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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Park at the gate. (It's there to keep the hooligans out.)
A walk down the level, lightly graveled path, and the old Ottawa mission grounds will be before you. The cache is waiting just a little farther ahead in a camoflauged container that is decently packed with swag.
Adults and kids alike should like the classic cache placement but please take time to notice the markings on the rocks nearby and think of how and when they got there.
The hint is primarily for the kids.
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Here's a bit of history about this place and the Ottawa Indians....
On the 26th day of September, 1833, the Ottawas ceded their lands on the west shore of Lake Michigan for a reservation in the country which was to become Kansas. This treaty was made by only a portion of the tribe, which was, and is to this day, widely scattered. The Ottawas of Blanchard's Fork were to have thirty-four thousand acres, and those of Roche de Boeuf were to have forty thousand acres. This land was laid off in a single tract, which contained seventy-two thousand acres. It was on the Marais des Cygnes River, and the city of Ottawa, Kansas, is located about the center of the reservation. The Ottawas settled on their new land in 1837 (a few arrived in 1836), and there were arrivals for some years later.
The Baptists founded a mission among these Ottawas. Rev. Jotham Meeker had labored among those of the tribe in Michigan. In 1837 he was at the Shawnee Baptist Mission. When Rev. John G. Pratt came to the Shawnee mission, Mr. Meeker went on to the Ottawas, arriving in June, 1837. Buildings were erected on what is now the northwest quarter of section twenty-eight (28), township sixteen (16), range twenty (20). They stood on the south side of Ottawa Creek directly east of the present town of Ottawa. All the buildings put up there must have been of temporary character, for they had entirely disappeared before 1866. The old cemetery is still preserved. Meeker died at the mission January 11, 1854. Mrs. Meeker died March 15, 1856. Both are buried in the old cemetery. The church which they founded was presided over by John T. Jones, known as "Ottawa" Jones, a half-blood Ottawa, who had been educated at Hamilton, New York. The printing press which had been installed at the Shawnee Baptist Mission was moved to the Ottawa mission, where many books for use among different tribes were printed. This was the first printing press brought to the country which became Kansas. G. W. Brown bought it of Mr. Meeker, and used it in the office of the Herald of Freedom, at Lawrence. S. S. Prouty bought it from Brown, and used it to print Freedom's Champion, at Prairie City. It was then taken to Lecompton and used in the office of Solomon Weaver. From Lecompton it was taken to Cottonwood Falls, and from thence to Cowley County, finally going into the Indian Territory. The type used at the mission was scattered over the prairie by the Indian children. The press was a Seth Adams press. There were twenty stars on it, indicating that it was made in 1817, when the Union contained twenty states.
The Ottawas left Kansas in 1870, going to the Indian Territory. On June 24, 1862, they had made a treaty disposing of their lands. The land-shark stood by to despoil the Indian. There is not a more miserable story in all land transactions than that of the Ottawa reserve.
NOTE: Notino the Medicine Man is over by the fence. Mr. & Mrs. Meeker are together and to the south of Notino.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Puvrs'f neebj cbvagf gur jnl.