The Heartland Trail was one of the first rail-to-trail projects
in the country. It is a 49 mile multiple use trail between Park
Rapids and Cass Lake. The trail is located entirely on a level
abandoned railroad grade except for a four mile segment north of
Walker, on sharply rolling terrain. The 27 mile segment between
Park Rapids and Walker has a paved surface. This segment also has a
second grassy treadway for horseback riding and mountain biking.
The 20 mile segment from Walker to Cass Lake is also paved, with a
partial dual treadway for snowmobiles with studded tracks.
The name of this cache comes from the location of one the local
towers that used to be near here. Forest Fire Lookout towers in
Minnesota have a long history as in other states across the nation.
The earliest were "Tree lookouts" , a few of which can still be
located in the northern counties. Most of Minnesota's forestry fire
lookouts though were constructed during the era of the 3 C's, the
Civilian Conservation Corps, a project of Franklin D. Roosevelt's
"National Recovery Act" of the 1930's. Thousands of young men were
put to work doing projects across the country. Another divison of
this was the WPA or "Works Project Administration".
In Conservation, hundreds of steel fire towers were erected
during this time, many in Minnesota's back woods and rolling
farmlands. It was said that at one time, there was a fire tower
every eight square miles in the northern counties of the state.
State Parks and National Parks were created under Roosevelt's
administration, and to guard them were built fire towers. They were
operated by CCC boys and later on, most were turned over to the
Department of Natural Resources DNR.
The final location of this cache brings you to the footings of
the DORSET Fire Tower that was taken down in the mid 1990's. Often
it costs more money to take down one of these old towers than is
economically feasible, so many unfortunately have been sold just
for their scrap metal value.
Container is a plastic jar painted with camo to match it's
surrounding.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on
Geochecker.com.