Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae
(Robert Duvall) and Captain Woodrow F. Call
(Tommy Lee Jones), two famous ex-Texas Rangers, run a
cattle ranch called the Hat Creek Cattle Company and Livery
Emporium in the small dusty Texas border town of Lonesome
Dove. Gus is a romantic figure whose happy-go-lucky nature and good
fortune with women, especially Lorena Wood (Diane Lane),
prohibits him from doing much real work around the ranch. Call,
however, is a no-nonsense, hard-working taskmaster, though his
industrious nature has not rubbed off on Gus in the thirty years
they've been together.
Working with them are Joshua Deets
(Danny Glover), a black man who is an excellent tracker
and scout from their Ranger days, Pea Eye Parker (Timothy
Scott), another former Ranger who works hard but isn't all too
bright, and Bolivar (León Singer), a retired Mexican
bandit who is their cook. Also living with them is the boy Newt
Dobbs (Rick Schroder), a seventeen-year-old whose mother
was named Maggie and whose father may be Call.
The story begins as Jake Spoon
(Robert Urich), a former comrade of Call's and McCrae's,
shows up after an absence of more than ten years. He is a man on
the run, having accidentally shot the mayor of Fort Smith,
Arkansas. Reunited with Gus and Call, Jake's breath-taking
description of Montana inspires Call to gather a herd of cattle and
drive them there, to begin the first cattle ranch in the frontier
state. Call is attracted to the romantic notion of settling
pristine country. Gus is less enthusiastic, pointing out that they
are getting old and that they are Rangers and traders, not cowboys.
But he changes his mind when Jake reminds him that Gus' old
sweetheart, Clara, lives on the Platte, which is on their route to
Montana. Call prevails and they enlist the Hat Creek crew and some
new hands to rustle a herd from south of the border, and then they
begin the long drive north. Along the way, the Hat Creek boys
revisit old regrets and losses and come to terms with their
past.
No other Western movie can move you like this one. You hate Blue
Duck, you love Lori Darlin', you can't wait for Jake to get his
dues, and you can't help but side with Call during the whole trip.
So to claim this find, you'll have to learn to love these
characters.
Here's how you get started. The sign at the Hat Creek Cattle
Company had several statements on it. At the bottom were two
different slogans. The first one indicated what they did
not do. The second was a Latin verse that
in reality didn't translate very well. You'll need both of these,
plus the year from the Texas Historical Marker at the listed
coordinates that the Lonesome Dove School
began.
Now here's how you calculate the coordinates. The year the Lonesome
Dove School was founded equals ABCD. There now, that was pretty easy.
Then take the third letter of the second word of the Latin verse on
the Hat Creek Cattle Company sign, figure out the corresponding
number of that letter (A=01, B=02 and so on thru Z=26), then add
the two digits together to get the value
of E.
Next take the second letter of the third word of the Latin verse on
the Hat Creek Cattle Company sign, figure out the corresponding
number of that letter (A=01, B=02 and so on thru Z=26), then add
the two digits together to get the value
of G.
For the final calculation, determine what animal they did not rent.
Use the following chart to get the value
of F.
| If they do not rent, |
Use the value, |
| Cows |
1 |
| Horses |
2 |
| Sheep |
3 |
| Bulls |
4 |
| Goats |
5 |
| Dogs |
6 |
| Pigs |
7 |
There you have it. Simply plug in your answers to determine the
coordinates to the cache as listed here:
N32
5B.A3F
W09F 0F.DEG
The answers are not all listed at the Historical Marker, some
research into the movie or book is required. You are looking for a
camoed bison tube. Special thanks to fatfogy for helping to keep
this one alive. D/T ratings left as original hide in respect to the
early finders.
The Historical Marker is not back on the
post yet. So all research for the final coordinates will need to be
made online.
