Sherman Tower Traditional Cache
Backwoods Reviewer: As the owner has not responded to my prior note, I am archiving this listing.
Backwoods Reviewer
Geocaching.com Community Volunteer Reviewer
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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In June of 1917, in response to the need of raising and training an army to fight in the "Great War", Congress approved the area of the Scioto River Valley just north of Chillicothe as one of sixteen sites for "cantonments for the selective conscriptive army". Although it seems to us as being virtually impossible, by September of the same year when the first draftees began to arrive, nearly 2,000 buildings had been constructed to house, train, feed and entertain them. At one point in the construction process it is said that the contractor, A. Bently and Sons, of Toledo, Ohio, finished a building every twenty minutes! The total cost of this mammoth project was four million dollars, with roughly twenty five percent of that figure going for the camp Hospital Group alone.
This is where our caching adventure for today begins. The fifty buildings of the Camp Sherman Hospital Group were located at the western edge of the camp between Frankfort Pike (now Pleasant Valley Road) and the B & O Railroad (now a bike path). To provide for the special needs of ill and injured soldiers, the Hospital Group had its own laundry and waste facilities, which necessitated a water supply separate from that of the rest of the camp. This enormous need ws satisfied by two 25,000 tanks constructed on the hill southwest of the Hospital Group on the other side of the B & O tracks. According to the period maps I have been able to locate, it appears as though the supply pipes from these tanks crossed above the tracks at a rock-cut in the hillside and then, on the remnant of the hill on the other side of the tracks, turned east and into the Hospital Group. On this remnant hill you will find the large remains of a structure that was quite possibly instrumental in suppling the voluminous flow of clean water to Camp Sherman's most needy.
I must admit that I do not know what this structure is called or how it functioned, so if anyone can give me any insight into its purpose, it would be greatly appreciated. When Camp Sherman was decommissioned in the 1920s, several of the buildings were used to house prisoners. During this time a brick plant was constructed by these prisoners in the area of the Hospital Group and the railroad, so it is quite possible that this structure was a part of that operation.
As for the cache itself, it is small Lock-N-Lock container located near a concrete footer that appears to have possibly been used as a support for a large supply pipe. Please enjoy the main structure from its base. It is quite tall and I would not recommend viewing it from the top of the hill. The cache is, however, further up the hill, but several yards from the main structure.
Thanks for visiting and enjoy our history!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gjrrg
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