Branigin Woods - The Unfinished Park Traditional Cache
Branigin Woods - The Unfinished Park
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This cache is located in Branigin Woods Park, a Franklin Parks property.
SEPT 2025 UPDATE: There are two parking waypoints now. "2025 Parking" is the location of the park sign in the neighborhood, with public access to the woods between two houses. This is street parking in the neighborhood, NOT a dedicated parking lot. DO NOT block driveways if you park on the neighborhood street!
If there is no suitable parking near the park sign, try the "2021 Parking" waypoint. This is the west end of Aberdeen, where the road meets the field. From here, you can walk to the park sign using the neighborhood sidewalk, OR use the sidewalk just north of the neighborhood (see "Trailhead" waypoint) to get to the north end of the woods.
While it is easy to get to the shelter, the rest of the woods have gotten thicker over the years. There is no clear hiking trail to the cache. Expect bushwacking at all times of the year, especially late-spring to early-fall. This is NOT a park-and-grab!
This is a Franklin Parks property, so be sure to observe regular park hours (dawn to dusk - NO NIGHT CACHING). Also note that these woods are pretty wet for a while after rainfall, so choose your footwear accordingly.
DO NOT attempt to approach the cache from the east, through the businesses on US-31. The field space between those businesses and the treeline is NOT part of the park property. The same goes for the fields to the south, between the cache and Commerce Drive.
BACKGROUND ON THE PARK
Back in 2011-2012, Franklin Parks and Recreation listed Branigin Woods Park as a 13-acre facility featuring such amenities as a shelter, greenway trail, playground and picnic areas. The property currently differs a bit from this description.
The shelter and (some) trails are there, but there is no playground, and the areas that used to be open and mowed have been allowed to revert to field grass. There is no proper signage or parking lot. Surprisingly, this property is an unlikely casualty of the downturn in the housing market.
There used to be more WOODS here at Branigin Woods, but a lot of it was cleared to make room for the Branigin Woods subdivision. The housing developer donated the remaining wooded land to the city of Franklin, to be used as a city park. Franklin began installing the park improvements while the developer worked on the new subdivision. The shelter was built and the trail was cut through the woods. A large playground was installed and the parks department started mowing the open areas.
Then the housing market collapsed, and many developers went out of business, including the one responsible for Branigin Woods. None of the roads on the east side of the subdivision were finished before the collapse. These are the roads that would have been adjacent to the park's parking lot. In addition, one of the last houses built in the subdivision was placed directly on the route that the parks department had planned to use for the main roadway into the park from the south.
This all left the park in a state of limbo. Many of the improvements were already made, but the proper infrastructure to provide access to the property was missing. The parks department did not have the budget to finish the road work itself, and the new developer for that neighborhood had no interest in finishing the roads until it started selling new houses there again.
It was decided to cease improvements on the property to wait out the housing situation. The large playground installation, which was a significant investment for the department, was moved to the south end of Province Park (it is the new brown/green playground that is visible from South Street). The picnic tables were removed from the shelter, and the regular mowing was discontinued. The park trash cans (with lids on chains) can still be seen on the greenway trail, along with the short posts that were to be used as trail markers.
Since this is still a Franklin Parks property, and the public is still welcome to enjoy the wooded trail, this cache is here to bring some new visitors and awareness to this small strip of woods. Hopefully we'll see this park finished and fully operational someday.
This information is paraphrased from Mr. Rocky Stultz, the assistant superintendent of Franklin Parks and Recreation Department.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
pnir bs jbbq
Treasures
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