The American Crayon Company Traditional Cache
jarcc: Bye bye, love the history behind this cache, hope someone can resurrect another in it's place
The American Crayon Company
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This is the site of the former Tiffin Crayon Company.
The modern crayons that we're all familiar with are made out of wax and first produced in 1903. But crayons made in the late 1800's were basically sticks of colored charcoal requiring large supplies of wood, and the kilns to manufacture them, Tiffin once had a factory that manufactured this early version of crayons. On November 11,1889 the City of Tiffin sold 5.5 acres of land (originally intended for a city park), to "The Western Crayon Company" with construction of the plant completed by July 1890. The company name was changed to "The American Crayon Company" in 1893 when it merged with two other crayon companies, and it's headquarters was in Sandusky, OH. Then on a cold and windy night on December 1st 1893, it all came to an end when a fire broke out in a drying kiln at 2 a.m. The fire department arrived quickly, but the nearest fire plug was 2000 feet away and flames had already spread to nearby building. According to the newspaper, "flames illuminated that whole portion of the city" and within one hour the main building was completely destroyed. The loss was estimated to be $23,000, but the company only carried $8,000 in insurance coverage. On December 11th, 1893, it was reported that the plant would not be rebuilt and salvaged machinery would be shipped to Sandusky. Today there is very little evidence that the Western/American Crayon Company of Tiffin ever existed. Most of the company's paperwork was likely destroyed by the fire and there is only two known wooden crayon boxes that say Tiffin, Ohio on them.
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