Orrin's Secret Gold - UJ2K Mystery Cache
Orrin's Secret Gold - UJ2K
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
The cache is a placed as a tribute to UtahJean, the legend of Utah
geocaching, on the occasion of her 2000th cache find. Way to go UJ!
There is nothing hidden at the posted
coordinates, although you may pick up an important clue at
the posted location. Solve the puzzle below and head for the Golden
Hill.
Orrin Rockwell Porter is known (and sometimes revered, sometimes
demonized) in both LDS and gentile hagiography as the legendary
Mormon frontier lawman / outlaw. There have been caches hidden in
his commemoration. In these days of a virtual ban, it is a pity
that a virtual cache doesn't mark his famous headstone, reading
"He was brave & loyal to his faith. True to the
Prophet Jos. Smith. A promise made him by the prophet, thru
obedience it was fulfilled."
The promise of course was that if Rockwell never cut his hair, he
would not die violently, and the fullfilment was that just when
Orrin was about to face a hangman's noose for double murder, he
died a natural death, although perhaps hastened by alcohol. In any
case, there are too many tales, some taller than others, which
surround Orrin's name. Too many for one cache page. For the sake of
this hide, we should concentrate on just one of these stories
ORRIN PORTER'S HIDDEN GOLD MINE
Brigham Young discouraged prospecting for precious metalls,
expecting, rightly so, that it would be a great challenge to hold
on to the land and the people of Zion if a Gold Fever were to
strike. But it is said that he entrusted Orrin Porter with secretly
mining gold for the treasury of the young State of Deseret. A few
books mention accounts of contemporary farmers about some
activities of the sort somewhere South of Big Cottonwood Creek in
the Wasatch foothills. Another book interprets aerial photography
as an evidence of Orrin's secret mine works in Bells Canyon. But in
the more recent times, nothing of importance have been mined in
Bells. However, there has been prospecting for gold, along with
limited production, further North. (Although one of the
aforementioned sources claims that this gold mine was merely a
stock scam by sertain Mr. Schmithrock, a baker turned mining
executive, other sources imply that there has been gold production
by his mines after all, and that his troubles with stockholders
were simply caused by an age-old dividend vs. expansion
dillemma).
Recently, I got hold of an old and seemingly undecipherable
document, allegedly copied from the original from the secret vault
of one of the early Quorums of 12 Apostles & dating back to the
first years of the former State of Deseret. I suspect that it has
something to do with the legendary gold diggings of Orrin Porter
(at the location which I was able to come up with, there used to be
a gold mine there in the more recent years indeed).
The cache location is bushwhack-free and the views are
magnificient. It should be accessible year round except after the
strongest snowfalls. The cache container is our trademark lychee
squeezer jar, full of goodies, but missing the standart geocaching
fact sheet at the moment. Please be careful rehiding the container
so as not to squeesh the plastic by heavy rocks. Good luck!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[True coords:] ahzoref!
[Hide hint:] obggbz abegu