Folks have been driving over this river for years without ever knowin' the story of how she came to be. Rumor has it, and mebbe the tale's growed in the tellin', that Paul Bunyan hisself is responsible.
Back when he was just a youngster, Paul came head to head agin the Whistling River. In his time of contemplating, folks say Paul sat for four days eating popcorn and trying to figure out how to tame that river. He ate so much popcorn that the air was soon filled with white bits and the ground for three miles around was covered with eighteen inches of popcorn scraps. This caused several hundred small animals and a few dozen birds to conclude that they were in a blizzard and so they froze to death. This furnished the loggers at the camp with pot pies for several days.
Anyways, that gave ole Paul a tooth for popcorn, so he needed a nice place to growed him a few rows. He hitched up Babe to a plow and started a furrow for his corn, almost eighty miles west of here in Grant County. As you could expect, it took nearly all day to plow a furrow that long and deep, so Paul knocked out on this hill here and fell fast asleep.
He forgot to unhitch Babe from the plow, and all the poor ox could reach was yucca, which musta made her plumb loco when she ett of it. In her madness, she took off back to west and dug another furrow, though not nearly as pretty and straight as the other, and it surely filled in all their day's hard work on the prior one.
Paul woke and saw what Babe had done, but he was powerful hungry, so he started a fire and rustled up some grub before takin' out after his stock. It took him two days to eat enough to quiet the grumble in his belly, and by then he was in all-fire hurry to be after Babe. When he caught up to her, her spavine nature belied she hadn't eaten for days, and Paul was so overcome by grief that he cried for three weeks, the water from his tears filling in the furrow that Babe had plowed.
Now you might call me a liar, but I got proof, if'n I can only find it. When Paul finished his breakfast, he took off in such a light that he forgot his matchstick holder. I ain't been able to find it, but mebbe you'll have better luck.
This is adjacent to a dead end road and you can drive fairly close, with a short walk uphill in sandy terrain with yucca and cacti. Please do not attempt this one from Highway 83, as there is not really room to park, and it will be an unnecessarily difficult climb.
You will have a nice view of the Dismal River valley from the cache locale. Respect the area, CITO if needed, practice stealth if warranted, rehide the cache as you find it so the next person can have the same challenge, and please post no hints or spoilers. Thank you and good luck.
Congratulations "sheaman", "jackrabbit1", & "8a" : First to Find - April 02, 2012
