THIS SERIES OF CACHES ARE ONLY ACCESSIBLE VIA THE BUTLER FREEPORT
TRAIL. There is plenty of parking at each trailhead. DO NOT DRIVE
ON THE TRAIL, you may hike or bike to each cache. Passports are now
downloadable on www.butlerfreeporttrail.org
Saxony Station
Saxon City or Carbon Black founded by Frederick Doerr in 1806.
Carbon Black was the original name of Cabot. A carbon black plant
was established in 1876 where the village got its name. The one
brick and one wooden building of the carbon black plant burned in
1879 – 1880. They were replaced with brick buildings. Carbon
black from the Cabot works was mostly used to make automobile
tires. It was produced by incomplete burning of hydrocarbons oil
from the fields near Great Belt and well drilled at Carbon Black in
1872.
Carbon Black or Saxon Station dates back to 1871 when W.S. Boyd
constructed a hotel. In 1872, E.A. Helmbold began a store. In 1877
J.W. Maxwell came to Saxon Station. He found a thriving village
consisting of the Krause & Helmbold store, of which he became a
partner in 1889, the homes of Alexander Douthett, Samuel Cooper,
J.H. Clar, Henry Hoffman and John Howarth, superintendent of the
Carbon Black Works. Theilo Krause lived in the store building. In
addition George Miller’s ran a hotel and J.H. Muder a cabinet
making shop. Theodore Bedinger was the acting agent for the
railroad, express and telegraph companies with T. Helmbold being
the agent.
By 1883 the village had grown to one church, two stores, one
shoemaker’s shop, one wagon and L.H. Falkner’s
blacksmith shop (1879) as well as a post office (1875) with Theilo
Krause as Postmaster and of course carbon black plant.
In 1907 Carbon Black was changed to Cabot in honor of Harvard
graduate Dr. Godfrey Lowell, Cabot founder of Cabot Academy. Not
far from Cabot is the historic Coopers Cabin administered for years
by the late Beulah Frey, a scientist, environmentalist and local
historian. It is the oldest viable pioneer cabin in the
township.