Pre-Emption Road: History lesson #1 Traditional Cache
Pre-Emption Road: History lesson #1
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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This history lesson takes you to a location along Pre-Emption Road. The terrain is rated a 2 only because there is a small slope next to the ditch to climb, although you'll be able to park within a few feet from cache. Watch for muggles across the street. Cache is a waterproof matchstick holder. BYOP. Recommend not searching late night as it may concern the neighbor.
Pre-Emption Road runs South to North along the Pre-Emption (or Preemption) Line from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario. This "line" was established to divide the Indian lands of western NY from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by the Treaty of Hartford of 1786. This gave the pre-emptive right to Massachusetts to negotiate with the Indians. Another interesting part of the history is that there is actually an old and a new Preemption line. They both start at the same spot at the NY/PA border but slowly deviates by 2 degrees as it runs North, thus resulting in the lines being a few miles apart when they got further North. This actually effected the city of Geneva being assigned incorrectly. It is believed that the original surveyors used defective methods or possibly fraudulent methods. Another story I read also hinted at the possibility that the surveyors may have been drinking alittle too much. BTW, the pie-shaped wedge of land formed between the old and new lines is called the Gore.
Today you can find evidence of the old Pre-emption line such as this road and some other markers.
Most of this info was taken from Wikipedia and more details can be found there: (visit link)
Additional Hints
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