Shabonee Traditional Cache

The cache is located in PA State Gamelands #218. Although it is only about 200ft away from the parking coordinates that are listed below, use caution, wear blaze orange during hunting season, and follow the PA Game Commission Rules and Regulations. The terrain is based on our approach and the conditions present when we hid the cache. Tree cover may make this small cache filled with a few toys and trinkets a little harder to find. Use the hint if you need it. Bring a pen to sign the log. The cache coordinates are based on multiple readings we took around the cache site. Please re-hide the cache well.

One of the fun things about caching with PopPop, is never really knowing what he’ll say next. He said this word one time while we were caching near Titusville, Pa., and Goonie Nanny & Goonie Nick couldn’t stop laughing. We still talk about it today. While PopPop sort of had a definition…he had no idea of how it was spelled.

What we do know is…that it is NOT the definition given below…but the history is interesting so we’ve included it on the cache page.

Shabbona, also known as Shabonee, was an Ottawa tribe member who became a chief within the Potawatomi tribe in Illinois during the 19th century.

Shabbona, which was recorded to mean "built strong like a bear" or "built like a bear," was born around 1775 of the Odawa (Ottawa) tribe either on the Maumee River in Ohio, in Ontario, or in a Native American village in Illinois.

The Ottawa are an Algonquian-speaking tribe that was driven out of Ontario, Canada by the Iroquois and moved west into Michigan. Once in Michigan, the tribe aligned with The Council of Three Fires (Ojibwa, Odawa, and Potawatomi) and moved further south across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The Odawa became very closely intermixed with the Potawatomi at this time. Shabbona was the grandnephew of Pontiac, considered the greatest chief of the Ottawa tribe. Shabbona was granted his chief status at a very young age.

The son of an Ottawa warrior who had fought with Pontiac during Pontiac’s Rebellion, Shabbona himself would become a lieutenant under Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh and, during the War of 1812, later participated in the Battle of Thames where Tecumseh was killed.

Shabonna died in Morris, Illinois, on July 17, 1859, at the age of 84 and, in 1903, a large granite boulder was erected as a monument on his gravesite in Evergreen Cemetery.