There's No Pool like an Old Pool Traditional Cache
There's No Pool like an Old Pool
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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There's No Pool like an Old Pool
The ALICE T. VIRTUE MEMORIAL WATER PARK was constructed in 1987. You have probably already noticed it at the other end of Recreation Park. Maybe you have already gone swimming there or will soon. Recreation Park also has many other nice amenities.
Did you wonder where the Galena kids swam before 1987?
Yes, there was an old swimming pool. My memories are from the late 1950s and the 1960s.
When you pull into the parking lot to search for this cache, stop right in the middle of the lot for a moment. You will be in the old pool parking lot. It was gravel back then and the road looped all the way round the old horse track. To your right would be the shower house and behind it, the pool. Behind the pool, over near the house, was the ice-skating rink.
Back then we called this area the Fair Grounds. This is where they would set up. I remember 2 of them. Galena Dairy Days, which I think was held in June. Then in August was the Corn Boil. I don’t know when those traditions ended. You may have noticed that the street is Field Street. It was named after this “Field”.
Other long gone amenities include a Roller Rink that was near where the skate park is located now and a Trap Shooting club that was in the area of the new pool. I also remember a red barn.
One of the biggest year round attractions was the city dump. It is now the parking lot for the new pool. It was an open dump where the garbage was burned. It stunk. The fun part was the rats. If you drove out after dark and turned your lights off, the rats would come out. Then when you turned the lights back on you could watch them scurrying back into their hiding places. You could turn the lights on and off several times without getting tired of it. Some people would bring their 22s and try to pick them off before they could hide. In 1967 the dump was closed and covered over.
When they tore out the old pool it looks like some of the concrete from the pool deck was dumped over the hillside. There is also some old culvert pipe. I decided to dump this cache in the same area.
Now get out there and find the cache.
Don’t fall in.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)