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Greene County Alms House Mystery Cache

Hidden : 3/4/2010
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

Many geocachers remark that they would never have found or visited a particular place if it had not been for geocaching. This is one of those I think. I have driven close to it for years and didn't know it was here. This one would have made a great virtual cache, but since that's not an option, I made it an easy puzzle. This one is very kid-friendly and handicap accessible including parking.

Because of the nature of this place, you should only visit during daylight hours.

The Greene County Alms House has a very long history of taking care of the poor. The Alms House became known as Sunshine Acres eventually.

The Alms House had its own cemetery. This adventure will take you to that cemetery. It will be one of the stranger ones that you have probably seen because although probably hundreds of residents were buried there, few records and almost no gravemarkers were placed. Actually no one knows how many burials occurred here for sure.

A number of years ago, when Sunshine Acres was closed and torn down, the county set up a memorial. This memorial gives a nice history of the institution. There is also a fenced yard where I assume the burials were.

To solve this mystery/puzzle here is what you have to do. Because grave markers had no names, numbered stones were removed and placed in a double arc. To solve this puzzle, the coordinates will take you to the north of the big memorial marker between the two arcs of markers. Stand between those arcs and face west. Look to your right and you will see an outer arc of grave markers with just numbers on them. Start counting stones on that outer arc and when you reach the 22nd one, record the number on it. That is A. Then go back to the start and start counting stones on your left. Count 9 stones on your left and record that number. This is B. Now you can fill in these coordinates:

N 37 13.9A
W093 22.2B

Check sum: A + B = 86

This puzzle is so easy that your kids can do it, plus there are some teachable opportunities at this place.

Congrats to MikeLong on getting the FTF and a big thanks to OzarksJim for helping me to rewrite a sentence that helped me fix an omission.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

ybj qbja

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)