A Little Bit of Alhambra in San Marino Traditional Cache
Gimli & Galadriel: Broke my leg & won't be able to get to this for a long time, if ever. Archiving this to give others the chance to use an interesting site.
A Little Bit of Alhambra in San Marino
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Camoflaged metal box, about 4x3x2. We couldn't get good coordinates at ground zero so check the clue for a better idea of where exactly to look.
This cache is in San Marino – or is it? What’s the sign on that fence say? Alhambra?!
Specifically, the cache is in Kewen (or Old Mill, “El Molino Viejo”) Canyon. One of the two streams that fed the Old Mill, which ground corn for the San Gabriel Mission, came through here. When a new, more efficient mill was built, the Old Mill slowly fell into disuse. In 1860, the Kewens inherited the property and the Canyon became known as Kewen Canyon.
We can’t quite get the history straight, but apparently, when Benjamin Wilson subdivided “The Alhambra Tract” (north Alhambra) for sale as homesteads and farms, he realized the importance of having a good water supply. So he built a system of iron pipes (the first in Southern California) to bring water down. In other places, people got their water directly from the creeks, canal ditches, or through wooden pipes (those don’t sound too reliable!)
This new, high-tech water delivery system was a big selling point for the Alhambra Tract: As Rufus Fiske Bishop, an early Alhambra settler, wrote in the 1880’s, while he was looking for property to buy, "I rode my bronco everywhere over Pasadena, San Gabriel, and Oak Knoll, water was the deciding factor. Oak Knoll was a beautiful pasture that my wife coveted because of the trees, but there was no water. San Gabriel, with much better soil than either Alhambra or Pasadena was given over to pasturage, with high, wide cactus hedges between fields, but no water. I passed by Pasadena's business center of two redwood shacks, a post office, and a blacksmith shop, but Pasadena could not claim so fine a stream of water as that which flowed down Kewen Canyon."
We suppose that this is where the original pipe system either began or was (and is) serviced. At any rate, Alhambra’s got it and Alhambra’s gonna keep it!
See 56Ranger’s “The Old Mill” Cache as well as his “Mission Dam” Cache for more information on the history of this area, and on the development of its water supply.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre naq oruvaq gur byvir-glcr gerr.
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures