Idaho's 150th – The City of Trees’ Trees Traditional Cache
QuireNerd: It’s with a heavy heart that I archive this—it’s my most-found cache. I’m just not close enough to maintain it, though, so it’s time to let it go. 😞
Idaho's 150th – The City of Trees’ Trees
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Size: 
(micro)
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Idaho Territory's Sesquicentennial
Idaho Territory was organized by Congress on March 4, 1863, and signed into law by President Lincoln. This cache series is meant to commemorate the 150th year since Idaho’s inception.
The City of Trees’ Trees
If you had stood in this spot in the 1870s you would be in the middle of Lafayette Cartee's nursery, a layover for many of Boise's historic trees. His 24-acre nursery covered between Grove and Myrtle and 3rd and 5th streets and included a greenhouse and a cannery. Cartee ordered his initial stock from Bloomington, IL, spending $176.70 for the trees and $55.39 for postage. You could have found plum, cherry, crab apple, quince, mulberry, black walnut, balsam, fir, Norway spruce, box elder, sugar maple, and even orange trees.
In the spring of 1869, the Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman reported:
“The tree maina (sic.) prevails in this city. Almost every street is already ornamented with poplar, cottonwood, and willow trees, and as but few men are in the tree business, they observe a strict system of setting them out in a true line, and of the proper depth to make them live with a good supply of water. We flatter ourselves that we will be the premium or star city of the plains, when the water ditch is completed, and the street shrubbery abundantly supplied. The trees already set out make a marked change in the appearance of our city. Some of the new owners had problems, though:
“We have noticed in several cases horses tied to young shade trees. The trees are entirely too young for such treatment. They are being raised at great expense and trouble. Give them a chance, and in four or five years they will be strong enough to hold horses."
Years later, a census taken of the city's trees showed an incredible variety, unmatched by any other town in the area.
References
-- “Trees in Early Boise.” Idaho State Historical Society Reference Series, no. 31.
Cache Information:
Can be muggle-heavy. Use stealth, or the cover of night.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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