GC18YPB Fox Hill (Traditional Cache) in Kentucky, United States created by natcher

This cache has been archived.

Bluegrass Reviewer: It has come to my attention that this geocache is hidden in the Beargrass Nature Preserve.

Geocaches are not acceptable in Kentucky Nature Preserves. http://www.geocky.org/rules/ksnpc.htm

Please remove the geocache(s) that you have hidden in this area and find a new location.

Your cache has been temporarily disabled awaiting your input. Please take the time to review this concern, make any necessary edits, write a note of explanation in a reviewer note, then click "enable" cache so that I will know to take another look at the updated submission.

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GC18YPB ▼

A cache by natcher Message this owner

Hidden : 1/27/2008

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

Regular size cache located in the Beargrass Creek Nature Preserve managed by the Louisville Nature Center. The preserve neighbors Joe Creason Park. This area used to be part of the Ben Collings Estate, which was assembled from several pieces of two large estates that were founded almost 200 years ago.

Originally, Joseph Kinney and Basil Prather, a Revolutionary War Captain, purchased adjoining tracts near the south fork of Beargrass Creek from Robert Daniel in 1789.

Kinney’s estate at some point became known as “Fox Hill,” and was a popular gathering spot, because of its clear-water well in a shady grove of majestic trees and scenic view. Ben Collings, a construction materials supplier specializing in concrete, purchased the property in 1937 and renamed it “Colonial Farms.”

Collings accumulated almost 200 acres by the time of his death in 1951, including much of the land now in the Louisville Zoo. His wife, Bess, inherited the estate at his death, and sold off about half to private interests, and to the Archdiocese of Louisville. After she died in 1965, Bellarmine University purchased the remainder of the estate. In 1966, the city paid Bellarmine approximately $600,000 for 68 acres, including the mansion that now stands in the park, which was built by Collings in 1944 after the 154-year-old original house burned down. Collings was determined that it would never burn down again, so he rebuilt it on the foundation of the original 18-room house with eight-inch-thick reinforced concrete walls. The walls are faced with brick, the floors are concrete, and the roof is copper and slate.

In 1982, the State Nature Preserves Commission purchased a 41-acre wooded tract that adjoins the park on the north. This area, now known as the Beargrass Creek Nature Preserve, was a part of the Collings estate that had been acquired by the Archdiocese of Louisville in 1960.

The cache is hidden off one of the trails near the Nature Center. Please be advised, if attempting this hunt with children or dogs, a fair amount of bushwhacking is required through some thorny brush. It contains some trade items and a small prize for FTF.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Qrrc jvguva.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)