Boer War Cache Traditional Cache
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The Boer War?? What does this area have to do with the Boer War? Didn’t that happen in South Africa between 1899 and 1902? Yes!
Actually, that was the first time that Canada sent troops overseas to fight on foreign soil. Over 7000 men served in this war between the British Imperialists and the Boers (descendants of Dutch Protestant farmers).
Several times in this province’s history, the government has used land grants to reward soldiers who fought “for King and country.” Some of those grants were offered to veterans of the Boer War.
Under the “Volunteer Bounty Act of 1908”, veterans of the South African War were entitled to 320 acres of Dominion land. Most veterans opted to receive scrip in the amount of $60 rather than a land grant or sold their land grant entitlement to a “substitute”.
The land that you see here was one of the land grants from the time of the Boer War (aka South African War). “There are a number of “vet lots” in the Marathon area, particularly east of the Pic River First Nation community and west of Pukaskwa Park. There are perhaps hundreds in the surveyed townships of the Thunder Bay area.
These privately held lots were inherited in some cases, but most have had a series of owners, including logging contractors. There is no way to know who owns what, unless the particular lot was of interest to a forest management group because of a business interest such as a road passing through the lot which required the owners consent.
The lots in many cases have been successively logged and regenerated at least once, if not more frequently, depending upon the tree species present and the nature of the forest soil. i.e. rocky, sandy, clay etc.
This is a small cache and has room for only small trading items.
Much of this information was received from the following sources:
Collections Canada (visit link) and also Laing Bennett, RPF
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Guvf pnpur vf abg qrfvtarq gb or qvssvphyg, ohg gb tvir lbh nabgure yvggyr uvfgbel yrffba.
Treasures
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