Central Pacific Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Located on the original rail bed of the Central Pacific Overland Route, you will have to do some walking for this one. If you're interested in experiencing the history of this area, I recommend parking at coordinates N 39° 38.762', W 119° 10.814' and walking the .3 miles along the rail bed to the cache. If you're just looking to run up your numbers, park as close as you can. Be forewarned, there is a significant terrain difference between these two options.
Another word of warning...a friend of mine who lives nearby advises to watch out for rattlesnakes.
The Central Pacific Railroad was the California-to-Utah portion of the first Transcontinental Railroad in North America. The first rails were laid in 1863, and the Golden Spike connecting it to the Union Pacific Railroad to Omaha, Nebraska, was hammered on May 10, 1869. The section of track that occupied the rail bed near this cache was laid in the summer of 1868.
The majority of the Central Pacific's workforce was Chinese, who with pick, shovel, wheelbarrow and one-horse dumpcart literally moved mountains. Keep in mind as you view the cuts and fills throughout this portion of the rail bed that there were no steam shovels to excavate cuts, no drills to bore holes in rocks for blasting, and no dump trucks for hauling fill. Everything was accomplished by hand, making the Central Pacific the last, and largest, of the nation's great engineering achievements of the pre-mechanized era.
The railroad operated over this section of track from 1869 through 1903. In that year, the CP relocated its mainline between Wadsworth and Toy in favor of a route to the south that goes through Fernley and Hazen to avoid the grade over White Plains Hill. In August of 1902, Benjamin Leete negotiated with the CP that when they relocated and removed the tracks, that they leave every other tie in place from milepost 294.5 (near the Churchill - Lyon county line on eastbound Interstate 80) to just east of Wadsworth. Leete then built his own light railway, the Eagle Salt Works Railroad, using the old CP grade to a connection at Luva. Leete, and later, the Southern Pacific Railroad, continued to operate on the original CP rail bed until 1915, at which time the line was abandoned. The rails were removed the following year.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Lbhe glcvpny qrfreg uvqr
Treasures
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