No Longer There Series: GhostTown of ParkWood Traditional Cache
No Longer There Series: GhostTown of ParkWood
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(small)
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Another in a series of caches marking places and things that no longer exist, but are part of our local history. Feel free to add to the series if you have a candidate!! You are looking for a waterproof container, about 4 inches by 8 inches that has a log and swag to trade.
Somewhere south of the present community of Parkwood, North Carolina, in northern Moore County is a ghost town that is mentioned in at least two books I have come across: North Carolina Curiosities, by Jerry Bledsoe (1990) and Carolina Chats by Carl Goerch (1944). Despite many, many trips out to this area, I have been unable to locate the actual ruins. I have placed this cache near where I have looked on a couple of occasions. If anyone out there knows where the ruins are located, please let me know!! I'd love to find them!! Help!!
The following is a reprint of Jerry Bledsoe's article on ParkWood:
Nobody knows what happened to ParkWood or its residents. What is known is that the town was founded in 1880 after Lewis Grimm discovered a large deposit of conglomerite, a blue granite impregnated with chips of hard white quartz that was used for making millstones. He founded a company on the site of the deposit and began making portable gristmills. The town of Parkwood grew around the company and it came to have several hundred residents, a company store, and a two story hotel.
Then, early in the 1890's something happened. The company closed and the town was suddenly abandoned.
"No one knows why they left, or where they went to." says Moore County historian Thurman Maness. "The workers just rode off and left their houses and everything behind."
Up until the 1920's the town remained intact and drew lots of curiousity seekers. But vandals and nature took their course and all the buildings eventually collapsed. The stone remains are now overgrown with trees. The town site, which isn't marked, is in a valley about 50 yards off NC-22, just south of the community of Parkwood, which took its name from the old town, slightly changing the spelling.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
fghzcrq? qba'g or!!
Treasures
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