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Woodville's lost and forgotten Multi-Cache

Hidden : 3/2/2014
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

This is a three stage multicache with a roundtrip mile or so of moderate up and down walking along a new path. The given coordinates are to stage 1, this gives co-ords to stage 2 etc. This Park in Collier is still being heavily developed... The final is a lost and overgrown cemetery of the hundreds of unlucky to die, nearly all of them un-named, unnamed at Woodville Hospital .  


Woodville State Hospital was also known as Allegheny County Hospital and Home for the Insane and Tuberculosis Sanitarium.  All of the Hospital buildings are now long gone- part of the surrounding farmland is now owned by Collier township and being developed as a semi-wild grassland/wooded dog friendly park, (Hilltop park).  The parking coordinates overlook some of the old farmland that supplied the hospital with grazing and growing land and achieve some self sufficiency (much of the adjacent farms also became Nevillewood golf community).  Collier has now made a nice path for you from Stage 1, which is a small camoed lock'n'lock located at the site of a slabbed farmhouse/barn long gone- this contains coordinates to find stage 2.    Stage 2 is a camoed 5 inch long pill bottle hidden off the ground and is on the outskirts of the wooded area containing the lost cemetery, it has co-ordinates for the final stage and an added helpful hint.  Final stage is a large screw cap container, with several better than average goodies and loot. A warning..this graveyard becomes very overgrown in the summer months and will need a bit of bushwacking.   As with any wooded area, wear clothes suitable for tics etc.  it may get muddy. A hint is to find and take the backpath to the final past the big "new" marker. Think and wonder about the thousands of lost souls buried and taken over by nature.      Obviously please pay the site your full respect.  
 
  A little history;- Woodville State Hospital or Allegheny County Hospital and Home for the Insane and Tuberculosis Sanitarium, was founded as the Allegheny County Home for the Poor in 1854 over a large parcel of land between Hilltop Road and Thoms Run road.  The Hopsital was finally closed in 1992 after a long and sometimes dark history.   At the time of it's closing, the hospital still cared for 460 patients, many then sent to Mayview State hospital.  The hospital buildings, which were extensive, were torn down and land was divided up- developers made a new 4 million dollar District 11 PennDOT  Headquarters, built on the front lawn of the hospital off Thoms Run road, completed the same year the hospital closed. The CV Primary School, the up and coming residential Nevilleside development and the park are the benefactors . The only remnant of the hospital is rubble behind the cherry hill drive community, brick piles on top of the hill, a couple of old biulding basements here and there and the power plant smoke stack, visible in a deep hollow area adjacent to I79 on the other size of Raceway Plaza. The latter was a site of a NASCAR racing in the 50s to 60s..The hospital cemetery remains mostly hidden and deeply buried in a wooded and overgrown area, but is marked in a clearing with a memorial, erected in 1987 at the entrance to the cemetery. it shows the dates of the cemetery as 1867-1949 (apparently Father Deville, the pastor when woodville closed, told me the date is wrong, it should be 1943). Most graves in the woods are simply numbered on markers 10" tall, in neat rows.  It has been estimated there may be 900 graves or more.  One grave is marked with a more typical tombstone of John Nayder - 1868-1932.
 

new note: The Gravesite has been occasionally cleaned up, and about a quarter of it now open to view (as of 2016). Most of it is still pretty buried in the woods. So its fair to say that its not so much "lost and forgotten", but more " Collier knows youre there, we just need to find time to clean you all up...." enjoy! IF you cannot do this cache due to the long hike, you can drive to a different parking location (see parking is listed in " Woodvilles lost and forgotten ii john heim " cache gc5m635) at the end of marigold street but get the coords from stage1 first- or ask me

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

fgntr 1- va n yvggyr oevpx ubhfr Fgntr 2 va gur zvqfg bs sbhe fgntr 3 fgntr 2 unf gur tenir ahzore bs gur svany- gur "onpx" cngu vf rnfvre

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)