“I wandered everywhere, through cities and countries wide. And everywhere I went, the world was on my side.”
-Roman Payne
This cache was placed by Psyprof and adopted by HistoryJoe23 in August 2021.
Description (Pyprof): The historic McBee Ferry began operations about 1790, when Mr. McBee (you need his first name to find the cache), having successfully petitioned the Knox County Court for permission, started operating it on the farm owned by Ganum (or Gammon) C. McBee. Descendents, one of whom we interviewed while researching this site, still own the land, on the north side of the river, and live and farm on it. McBee Ferry is National Register site 99000105
For many years, McBee Ferry was the only way to cross the Holston River between Kingsport and Knoxville, and so was very important to the development of the area, especially Strawberry Plains and Jefferson County, just to the east of the ferry. (The ferry is on the Knox-Jefferson county line.) In 1836, the McBees were authorized by the County Court of Knox County to erect a toll bridge at the same place. From 1845-1850 his son G.C. McBee built a public toll bridge near the ferry. This is believed to be the first bridge to span the Holston River. The bridge was later flooded and the McBee family resumed the ferry business. In 1902 the ferry was purchased by Knox County. The ferry surely was made obsolete in 1930, with the construction of the historic McBee Bridge, near which we have placed a cache (GC10XC6).
The cache is situated on the south side of the river, and overlooks the north shore ferry slip, which you will be able to see across the river. You can turn right onto the road next to the sign so you are off of 11E.
Puzzle: Find the information on the photo I have uploaded to the gallery!
From information on the sign, you will find these numbers.
The numbers you want to find are
N36 03 ABC W083 41 DEF
All the clues reference one side of the sign only.
A= Number of stars on the sign.
B= How many punctuation marks on the last three lines of the sign’s main text?
C= Number of letters in the second word of the second line of the sign’s main text (this is the fourth line with text on it).
D= A century is referred to on the sign. Add the two digits together.
E= How many i’s in the person’s first name?
F= How many times does the letter Q appear on the sign
Check-sums: A+B+C+D+E+F = 22
DEF-ABC =576
Tools Needed: Pen
SWAG: There is no room for SWAG in this container.
Maintenance: Please feel free to perform maintenance on the log if needed. If the container needs to be replaced, please submit a "Needs Maintenance" ticket or send me a message.
