Gengar)
- a red van
- a Giants rubber ducky from Florian's Pacific
Valley cache
- an underwater camera (a goodie to be taken as well as a hint
for my next cache!)
- a chunk of pumice from the Mojave Desert
- a Wallace & Gromit toy
- a $1000 bill
Take a picture of yourself and post a message with how many
pictures are left so I can develop the film and post the pictures
on my web site. Hidden within the cache itself is a clue that will
help you find a forthcoming mystery geocache.
Have fun and be sure to bring your camera! There is a historical
marker for New Idria that's quite a distance away from the cache at
N 36° 43.749 W 121° 16.740, but you may be coming from that
direction anyway. Somewhat closer to the cache is an adobe building
at N 36° 26.306 W 120° 39.535 that's worth checking
out.
On January 19th 2002, this cache
was reported as missing. Until I get a change to replace it, you
may treat this as a virtual cache provided you can locate the
"Dwarven Door" at this spot and tell me, via email, what symbol is
painted upon it. Do NOT state the symbol in your log, even if you
encrypt it. Thanks!
Other caches in this series: 'A' Is
For Alum, 'B' Is
For Beachhead, 'C' Is
For Cave Dwellers, 'D' Is
For Desert Phone Booth, 'E' Is
For Expedition, 'F' Is
For Faultline, and 'H' Is
For Highpoint.
Thanks to Julie for helping me place this cache!
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8 user(s) watching this cache.
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Additional Hints (Decrypt)
Ybbx qbja.(Decrypted Hints)
Find...
58 
1 
2
Warning. Spoilers may be included in the descriptions or links.
Cache find counts are based on the last time the page generated.
 December 9, 2009 by Abraxas (906 found)
The mountains were still covered in snow from two nights prior, even as far down as the door. I parked very close to "town" and hiked up the road to here en route to the county high point. I thought the "Dwarven Door" would be smaller.
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June 12, 2009 by debnchris24 (359 found)
Boy was this a fun and challenging one to get!! We have been talking about going down to get this one and all the others along the way for sometime now. We decided to go today because the weather was great. If we waited any longer we knew how hot it would be, so we made a geocaching day trip. The high temp was 77... perfect!! It was a longer drive than I thought, but I know that has to do with all the stops for the other caches along the way. We got up there late afternoon. It was very cool! Looking at some of the pictures that others had posted almost 9 years ago when this cache was placed, it is sad to see how all the buildings are so much worse off. I wish people would respect history and not feel like they need to destroy it. The trip up the hill was a challenge. Our GPS had us go up Clear Creek Rd instead of the other road where the mine is located. We have a 4WD, I wouldn't attempt this road without it. Because of the closures in the Clear Creek area, we didn't attempt the Old View cache, but unknowingly, we were probably just around the bend from it when we turned back. Anyway, we had brought a picnic lunch with us and parked on the road in the middle of the town, put a blanket on the ground and had a great meal which was dinner at this point! ;-) After we ate, I was ready to go. The boy really wanted to go find the cache (door). It was getting late and I knew it was going to be a long drive home, but reluctantly agreed to one more try. When we got up the road again, I went left instead of right (Molly, our GPS wasn't happy...) and continued up the road. Even though this road wasn't on the GPS, I could see we were going in the right direction. Very cool when we finally got there. Thanks for putting a cache here! It gave us incentive to finally get up here. It was the most challenging cache to date and really worth the trip! I will post some of the pictures that we took on our adventure.
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March 8, 2009 by jtbrew14u (628 found)
Almost a year since last logged. Cool place. I havn't been out here for over twenty years. Pretty rough rd. for a two wheel drive vehicle. Went on up a ways and decided that it would be best not to push our luck. Took some great photos in the area.TFTH
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March 21, 2008 by yofoghorn (244 found)
Well, sorry to see that the cache is gone. Still an awesome spot. What is that white stuff in the water? I know the orange is Cinnabar, but what about the white up by your cache?[This entry was edited by yofoghorn on Tuesday, July 01, 2008 at 1:17:44 PM.]
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March 19, 2008 by skliewer (4 found)
What an interesting site. The "Dwarven" door is very intriguing. Sorry the cache has disappeared.
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Current Time: 2/9/2010 2:36:28 PM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) (10:36 PM GMT)
Last Updated: 12/9/2009 9:54:35 PM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) (5:54 AM GMT)
Rendered: From Database
Coordinates are in the WGS84 datum
