The coordinates will take you to a marker deep inside Illini State Park. Parking is just a few feet away. Once there you, will need to read the plaque in order to find your quarry. First determine how many times the trees planted here are mentioned in the inscription(This equals A).Next look for how many flowers appear on the plaque.(This equals B) How many petals are on one flower? (This equals C) Now C-B=D, C+A=E and C+D=F. How many times does the word soldier appear on the plaque? (This equals G)From your original North Coordinates subtract .DAE and from the West Coordinates subtract G.BFD. This will take you to a phenomenal setting on the banks of the mighty Illinois River, a magnificent granite memorial wall that has been dedicated, commemorating the soldiers who have died in Operation Desert One, the Lebanon Barracks Bombing, Operation Desert Shield/Storm, the USS Cole, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. The memorial was conceived by the Illinois Motorcycle Freedom Run founders and built and paid for by volunteers to honor these valiant warriors. The Freedom Wall was built in 2004, and on August 1, 2007, a tri-color waterfall fountain was dedicated in the center of the Middle East Conflicts Wall. The fountain sprays water from the back of the memorial into the Illinois River from pipes located directly behind the curved Freedom Wall. The stream of river water projects about 20 feet into the air, spraying over the wall in an arc, and on back into the channel. Laser lights at the base of the fountain light up the sprays in patriotic red, white and blue colors. The waterfall fountain is appropriately named, “Tears For The Fallen.”This cache is placed with permission of the City of Marseilles. Please be respectful of this park.
The Illinois River Road National Scenic Byway stretches 291 miles along the east and west sides of the Illinois River from Ottawa to Havana, and is notable for its natural and historic qualities. The route was designated a National Scenic Byway in 2005 – one in 150 of America’s Byways® throughout the U.S. Its six gateway communities include Ottawa, Princeton, Peoria, Pekin, Canton, and Havana with several other portal communities along the byway.
This cache is one of 15 placed in the Ottawa Gateway for the Illinois River Road series. The series has a total of 90 geocaches. Collect 10 of the 15 four-digit cache codes from each gateway to be eligible for a specially designed Illinois River Road coin (one unique coin for each gateway community). Please visit www.illinoisriverroad.org/geocaching for more details on this series of caches.