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This cache is placed not far off the river to river trail. This trail starts on the Ohio and travels throughout Southern Illinois to end at the Mississippi. The length of the trail is over 160 miles from end to end. The portion of trail here follows Rock Creek. It will take a good hour to hike to the cache, so plan to spend some time here...and may want extra batteries as well!
This area of Hardin County is known as Rock Creek. Please park near the coordinates N 37 32.217 W 088 13.930 at the Rock Creek General Baptist Church. Take note of the nice bridge and H shaped tree next to it. The trail head starts up the road to the north.
An interesting story developed many years ago in the Rock Creek Community. A plague known as the milk sickness was sweeping through the area in the mid 1800s killing many. Local resident Anna Bixby spoke with an Indian woman still living in the hills and determined the sickness was caused by a type of plant that the livestock was eating. To make a long story short, all of this type of plant was exterminated and Bixby became known as a great doctor. Now for the interesting part.
Late one night during a terrible thunderstorm, a rider came to the Bixby household. He called out to the house that someone needed Anna’s medical skills and of course, she immediately came out. She mounted the rider’s second horse and they rode into the woods. The trail was shrouded in darkness, thanks to the heavy storm clouds overhead, and Anna soon became disoriented and unsure of their route. However, at one point during the ride, she looked over and when a flash of lighting illuminated the night, Anna saw the identity of the mysterious rider -- it was her husband Eson.
When he realized that she had discovered his identity, Bixby brought the horses to a halt and he quickly bound her hands and gagged her. It was obvious that he intended to do away with her and Anna began to panic. When she heard the jingle of chains being removed from his saddlebags, Anna became so frightened that she began to run, dashing into the dark woods. As she plunged into the forest, her fear became even stronger as she realized that she had no idea where she was. The storm continued to rage, sending rain lashing down on her and causing the wind to whip through the trees in a wild fury. Anna ran for some distance and then suddenly, the ground beneath her vanished and she tumbled over a large bluff and crashed to the ground far below. The fall broke the ropes that bound her hands but also broke some of her bones, seriously injuring her. Nevertheless, she managed to crawl a short distance to a fallen tree and slithered in behind it.
A few moments later, a light appeared in the darkness at the top of the bluff and Eson Bixby came into view carrying a burning torch. He climbed down from the top of the rocks and searched around for Anna, but he did not find her. After a few minutes, he returned to his horse and rode away.
Once he was gone, Anna began crawling and stumbling out of the forest. It took her until sunrise to find a nearby farmhouse but when she reached it, she found herself at the doorstep of friends -- only a few houses away from her own. They quickly took her in and she told them the story of what had happened.
Bixby was soon arrested and taken to the jail in Elizabethtown. He escaped though and vanished for a time. He was later captured again in Missouri, but once again, he escaped. This time, he disappeared for good and was never seen again.
Anna lived on in the Rock Creek community of Hardin County until the 1870’s and when she died, she was buried next to her first husband and only a simple “A” was inscribed on her tombstone. But there are those who believe that Anna, or at least her spirit, lives on.
The legend of Anna Bixby states that her husband wanted to do away with her because of a fortune that she had managed to collect over the years. What may have amounted to a “fortune” in that day and time may have been much smaller than what we would consider to be one today but most believe that it was a large amount of money. The legend further states that when Anna learned of Eson’s greed, she hid the money away somewhere, just before he attempted to do away with her. It is believed that the hiding place for the treasure was the cave beside Rock Creek in Hooven Hollow, which was also said to have been the hiding place of an outlaw gang.
The cave is still known as Anna Bixby Cave today and it is along the bluff, in the vicinity of the cave, where people have reported seeing a strange light appear over the years. The large, glowing light moves in and out of the trees and among the rocks, vanishing and then re-appearing without explanation. It is believed that the light may be that of Anna Bixby, still watching over the treasure that she hid away her years ago.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Hc gur fgnve-fgrc perrx, ol snyyra gerr.