Welcome To Holy City! Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Nomex: No response from owner. If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact us (by email), and assuming it meets the current guidelines, we'll be happy to unarchive it.

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Hidden : 9/19/2012
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

After you drive down that windy road, go for a walk to discover what remains of Holy City. Explore the time-worn garage that still exists by way of sheer hope, along with well placed spit & tape, I'm sure!
Then stand near the fence that stands between you & the open meadow in order to see what you'll find.

Welcome To Holy City!  This is a traditional cache that is in a clear container with tradable items at the start: cross, skull, Ms. Scarlet playing card, log & a colour pencil to sign the log.

Current maps of Santa Cruz county still mark the spot as "Holy City," yet very little remains of this once booming West Coast mecca. Sixty years ago, it was a well-known stopping spot for travelers along the twisty Old Santa Cruz Highway. Today, all that testifies to its strange and colorful past is a rickety old post office, a quaint shed and a house.
The house belonged to "Father" William E. Riker (right, circa 1950-55), a.k.a "The Comforter," and was one of the only structures to escape a series of mysterious fires that caused the town's demise.

Holy City sits in an obscure corner of the lush wilderness 10 miles south of Los Gatos, on what was once the only route between San Jose and Santa Cruz. Established in 1919 by Riker and a small group of his loyal disciples, the city was initially built on 30.25 acres bought for $10 the year before. Soon it was bustling with tourist-oriented businesses. Flimsy wooden structures with carnivalesque murals and slogans lured weekend motorists. Garish billboards lined the highway, describing Holy City as the future center of the world, a true utopia, a paradise. "Holy City answers all questions and solves all problems!" "See us if you are contemplating marriage, suicide or crime!" One sign even declared the city to be the "headquarters for the world's most perfect government." Folks from nearby towns came by for ice cream on Sunday afternoons to watch the show. Interestingly, although it was publicized as a religious site, not one church was ever built in Holy City.

Riker was a handsome, blue-blooded California native, born in 1873 and described in contemporary accounts as "a favorite of the ladies.'' His first job, which involved reading palms, earned him the nickname "The Professor." Later, he toured the country as a mind-reading act, a lucrative career that ended abruptly when bigamy charges were filed against him in San Francisco. Leaving both his wives behind, Riker fled to Canada.
The old post office also remains, and has been converted into Art Glass, a shop selling hand-blown glass pumpkins and delicately beaked glass birds of all colors. A neon sign on the window reads "Holy City, California," and is the only obvious indication of the events that once took place there.  But in the back room is a corner that hasn't been touched in decades. It was papered long ago with various photographs of Riker and his toy poodle, his holy eatery and gas station, his billboards and his visitors, all overlapped by crisp, yellowed clippings from regional newspapers detailing the strange and turbulent saga of Holy City. Tom Stanton, owner and operator of Art Glass, may even show you his "private collection" of Holy City relics. 

For more of this crazy & awesome story, you can find it here: (visit link)

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Ybbxvat ng "Ubyl Pvgl Neg Tynff", ghea lbhe nggragvba gb n pvephyne ebpx gbjneq gur onpx ba gur evtug.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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