Chilliwack: the "Heart of the Valley" is made up of 14 Villages - In this series of 14 caches we will introduce you to each of those Villages. When you have solved the puzzle for all 14 of the caches your smiley faces will produce the shape of a heart in the Eastern portion of Chilliwack. In each of the 14 caches you will find information which you must record in order to find the Final cache in this series, the "Heart of Hearts" cache.
We hope you enjoy your trip around the area and the cache locations we have selected for this series. Have fun and if possible involve the whole family in solving the puzzles and finding the caches, they are meant to be "family friendly".
A drive along Ryder Lake roads reveals a landscape that reflects a past of logging and stump farming. Ancient cedar stumps sit close to cleared acreage. In the early 1890s, the Parsons, Walters, McLellans families and John Ryder moved to the area and began clearing land. Their self-sufficient farms were located adjacent to today’s Ryder Lake, Extrom and Elk View Roads. By 1909, the area's population was large enough that Parson's Hill School was built near the intersection of Ryder Lake and Extrom Road.
Beginning in 1916, logging became a focus for the community. Shingle mills and later small sawmills provided local employment opportunities for some residents. Others supplemented incomes cutting cordwood or working in the hop and logging industries in the Valley.
By the mid 1930s, a second school, on Huston Road, and a community hall, on Ryder Lake Road, provided additional ingredients to create the sense of community that still characterizes Ryder Lake today.
Jack Woodroff, a Ryder Lake resident, remembered the 1930s in an earlier interview; "We had everything we wished, outside of money. We had no money.…We had our own chickens, cows, milk, cream, cheese, butter and vegetables. It was all canned. We had our own meat, we had everything we wished as far as eating and we never had a hungry day in all the whole time." (Chilliwack Archives, Add. MSS. 422).
The name, Ryder Lake, commemorating early resident John Ferris Ryder, was chosen in 1925 with the arrival of the first post office. The lake that can be glimpsed through trees off Ryder Lake Road was located on land originally owned by Ryder. Today Ryder Lake retains its rural character. The annual Ryder Lake ramble held in June reminds us all of the value of preserving a rural lifestyle.
All information was obtained from the Chilliwack Museum and Archives Website- Visit them "here"
In order to find this cache you will have to find the following information.
N49 06.ABC W121 52.DE7
A. Last number in the year logging became a focus.
B. Last number in the year Ryder Lake was named -1.
C. How many schools existed prior to the mid 1930's.
D. The number of community halls in Ryder Lake plus 4..
E. Second number in the year John Ryder moved to area.
You can check your answers at the link below.
