H.P. Lovecraft 2: Miskatonic University Traditional Cache
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H.P. Lovecraft 2: Miskatonic University
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“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear. And the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” – H.P. Lovecraft. Where does one learn such philosophical truths? Why, Miskatonic University, of course!
This cache is part of a series devoted to honoring the “actual” geographic locations of celebrated horror writer H.P. Lovecraft’s fictional towns, and the real towns he refers to in Massachusetts (most of which are in Essex County). There are plenty of H.P. Lovecraft-influenced caches (try searching by keywords Cthulhu, Lovecraft, Innsmouth or Arkham), however our caches are positioned for “historic authenticity” as best we could manage. Where is the first cache in this series? It is not ours, nor is it nearby, however we defer to GC9497 in Providence, Rhode Island. The Related Web Page above links to Lovecraft’s Wikipedia page. Although M.U. is supposedly located in Arkham (one of the other caches in this series covers this, in “Salem Village”), we felt strongly that the small town of Bradford deserved a cache, plus it puts into perspective Lovecraft’s fascination with nearby Newburyport.
Miskatonic University (visit link) is evidently modeled on the now defunct (since 2000) Bradford College in Haverhill, Massachusetts on the Merrimack river. Haverhill was a mill town with hard lined class distinctions. The mills and their workers resided on the north side of the river, with the owners residing in the fine homes on the hill over the river in the town of Bradford. Bradford College was created to train young ladies to be missionaries' wives, and then their students. Lovecraft's girlfriend attended the school and was exposed to the diverse community in an eerie location. In Lovecraft's stories, the university's student body is implied to be all-male, much like northeastern universities of Lovecraft's time. The only female student mentioned is Asenath Waite, of Lovecraft's “The Thing on the Doorstep” (1937).
We were doubtful that the school now on the Bradford College site, Northpoint Bible College, would approve a geocache tribute to a morbid horror writer’s top school of the occult, so we settled on locating the cache not two blocks east, in Bradford Common, “downtown Miskatonic.” Please take a moment to drive by Northpoint College while here, the architecture and school grounds are quite charming (June 2014, added a waypoint).
Because Bradford Common is a triangle made up of the three major roads into town, there are lots of muggles on hand. The south side of the park, where the cache is, is the least muggley side of the park, excepting probably Sundays, as there is a church across the street. For more about Bradford: (visit link) Please bring your own writing implement!
To complete the creepy feeling, there’s nothing like Lovecraft-inspired artwork, so I added some Erol Otus illustrations (Azathoth isn't his) of the Cthulhu mythos that students would’ve learned about at Miskatonic University.
January 2013: Changed the hint and container slightly, no longer an "evil nano" but still pretty small. You should still bring your own writing implement.
First-To-Find prize is an American coin rarer than our usual leave, a Liberty Dime from 1897 Philadelphia that is .900 silver. The designer of the coin, Charles Barber, was Chief Engraver of the mint and because of his position, a default “winner” of his submission of his own design. This coin is old enough for Lovecraft himself to have spent it, perhaps buying himself some Edgar Allan Poe to read…? Co-First To Find goes to Froedo Bagginz & HostaHead (LasaCana). What is that they say about the perfect warrior not needing sleep? FB&HH should keep mum from the military their geocaching-induced insomnia…!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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