Heavy Metal II on Crotte Creek Traditional Cache
Heavy Metal II on Crotte Creek
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
There will be mosquitos, woodticks, gnats, deerflies etc. There is a short segment of the trail where you will get your feet wet if you're not extra graceful. Look on the bright side, though; you are going to see something that most locals don't know about and some that do don't know where it is. I hear that the quiet pool below the small rift you find there is a good fishin' hole too.
The original Heavy Metal cache is located near a copper mining site which, although small in comparison to what comes to mind as a MINE, was a substantial operation in it's day. Heavy Metal II is located near a series of exploratory pits.
Excavated around the turn of the 19th/20th century, these little digs were the focus of much speculation. One and a half miles southeast of here is Coppermine Dam, so named for this mine site. Coppermine Dam was a logging dam, used to build a head of water for floating timber down the St. Croix from the Empire Landing which is located about half a mile upstream from the dam. The Empire Landing is the terminus of the St. Croix & Duluth Railroad which was built by the Empire Lumber Company primarily for hauling timber from the Black River to the St. Croix but with the hopes that it would be used for hauling copper ore north and eventually becoming a common carrier of both freight and passengers with further hopes of being extended southward. The copper, however, wasn't plentiful enough to be profitable, the timber in Empire's holdings was gone and the railroad was sold off to other lumber companies. Under the ownership of the David Tozer Lumber Company it was the last logging railroad to operate in Douglas County.
Near the cache on the east bank of Crotte Creek you can see three square pits, one quite small and shallow but the other two appear to have been somewhat deep. The shoring timbers are still in place for the most part but exploration is out of the question as the pits are full of water. They are smaller than the Percival Mine which is part of the Sugar Camp Hill Cache.
*ADDITIONAL NOTE*
Please don't cheat yourself out of the main objective! The pits and the creek are only a stone's throw west of the cache. If you come in the easy way, the trail ends at the water between the larger pits to your left and the smallest to your right.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gnxr gur ybttvat ebnq abegu (nobhg 3/8 zvyr rnfg bs gur oevqtr) bss Pebggr Oebbx Genvy gb gur svefg genvy tbvat jrfg gbjneq gur perrx. Lbh pna qevir gb n cnexvat fcbg n yvggyr jnl va naq jnyx be ovxr gur erfg bs gur jnl gb gur perrx, zvarf naq pnpur.