Welcome to the Badlands Traditional Cache

A few tidbits of information that I learned from researching some history of Coaldale that I never knew.  It was named Coaldale in 1883 to distinguish it from Coal Banks in Lethbridge.  During the 1930’s a crest was designed to include a sugar beet, an irrigation shovel, a steer, a branding iron, and sheaves of grain.  This is interesting to me since I grew up on a farm that grew sugar beets and grain on irrigated land, raised cattle and clearly remember when my dad branded cattle.  The second hospital to be opened in Coaldale was an old hotel from Hardieville that was moved in by two tractors for a total cost of $570.  WOW!!  I know the third hospital was torn down when I was in Junior high and condo’s were built in its place.  It was a sad day to see the old hospital and the water tower get torn down.

If you combine the number of years that our family of four has lived in Coaldale it would be over 75 years.  We have ALL grown up in this town and have created many memories here.  This sign went up last summer and was calling out to be the home of a cache.  Hope you enjoy the lake and you might be lucky enough to see the group of pelicans that migrate back to this spot every year (depending on the time of year of course).  Hope you enjoy this cache as we had fun coming up with it.  There is a road side turnout near the cache location and you will need to bring your own pencil/pen to be able to sign the log.