Charles H Wilcken capture Traditional Cache
Charles H Wilcken capture
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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This cache is located about 4 miles South of Church Butte near where the Granger Road crosses the Blacks fork. The original second crossing of the Black’s Fork is 0.4 miles north-northwest of the bridge and .3 miles east from the road. Find the buried fiberoptic cable route and go just beyond the 3 small hawthorne trees. It may be more difficult to access when the water is high as it was earlier this year.
Charles Henry Wilcken, my great grandfather, was a professional Prussian soldier who had joined the army under col. Albert Sidney Johnson and sent by President Buchanan to put down the rebellion in Utah. He described the army as “more like a mob than a regular army and I soon became disgusted with my situation”. On Oct 7, 1857, he deserted the army which was camped at the Ham’s fork crossing camp at present day Granger and walked 15 miles to this point, the 2nd crossing of the Blacks Fork where he was captured by Jonathan Ellis Layne, a Mormon militiaman camped at the Big Bend of Blacks fork. He was treated well by his captors and helped Bill Hickman heard 150 US Army cattle to Salt Lake for “safe keeping” passing through Echo Canyon on Oct 11. He described his captors as “a different class of people, no swearing, no fighting. Everyone I saw and came in contact with seemed to enjoy a different kind of spirit. Prayers morning and night were novel to me, but I cheerfully bent my knees with the brethren”.
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