History of the Site: On Christmas day of 1723, six converts to the Brethren Church entered the chilly waters of the Wissahickon to perform the Christian rite of baptism. This was the first Baptist baptism in America. What made them special was that they used a total immersion baptism which is the reason they are often referred to as "the Dunkards".
After the ceremony, the group of twenty-three, returned to a cabin in Germantown for feet washing, holy communion and the lord's supper (also known as a love feast).
Thus, the Brethren Church started in the new world. They were known as German Baptists (although this name was not officially recognized until 1836, when the Annual Meeting still called itself "The Fraternity of German Baptists"). In 1871, the denomination adopted the name, "The German Baptist Brethren Church." Until the early twentieth century, Brethren were colloquially called Tunkers or Dunkers (from the German for immersionists).
Now, nearly 300 years later, there's another reason to visit this site, and if the weather is cooperative, to dip your toe in the Wissahickon.
History of the Cache:
The original Polar Bear Club was placed by GadzuCrew on Christmas Eve 2005. Hidden close to the water in honor of these early settlers. A plaque commemorating the Christmas Day baptism is on the side of the trail.
That cache was washed away during summer rainstorms in 2009; I took it over and replaced with a cache on higher ground near the plaque in January 2010.
That lasted until Hurricane Irene in August 2011, and the Polar Bear Club was archived Christmas Eve, exactly six years after original placement.
The Present Cache:
Now we have a camoed bison small, branded container, on a still higher spot near the plaque, just a few feet off the trail. The eager may want to go directly to the cache, but those who have followed the Little Prince Lusophile caches (GC23TT0, GC245RY, and GC37ENB) will want to hit Wikipedia for information about Aemilia and Nuwa, Una (1876) and Xanthippe (1875) which will provide the decimal portion of the North (2.xxx) and West (12.yyy) minutes, respectively.
Please bring your own writing instrument and please replace the cache as found.
Happy hunting!