B12: ☠ The Pirates of Sumas Lake ☠ Mystery Cache
grafinator: Sad to say this one has bitten the dust. Maybe someday I will build a new container.
B12: ☠ The Pirates of Sumas Lake ☠
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(large)
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Lake History
Sumas Lake was a body of water between Sumas and Vedder mountains which was drained in 1924 to create more farmland in the Fraser Valley. The 40 km² (15 mi²) lake, which swelled to 120 km² (47 mi²) during flooding was drained by diverting the flow from the Vedder River into the Vedder Canal. The conversion of this area to farmland led to the settlement of the community of Yarrow beginning in the late 1920s.
The above sign can be viewed at N 49° 03.398 W 122° 10.703
(don't forget to do the waymark while there too)
The Geocache
This geocaching story is loosely based on actual historical events and dates. I hope you enjoy it. (Use the story to solve the puzzle)
In 2010, a geography class from the University of the Fraser Valley was on a field trip along the Fraser River, just west of Chilliwack, B.C. The class was in the field to learn about river and glacial deposits in the area. After digging down approximately 6 feet, to expose sediment layers, one of the students discovered a corked bottle. The bottle was cracked, but the contents were still legible and in relatively good condition. The glass bottle contained two pieces of paper. One of the papers had the following hand drawn map on it...
The other piece of paper only consisted of a few words.
Here is a digital replication of that second piece of paper...
Yer after me piece of eight and doubloons, ye Bilge-sucking pirate! Ye best be LAST, or ye be dancing with Jack Ketch!
X marks the spot
Godspeed!
- The Pirates of Sumas Lake
Curiosity got the best of the instructor, and once the field trip was complete, she said if any students wanted to do a research project to learn more about the Pirates of Sumas Lake they would receive bonus marks for the course, 5 students took her up on this offer. With thoughts of long hidden treasure on their minds, the students performed their research, but were having difficulty coming up with anything useable. After researching for 8 long months their luck turned after an old librarian suggested they speak to a local hermit. The old man apparently knew of the Pirates of Sumas Lake due to a tale his father used to tell him when he was a young boy back in the 1930's. The old hermit gave them a detailed version of the tale as follows.
According to the old hermit, back around 1771, a Spanish galleon, part of a three ship exploration expedition that visited what is now British Columbia, floundered off the westcoast of Vancouver Island during a heavy storm . The two remaining galleons were able to recover most of the crew and cargo, but some of both were lost when the ship finally sank.
About a year later, in 1772, when Captain James Cook of Great Britain was on his expedition to chart the region, two of his crew found a handful of silver pieces of eight and gold doubloons, as well as a few jewels (type unknown), on the beach just south of what is now known as Bamfield. Captain Cook, having previously heard of the sinking of the Spanish ship, speculated that this could be part of the last cargo. He marked the location his crew found the treasure in his personal journal and later passed the information to his commanding officer back in England. No recovery mission was ever planned.
Around 1840, when the first permanent colony was established in present-day Victoria, the great-grandson of Captain Cook, Cropton Fleck, was one of the settlers to come over. As a child, Cropton grew up with the tales of his great-grandfathers journeys and therefore knew of his great-grandfathers discovery fifty years earlier. Times were tough for Cropton in Victoria and he often dreamt of going north to look for the long lost treasure that his great-grandfather and his crew had discovered. After thinking about it enough, Cropton finally decided it was time to travel to the location to see if he could find anything. Armed with a copy of his great-grandfathers old journal, a horse, and a few tools, Cropton started his journey. If Cropton could find just one gold doubloon, it would significantly enhance Cropton's financial standing.
The history books state that Cropton returned to town a month later with pockets full of gold and silver. Unfortunately, Cropton came unprepared and was only able to bring brack a small portion of the cargo which had washed ashore. When he returned to town, he celebrated after selling most of his loot to the local goldsmith.
Two weeks later, Cropton returned to the location with some pack mules to retrieve the remainder of the cargo but it was all gone. It would seem the ocean had claimed the treasure for itself again. Or, it may have also had something to do with the fact that during his drunken celebration, Cropton regrettably shared his information with a few other patrons in the saloon. No history of the disappearing cargo exists again until 1926, over seventy years since Cropton Fleck had found it on the beach near Bamfield.
The missing cargo made a return to the history books when a man purchased materials to build a house in the newly developing community of Yarrow with a gold doubloon. Due to the rarity of these coins, it is believed it was part of the cargo of the old sunken Spanish galleon. In 1922, Yarrow consisted of about twenty households situated on Majuba Hill and the Vedder River Flats.
With the draining of Sumas Lake planned and construction started, the population of Yarrow grew rapidly with people preparing to utilize the newly available land for farming. The population doubled within two years. With the influx on new people and money, there is always the attraction of people with unsavoury reputations.
Reports of muggings and stolen property increased in the area and two new sheriff deputies had to be hired to help deal with the problem. Early one morning, the day before Sumas Lake was to start being drained an old man came running to the Sheriff's office screaming and ranting like a mad man. "They've stolen my treasure, they've stolen my treasure, help me, they've stolen my treasure!"
A witness came forward later that day saying he had seen two men rowing across the lake with a large chest in their boat. The witness said that he thought it was odd that the men would put such a large chest in a small boat because the boat looked like it was going to capsize, but didn't give it any further thought until he had heard the news about the stolen property of the old man.
After a lengthy search, the rowboat was found on the west side of the now draining Sumas Lake. After a two day search of the nearby woods turned up no leads, the boat was given to the old man as compensation for his lost treasure.
The two robbers were nicknamed "The Pirates of Sumas Lake." They were never found or heard from again.
The geocache can be found at:
N 49° ☠☠.☠☠☠
W 122° ☠☠.☠☠☠
FV
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
gur chmmyr: Ab zngu vaibyirq. Lbh jvyy arrq gb hfr gur jubyr fgbel gb fbyir gur chmmyr. Gur xrl gb fbyivat gur chmmyr vf va gur obggyr.
gur pnpur: Arne ebbg raq bs byq snyyra gerr (erdhverf n yvggyr ovg bs ohfujnpxvat, jnyx nybat gur genvy hagvy vg bcraf hc n yvggyr ba lbhe evtug fvqr, tb hc fznyy fybcr orfvqr genvy, naq jnyx va sebz gurer)
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
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