LCC 50th--Jay Sigmund Memorial Traditional Cache

In 2008, the Linn County Conservation Board will celebrate 50 years of service to Linn County residents. A yearlong celebration is planned to highlight all the outdoor recreation opportunities available right here in Linn County. In celebration of Linn County Conservation's 50th Anniversary there will be 50 GeoCaches placed within various parks and recreation areas in the next year. Some of the caches will reveal a "clue" that will enable you to be eligible for a special prize drawing at the end of the season (December 2008).There is one featured cache each month.

This is not a featured cache

Additional information can be obtained from the Linn County Parks Website and the Iowa Geocachers Website.

The year was 1964 - in keeping with the Conservation Board's aim at the time to focus attention on local names and history - this heavily wooded, 7 acre park on the banks of the Wapsipinicon River was dedicated as The J. G. Sigmund Memorial Site on September 27th. Part of the land for the park was given to the county by Mr. & Mrs. Lester Petrak of Waubeek. The site was developed to be a family picnic area and a river access spot for fishermen. A granite boulder was taken from a farm near Waubeek where Sigmund grew up and placed in the park with a bronze plaque inscribed with one of Sigmund's poems, The Granite Bowlder. Sigmund was born in Waubeek, attended high school in Central City and moved to Cedar Rapids when he was 19. He combined his writing with a career as an insurance company executive and later as an insurance agency operator. His poetry brought him memberships in the Midland Authors' Society and the Iowa Press and Authors' Club, among others. His poems appeared regularly in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. He wrote eight books and some one-act plays. Mr. Sigmund was a taxidermist, carver and student of natural history. He died in a hunting accident in 1937 at the age of 51. The inscription on the boulder, his poem, is as follows: THE GRANITE BOWLDER Long has a mute parade of marching years Passed by, while on your lichen-spattered face There seems to rest a leer, deep chiseled in - A wan, bent smile, which marks the crooked trace That glacial ice has made, in ages gone; And left for stupid man to ponder on. And tho' keen barbs of steel are piercing deep Into your stony flanks, to cleave in twain Your granite breadth, and tho' a hammer falls, Yet these are the efforts to efface in vain; Strong you may rise, an on some churchyard hill - Speak for this very one who wields his drill! IN MEMORY OF JAY G. SIGMUND, POET, WHO LOVED THE PEOPLE OF THE WAPSIPINICON VALLEY, ITS TIMBERED RIDGES, AND ITS WILDLIFE. (DEC. 11, 1885 - OCT. 19, 1937)

If you are interested in the history of this little known local poet and businessman try some of these links.

1. A biographical note on the live of Jay Sigmund
2. A Poem to Jay
3. Return to Bohemia
4. Historical letter to Jay Sigmund
5. Bio website with great pictures

The cache is an ammo. This cache is child freindly and is very easy to find. Most of the Linn County caches should not be much of a problem. They are intended to take you to a place of beauty and reveaL some local history. Check out the links above to better understand why this man was honored.