7WPC: Grey Towers Mystery Cache

To complete the Grey Towers cache experience, is suggested that you bring the following… a measuring tape or ruler, and a calculator if you're not comfortable with your ability to do simple arithmetic on paper or in your head.

This cache is NOT located at the posted coordinates. Please don't look for it there. Read on...

“The conservation of our natural resources is the key to our future. It is the key to the safety and prosperity of the American people, and all the people of the world, for all time to come. The very existence of our Nation, and all the rest, depends on conserving the resources which are the foundation of life.”

Gifford Pinchot was a prominent statesman and conservationist who was the first Chief of the US Forest Service. He later served two terms as the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Constantine Pinchot brought his family from France to the United States at the time of Napoleon's fall, settling in Milford where a concentration of French-speaking immigrants were living in the early 19th century. The Pinchots of that time, two and three generations before Gifford, built their fortune right here from the forests in these mountains, clear-cutting the trees, selling the lumber, and using the money to acquire more land. They also established a general store in Milford, establishing themselves at the commercial center of the town. Eventually, Gifford's father, James, and uncle, Edgar, along with others of their generation of Pinchots, left the area and established themselves in New York City. At this time James Pinchot met Mary Eno, the daughter of a famous and wealthy NYC hotelier with whom he did business, and later took Mary as his wife. Gifford was later born to Mary and James in their home in Connecticut.

And so Gifford Pinchot was born into a wealthy family, the union of the rural gentleman and the urbanized young woman. However, Gifford's life path would not be so focused on the quest to acquire wealth, but rather in public service. Gifford, who loved the woods and being in the outdoors, graduated from Yale in 1889, and went on to study Forestry in France, since there was really no place in the United States at the time to pursue such studies.

Gifford Pinchot's love of the outdoors, his education, and his desire to serve the public led him to found the United States Forest Service and organized the creation of the Society of American Foresters. How ironic it would be that Gifford's greatest contributions to public life would be in the preservation of the very natural resources that were used to build the wealth of his great-grandfather!

Under Pinchot, the Forest Service and the Teddy Roosevelt administration added millions of acres to the national forests where the federal government controlled their use and regulated their harvest. Pinchot's beliefs in this area led to significant controversy. His conservationist position supported responsible, controlled use of natural resources, in contrast to the preservationist view that land and its objects should be preserved in their natural, untouched condition.

Pinchot's views were quite popular with President Roosevelt, but he was later dismissed from his position by President Taft. Roosevelt praised PInchot's contributions, saying, "He has done more than any man in this country for the preservation of forests...His is gifted with the utmost energy and the zeal that only comes to one who is wrapped up in his work; and in addition to these qualities, he has...excellent judgement and sound common sense." Later when President John F. Kennedy visited Grey Towers, he said of Pinchot, "He was more than a forester; he was the father of American conservation.

As you tour this magnificent property at Grey Towers, please look beyond the structures, adornments, mountains and trees seen here. Everything about Grey Towers is a reflection of the Pinchot family, and Gifford's training, and his lifelong devotion to the conservation and wise use of natural resources.

The waypoint PK (N41 19.808 W74 49.113) is for parking, which provides access to the outdoor grounds of Grey Towers during daylight hours if the gates are not open. From there, during daylight hours, you can proceed through the family cemetery and through a gate to the grounds.

1. Don't be so quick to pass through the cemetery! Here you can visit the very Pinchots who came to this land from France. As you look around at their gravesites, near waypoint CO (N 41° 19.771 W 074° 49.097), look for the gravestone of Constantine Pinchot, Gifford Pinchot's great-grandfather. Note the number of years in his age at death, as given on his gravestone.
2. Now continue through the gate and follow the path by a very impressive cherry tree at waypoint CT (N 41° 19.719 W 074° 49.072). Near this location you will find an informational sign about the Bait Box, which was built as a playhouse for the Gifford and Cornelia's son, Gifford Bryce Pinchot. Note the number formed by the last two digits of the year that the Bait Box was built.
3. Continue on up the path to Lafayette Terrace, at waypoint LT (N 41° 19.677 W 074° 49.120). Here you'll see a bust of the Marquis de Lafayette, honoring the French heritage of the Pinchot family. This spot is also a wonderful place for a photo. Please take a photo of yourself and/or your GPSr at these coordinates with the outstanding view of the valley and the Kittatinny Ridge of New Jersey in the background, and post it with your log. (This is not required for completion of this cache, but it is a requirement for eligibility for completion of the Seven Wonders of Pike County series.)
4. Proceed to waypoint RP (N 41° 19.702 W 074° 49.113), and observe the unique reflecting pool and its amazing use of perspective to deceive the eye and create the perception that the pool is much longer it is in reality. Measure the number of inches wide that the pool is (not the outer edge of the rock, just the opening for the water) at the near side, and then walk to the far end near the Bait Box and measure the number of inches in the width at that end. Find the difference in the number of inches at either end.
5. Now go to waypoint FB (N 41° 19.696 W 074° 49.128) and see the amazing Finger Bowl, which Cornelia Pinchot designed as a place to hold social gatherings and meals. How many brick columns surround the Finger Bowl area? (You will see that pairs of brick columns are joined by a seat, but for this purpose these still count as two columns.)
6. There are many more features to enjoy at Grey Towers, including a tour of the home (when available) and a walk around the Forestry Trail, up the hill behind the house. On the Forestry Trail, you can take a short hike and observe the state tree of Pennsylvania, the Eastern Hemlock, and the effect of the hemlock woolly adelgid, a sap-sucking bug and invasive species from Eastern Asia that appears like small white pellets and threatens the Eastern hemlock with extinction. Depending on timing, you may also see people working at the acid-rain monitoring station on-site at Grey Towers.
7. Now to go and find the final cache. First, take note of the coordinates posted for this cache. Then take the numbers that you gathered at stages 1, 2, 4, and 5, and compute their sum. Add this sum to the decimal portion of the posted latitude (North) coordinates, and subtract this sum from the posted longitude (West) coordinates for this cache. Here you will find the final cache where you can sign the log book that makes you eligible to claim your find.