In order to find this cache you have to figure out a few things. First of all, you will need to know who HE is. This should be all you need:
Born in Portland, Maine, HE was a traveler, a linguist, and a romantic who identified with the great traditions of European literature and thought. At the same time, HE was rooted in American life and history, which charged his imagination with untried themes and made him ambitious for success. HE wrote:
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! ?
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,--act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Stage one
Once you know who HE is solve the following puzzle and fill in the results in the coordinates:
- AA = how old HE was when he died.
- BB = last two digits of the year when HE became, at age forty-seven, one of America's first self-sustaining artists.
N 43 38.7AA W 070 16.4BB
These are the coordinates that will lead you to a place associated with HEro and where you will find the last pieces of the puzzle.
Stage two
The location is only open dawn to dusk and no dogs are allowed on the premises.
Once at the location you will see 11 stone "structures."
- Count the number of the large letters set in stone directly ahead of you. The word should be familiar to you by now. Number of letters = CC
- Find KINSMAN and note the 4th digit in his year to get D
- Find INGRAHAM and note the number that you get by solving this simple operation 2nd digit - 3rd digit - 4th digit=E
- Find DYER and note the 4th digit in his year to get F
N 43 39.4CC W 070 15.DEF
The final coordinates will lead you to yet another HEro-significant place in Portland.
We hope you will enjoy or enjoyed the poem, puzzle and cache.
As HE wrote - well, sort of - 'Geocaching' Life is real!
Happy New Year!
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.