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This is my first cache and it is a green wooden box attached to the back of our red carriage house. Easy park and grab, made only slightly harder by a lock whose combination will require a little bit of research into Zanesville history.
Hello, and thank you for checking out my very first cache! I hope you are as excited to find it as I am placing it. This cache is attached to our carriage house, and should be an easy park and grab from the alley. This is on my own property, but is accessible from a public alley. However, please limit your caching to daylight hours for the sake of the neighbors. Also, a little stealth may be required, but only from the neighbors, not from the owners of the yellow house (my family might try to chat you up though! Especially my dad!)
Before we get to the cache, however, I would first like to welcome you to my neighborhood, the McIntire Terrace. When this neighborhood first formed, it was the high rent district of Zanesville, and home to many of the towns upper crust. A major factor of this was the fact that the Terrace was located on the top of a hill, and was thus immune from the annual flooding that plagued Zanesville. These days, however, this is a fairly middle class neighborhood that embraces its historical trappings.
The building that the cache is attached to is what is called a carriage house, after which the cache takes its name. The original purpose of this building was to house the horses and carriage of the family living in the home. Carriage houses were the first garages, and would have featured all of the tools needed to maintain a horse and buggy. If you take the time to drive around the neighborhood you may notice ornate posts next to the curb in some areas. These also speak to the antiquated means of conveyance of the area, they are hitching posts used to tie up horses in front of the house. All of this contributes to a very antiquated air to the whole neighborhood, and I hope you enjoy visiting as much as we do living here.
Now, to the cache. This should be a very easy spot. It is a green wooden box attached to our carriage house, which is made of wood and painted red. Because this cache is such an easy find (and also as a means of protecting it from neighborhood muggles) there is a 4 digit combination lock on the cache. To figure out the 4 digits I have devised a couple of questions to get you to do a bit of research into Zanesville history. All of the answers for these can be easily found on Wikipedia, but if you are having trouble (or if you are impatient!) I will spell out the four numbers as the hint. NOTE! YOU SHOULD NOT LOOK AT THE HINT IF YOU WANT TO FIGURE OUT THE QUESTIONS, AS THE HINT IS A TOTAL SPOILER!!!
Okay, with that out of the way, here are the questions.
1) Zanesville, at one point, was one of the most important cities in the state of Ohio because of its location on the river and bustling commerce. Because of this, for a short period of time Zanesville was the state capital of Ohio. This was quickly changed to Columbus because of its centralized nature in the state, but Zanesvillians are still proud of out importance in state history. Find out what years Zanesville was the state capital. Take the last digit of the final year that Zanesville was the capital and you have the first digit of the combination.
2) One of Zanesvilles most famous celebrities is acclaimed western author Zane Grey. Zane Grey was born in the McIntire Terrace, and a memorial plaque now stands in front of the house where he was born and grew up. I recommend seeking this out if you are interested. Growing up, Grey was a bit of a rascal, and his pranks and hijinks quickly earned him the epithet of "The terror of the Terrace". The second and third digits are Zane Greys age upon his death.
3)The final question deals with Zanesvilles most famous landmark, the Y-Bridge. The Y-Bridge is both unique and important, as it unites the town across the three rivers, as well as symbolizes the importance of Zanesvilles location upon these important rivers to trade and commerce. Over the years the bridge has been built, rebuilt, remodeled, and destroyed by floods. It has been made of wood, steel, and concrete, and at times it has been both a covered bridge and a toll bridge. A common joke is that people from Zanesville aren't being mean when they tell you to go to the middle of the bridge, and turn right. The final digit on the lock is the last digit of the year in which the Y-Bridge was first constructed.
Once you have all four digits, enter them into the lock along the blue line on the face of the lock that says Brinks. After this the cache is yours.
Thank you for playing, and thank you for finding my cache. I hope to continue to bring you great caches for years to come. I also hope you learned a little something about Zanesville, a town truly mired in a very interesting historical past.
-MrBeausephus
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gjb Fvk Frira Sbhe