The Cross Roads Traditional Cache

Currently, there are over 225 active caches located within the boundaries of the Land Between the Lakes NRA. Some nearby caches include: Cool Drink of Water (GCT1KD), Castle View (GCNVJB), Homer’s Garage (GCYV6Z), O Well Cache (GCE270), Road to St. Steven Church (GC1HRHD), Last One Standing (GCPYA5), and Bethlehem North Cemetery (GC1HRGC).

The Forest Service has not implemented a national policy prohibiting the activity, or require a special land-use permit. The following are guidelines that may be helpful to the public:

1. Check with the appropriate Ranger District to identify any concerns or special restrictions they have that affect the placing of geocaches.
2. Geocaches should not be placed where damage could be caused to cultural or natural resources from the activities of placing or finding a geocache.
3. Placing geocaches in Wilderness is discouraged. This is because Wilderness is a place where evidence of people should not be noticeable, and natural conditions should dominate the area. A virtual geocache may be an acceptable alternative to placing a real geocache in designated Wilderness. Again, check with the local Ranger District for any concerns or restrictions they may have..
4. Follow Leave No Trace concepts which can be found at: (visit link)
   

The cache is located near the intersection of Eddyville Ferry Road (KY 58) and FR 123/124 (former KY 289).  At this location, your can find Dickerson Cemetery, and across the road you can find a remnant of the Cross Roads Baptist Church.

Cross roads Baptist Church was located on the Eddyville Ferry Road about 3 miles south of the Ferry. It was one of the newer churches in Lyon County built from concrete block and painted. On October 6, 1946, a group of interested people met with a presbytery composed of pastors and deacons from other churches at Dickerson Cemetery in Lyon County to organize this church.

The surrounding area, known as the Coalins, was rugged land, deeply folded terrain with rock an ore protruding from the thin soil.  The first settlers avoided the area.  Over time a tight community of farmers and woods people formed around the Coalins, creating a “commons” belonging to no one and used for livestock grazing and hunting.

In 1841, Thomas Watson, a Nashville businessman, legally acquired a title for the 37,000  acres of unclaimed land within the Coalins. Knowing the area was rich in iron ore, he established several iron furnaces in the area.  After his death in 1846, his partner, Daniel Hillman, retained the land patent.

In the beginning of the twentieth century, the state of Kentucky had noticed that the conservation efforts of the surrounding land owners had protected turkey, deer and other wildlife, whose numbers were declining in the rest of the state.  In 1919, the Kentucky Fish and game Commission established the Hillman Game Reserve.  In 1935 the federal government took over management of the land, condemned an additional 19,000 acres, and began to resettle these families.  In 1938, by Executive Order No. 7966, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt designated the area the Kentucky Woodlands National Wildlife Refuge. 

Since that time,  both the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers have been dammed to provide flood control and dependable river traffic.  The creation of the Kentucky and Barkley dams inundated prime farm land and caused the displacement of even more people, their communities, and wildlife from the fertile bottom lands. 

By the early 1960's, the Woodlands Wildlife Refuge had grown to 65,000 acres. In 1963, President Kennedy endorsed a former National Park Service plan to create a 170,000 acre Land Between the Lakes (LBL) national recreation area.  TVA took over the project and Harold Van Morgan began planning for an area to demonstrate proper land management for recreation, wildlife protection, and environmental education.  Using is broad powers of eminent domain, TVA forced over 1,000 families to move.  Some houses and churches were moved. Most houses, churches, like Cross Roads Baptist, and schools, like the New Yale School located 1 mile south on Eddyville Ferry Road, were bulldozed into a pile, set afire, and their ashes buried.

All that remains of this past are a few foundations, many cemeteries, like Dickerson Cemetery, one old Church, St. Stevens Catholic Church south of this location, a few “out buildings, one abandoned home of a war veteran in the Tennessee portion, and the jonquil bulbs in family gardens that still flower in the spring.

Land Between the Lakes, now maintained by the U.S. Forest Service since the 1999,  provides innovative outdoor recreation combined with an aggressive environmental education program.  In the LBL Protection Act, unmaintained cemeteries are being restored, cultural heritage sites are being identified, examined and protected, and offers all the outdoor recreation "basics," with some unique opportunities for environmental education and historic interpretation.  With more than 170,000 acres and 300 miles of undeveloped shoreline, LBL hosts an average of two million visitors each year who come from all over the nation and more than 30 foreign countries.

LBL has the largest publicly owned bison herd east of the Mississippi River. LBL has more than 1,300 plant species, over 240 bird species, and 53 different mammal species. LBL is an active participant in the nation's efforts to re-establish the eagle population in Western Kentucky and Tennessee. Currently, LBL is home to a wintering eagle population of more than 100 birds, and there are between 12-16 active nesting sites. In February 1996, after a 150-year absence in the region, LBL reintroduced elk into a 700-acre Elk & Bison Prairie. Since 1991, LBL has maintained a captive breeding pair of Red Wolves as part of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Red Wolf Recovery effort. All of Kentucky’s wild turkey and deer today descend from the flock and herd the people of Land Between the Rivers had maintained.