The first homesteaders began settling the Landrum, South Carolina
area around 1760. To defend themselves against the Indians the
settlers built a series of forts located at critical points along
the frontier. One such fort, Earl's Fort near Earle’s Ford on the
Pacolet River was named for Baylis Earle (1734-1825) whose
fortress/home/plantation was located just east of the current City
of Landrum where Four Columns Farm now stands.
The Patriot’s “Spartan Regiment” was formed in
August 1775 with about 200 men — family, neighbors or anyone else
they could find, in response to the British Loyalist threats. The
Spartans were significant in history because they were recognized
as the official militia unit for up-country of South Carolina.
On 11 February 1776 the Provincial Congress of South Carolina
divided the vast area between the Broad and Saluda Rivers into
three election districts: The “Upper” or “Spartan” district
was named in respect for the settlers’ fierce independence,
struggling with Indian raids on the western frontier, and dedicated
to the Patriots cause against the British.
The Spartan Regiment’s namesake: From the 7th through the
5th century B.C. in ancient Greece, the Spartan warriors
were well respected, feared by their enemies, and strategic on the
battlefield. Sparta's reputation as a land-fighting force was
unequaled. The Spartans were trained from childhood in combat and
warfare to become an exceptionally disciplined and superior
fighting force. So revered were the Spartan warriors as dedicated
soldiers that they had state allotted lands managed for them by the
lower class citizens of Sparta. Spartans were forbidden
non-military pursuits and occupations.
The Spartans learned to communicate secretly among their leaders
in battle with encrypted messages deciphered using a matching
“Scytale” (skee-ta’-lee) meaning “baton” in early Greek. If
the message was intercepted by the enemy it could not be read. The
message was often written a strip of parchment paper or on a
leather belt worn around the waist of the courier. The technique
was extremely simple and much like today’s encrypted messages
required a special “key” to decipher the plain text message.
Buffalo’s Scytale Cache uses the same principles
as in 5th century B.C. Spartans. The true coordinates are shown in
the Scytale instructions below. Scytale Instructions:
Step 1: Using ¼-inch graph paper cut strip ½ inch wide by
17 inches long. Or paste the ends of shorter strips of graph paper
together to make a strip about 17 inches long. (1/4 inch Adobe pdf
graph paper can be downloaded at
http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/lite/ or printed from
http://www.pdfpad.com/).
Step 2: Here are the final coordinates: Place the strip
of graph paper vertically on a table top. Copy the following
numbers and letters in this exact order on the 17-inch graph paper
strip every half inch (numbers and letters written ON every other
intersecting line).
S 3 S 8 C 5 C 2 Y • Y • T I T O A I A 8 L 3 L 5 E 8 E 9 • 4 •
4 •
Leave 3/4 inch space at top end of strip…
Step 3: Gird your loins fellow Spartans,
strap on the secret message, and head to the coordinates posted
above to find the key to your Scytale coordinates. Enjoy the
hunt…
Initial cache contents:
FTF Prize: New James Madison dollar coin
Buffalo’s wooden nickels
Army National Guard carabineer
Two trackable Geocoins
Chills Ride coin (Corixid’s)
Small U.S. flag
Magnetic U.S. flag magnet