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Located off a side road right down from the campgrounds. It is
paved up to the cache. Take a few steps off the path and you should
find it! I have included a FTF mixed cd, "Songs To Geocache To,
Vol. 1 Soul/Funk". The plan is to have multiple mixes about. Take
one cd listen to it as long as you like. When you come across a new
cd just swap it out!
"Haunted Harbor" a.k.a. Magic Harbor This park is commonly referred
by locals as "Haunted Harbor" here's a brief history why. The park
originated as a Wild, Wild West Theme Park in the1960,s complete
with Cowboys, Indians, gunfights and more. Located 4 miles south of
Myrtle Beach on the old Highway 17, it was a novel attraction for
its time. The first in many deaths occurred as a Stage Coach Ride
tipped over and Killed one person while hurting several others. The
park closed due to this and bad word of mouth. Another business
group bought the park and turned it into a more traditional type of
amusement area with classic rides. This too turned to tragedy as a
worker at the park, broke into the park managers office shooting
him with a gun while robbing that day's money take. Again, the park
changed hands and the company that owned "Blackpool Pleasure
Beach"bought into the park. A lot of money was spent turning the
old grounds into a Great, New European Themed British Amusement
Park. One of the biggest Ferris Wheel's in the world was added as
well as a Log-Flume, Teacups, a steel Roller-Coaster called the
"Black Witch" while all new buildings and midways were created. It
was truly a beautiful place as it was located above a lake with a
campground (still in use) on the other side of the lake. The
grounds were thickly wooded and the grounds had several man-made
lakes centered around a games area. A Sky-Ride carried park patrons
to and from an island located on the lake. Once again, a dark cloud
appeared as a young women stood-up on the "Black Witch" coaster and
was nearly decapitated, she died. The park had struggled to make it
and this only caused more people to refrain from visiting.
Blackpool wanted to pull out and again, the park grounds and
buildings were put up for sale, the rides removed and sold off. The
grounds began to take on a sinister look for several years. Senior
Citizens from the local RV park used several walkways in the park
to exercise while the water slides in the parking lot were operated
by a local person as a separate attraction. But the grounds looked
just like a Haunted Town. In the mid 1990's, a Carnival Ride
Company took lease of the park grounds. They put in several
portable rides like a Sky Diver, Sooper Loop, Himalaya while the
buildings and grounds were spruced up and given a new coat of
paint. The former Pretzel ride building was converted into an
Arcade though. The "New" park opened to great fanfare and fireworks
on Memorial Day Weekend, but without Major Theme Park type rides,
attendance soon went downhill. After two months, several rides were
taken away to go to a large State Fair up North, by the end of the
season, all the rides were gone, the lights turned out for the last
time. The city, realizing that the buildings were a fire hazard,
bulldozed everything the following year. "Family Kingdom", in
Myrtle Beach now has the top of the famous Lighthouse Steeple that
used to grace the parks parking lot. The grounds still remain
vacant, awaiting a new beginning or another use possibility? Or yet
another tragedy? It's no wonder while locals refer to the park as
"Haunted Harbor". UPDATE: According to fellow geocacher, htomc42,
some of the above information is wrong or incorrect. "While much of
the history is accurate, it wasn't an actual cowboys and Indians
"Wild West" theme park. Instead, it was an oddly anachronistic
Pirate/swashbuckler-themed park named "PirateLand", just like the
campground next door, although they were always separate
operations. It had pirates with sword fights in the streets,
carriages, a steam locomotive ride, and many other rides and
attractions. This was back in the early-mid 1960s. The park most
like a "wild west" theme was Fort Caroline, which was located in
the Forestbrook Road area off of Hwy 501. It was a log fortress
that you had to take a chairlift ride to get in. Several times a
day, Indians would attack it from the surrounding woods, and the
settlers would have to fight them off."
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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