Olmsted Park Series: Cazenovia Park Traditional Cache
Rayman: As promised, I stopped by to pick this cache up. Thanks to all who visited.
Olmsted Park Series: Cazenovia Park
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This is the second in a series of caches designed to take you on a
tour of parks and other places designed by world famous landscape
architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Inside is a clue which will lead
you to a final cache location. Be sure to write this clue down
so you can find the final.
Building upon the success of his work in north Buffalo, Frederick
Law Olmsted proposed additional parks and parkways for other parts
of the city in the 1880s and 1890s. In a lengthy report Olmsted
created in 1888, he planned for an extensive lakefront park
connected to the city by a canal. It generated very little
enthusiasm among the locals. Discussion of a series of parks in the
south part of the city dragged on until 1893 when the city finally
approved the acquisition of land at two sites considerably inland
from the spot Olmsted originally proposed.
The smaller of those two sites was Cazenovia Park on the banks of
Cazenovia Creek. Like South Park, it featured a water element as a
major feature of its design. The original design had a large 20
acre lake that occupied almost the entire northwest half of the
park, which was formed by the creation of a dam near Cazenovia
Street. Adjacent to the lake where the baseball fields are now was
a large open meadow play area to be known as "The Bowl." Other
features include a winding road through the park, a bandshell for
concerts, and a shelter house.
In 1896 the lake was dug out and the first dam constructed. An iron
bridge designed by H. L. Campbell, to become known as the "Green
Bridge," was constructed over the creek in 1897. Even though it was
smaller than Olmsted wanted, the shelter house was built in 1902
which still exists today near the baseball fields. After proper
funding was secured, a larger structure was built on the shores of
the lake. This building became known as the casino and was
completed in 1912.
In 1948, the casino was badly damaged by a suspicious fire due to
the frequent vandalism in the park. Due to yearly flooding in the
area of the creek, it was decided to remove the dam at Cazenovia
Street in 1965. This caused the drainage of the lake, which was
subsequently filled in completely by the 1970s. The bandshell was
demolished in 1953 and the base was used to build a maintenance
building on top, which remains today. Certainly the park is no
longer the beautiful place Olmsted originally intended, but plans
are in place to restore it as best as possible including the east
portion of the lake and another pedestrian bridge over the creek.
The cache is a decon container in a wooded area near the banks of
Cazenovia Creek. There are numerous places to park within the park,
each providing its own pros and cons to get to the cache. Please do
not hunt for this cache at night.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
qbjarq gerr yvzo
Treasures
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