"Kate Shelley - Heroic Iowan" (cache & series) Traditional Cache
"Kate Shelley - Heroic Iowan" (cache & series)
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Size: 
(regular)
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A geocache series to honor the life and heroics of a brave central Iowa girl, Kate Shelley, whose quick actions saved a passenger train from certain doom in the summer of 1881. Here is your opportunity to retrace some of the steps taken by Kate on that fateful night. Five caches are placed along a portion of the former railroad grade where Kate ran to stop the Midnight Express on a dark and stormy night, with nothing but occasional lightning flashes to help her see.
The series begins at the coordinates of the "Kate Shelley - Heroic Iowan" cache located at the site that was actually Kate's destination on that night, near the Kate Shelley Museum in Moingona, Iowa, a building erected where the 1881 train station once stood. You can search for caches along the trail on the old railroad grade, with the furthest cache (Kate Shelley - Near The Bridge, Lantern Is Out) placed near the remains of the old Des Moines River bridge that Kate crawled across on her hands and knees. When you've found this cache near the remains of the bridge, your trip back to the museum will be in the direction that Kate was traveling that night, in the dark.
A small parking lot is located in front of the museum, near the cache coordinates. The park grounds surrounding the museum building and the railroad trail are open to the public at all hours, but the museum and train car are open for indoor tours by appointment only. Call 515-432-1907 if you are interested in scheduling an indoor museum visit.
There is a letterbox near this cache, so make sure you have found the cammoed peanut butter jar. If you find the letterbox by accident and don't intend to fulfill the letterbox requirements, please respect it and replace it where you found it.
For more about the story of Kate Shelley, you can visit: The Kate Shelley Story
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Va gur ohfu