Visions of Knights Templar Traditional Cache
Visions of Knights Templar
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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You are searching today for a Decon container which accommodates only small swag as well as log and pencil. Be sensitive to muggle observation while logging your find and leave the area cleaner than you found it by promoting the CITO concept.
This unique and historical location is popular year around as an excellent sheltered access to Big Spirit Lake waters. Please use the ample parking lot while engaged in your search. Restrooms and water as well as picnic grounds are provided at the top of the adjacent hill.
Visions of Knights Templar
Quoting from the article "Summer Home Knights Templar of Iowa at Spirit Lake by N. Parvin " :
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In the year 1884 the Grand Commandery of the Knights Templar secured ten acres of land on what was then known as Kingman's Point but it was not until 1890 they held their first meeting on the ground. This concave was held in a tent and a little later a building and dining room was erected with offices on the first floor. This building was destroyed by a cyclone (tornado) in 1898. A new frame building was built to accommodate the Knights and their families, building first a north wing with fifty rooms, later a south wing with like number of room and lastly a wing on the west with a rotunda in the center. This gave the Knights 150 rooms. They also erected a large frame structure; the lower floor was used for dining room, the upper floor for an assembly room, with the west wing being used for kitchen and quarters for the caretaker. In June 1917, all the buildings were burned to the ground leaving only a building used as headquarters for Grand officers. The fire also destroyed nearly 200 beautiful shade trees.
A new structure was erected on the site of the old one which was fireproof. The new structure was patterned after the old apartment building. The social center of the whole park is maintained in the rotunda of the main building, 40 x 80 feet in dimensions and two stories high. All rotunda porches were glassed and screened in and heating was provided by a furnace and four large fie places. The main building was over 300 feet in length with three floors having 150 rooms all alike in dimensions, equipment and ventilation. The dining room was on the main floor of the north wing and its dimensions were 40x90 with a seating capacity of 350. The Knights added to their holdings until today (1921) have forty-two acres along the shores of Spirit Lake. Many fine cottages were also erected near the park.
The home is a club house and was operated for the exclusive privilege of every Knight Templar in Iowa. Meetings were held in the morning and the afternoons spent in social entertainment. A dress parade was held by the Knights in full uniform on the parade ground." It was quite a place for many years and the entry arch to Templar Park is still there. The DNR has taken it over and a few of the original buildings and lagoon are maintained but it is still a wonderful place to visit.
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