Ohio's Oldest Building Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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This cache is a micro, holding a pencil and log. Parking is available on Coshocton CR 254, app.
1/2 mile SE of the intersection of US Rt.36 and Ohio Rt. 751 in
eastern Coshocton County, Ohio. There is no hike involved as you
park right at the cache site.
Located just south of the present-day south bank of the Tuscarawas
River, near West Lafayette in Coshocton County, stands Ohio's
oldest building. It is a small (16' X 16') sandstone structure,
with rifle ports, known as the "Old Stone Fort". That the "Old
Stone Fort" is Ohio's oldest existing building, and one of the
oldest European-built or early US buildings west of the Appalachian Mountains, is not in
question. The question and the mystery is, who built the
"fort"?
There are three possibilities for the builder and date of
construction: French explorer d'Iberville, around 1679; frontier
fur trader George Croghan, around 1745; and original settler and
owner of the land where the "fort" stands, Isaac Evans, around
1800.
Frenchman d'Iberville recorded building a fort "northwest of the
Ohio River". Is that a reference to the "Old Stone Fort" or to Ft.
Sandusky? Around 1918, an old French bronze compass was plowed up
in a nearby field, lending credence to the d'Iberville
theory.
British fur trader George Croghan, who was respected by the
Indians, was asked by them to build a fort to protect them from the
French. Records show that Croghan ordered two cannons. One was sent
to Ft. Piqua in western Ohio. Was the second cannon brought to the
"Old Stone Fort"?
While Isaac Evans' granddaughter would later say the "fort" was
built by her grandfather as a smokehouse, other family members said
the structure "was an antique" when Evans first settled along the
banks of the Tuscarawas around 1800. Did Evans rebuild the
crumbling edifice for use as a smokehouse? That is a possibility,
since smokehouses don't normally have vertical gun slits, called
embrasures, to provide a field of fire for rifles. Additionally,
numerous rifle balls have been plowed up at the site over the
years.
Whether built around 1800, 1745, or 1679, the "Old Stone Fort"
still stands as Ohio's oldest building!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Yvxr na reenag snfgonyy, vg'f uvtu naq vafvqr.
Treasures
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