Geocaching the Pacolet #3 “Mill History” Mystery Cache
Geocaching the Pacolet #3 “Mill History”
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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We will get you to the geocache, but first, a little history on how Pacolet came to be.
Pacolet began it's modern day existence as Trough Shoals.
The rushing water at Trough Shoals was first used for the operation of a mill to grind corn meal. This was built in the late 1700’s or early 1800’s and was known as Hancock’s Mill. Part of the foundations of this mill still exist below the dam.
Later on, water powered mills to produce flour, saw lumber and to gin cotton were also built on the Pacolet River at Trough Shoals. The site was used for commercial purposes for well over a half century before the textile industry came. A small community existed at the present site of Pacolet Mills before the coming of the textile industry.
The first Pacolet Manufacturing Company mill at Trough Shoals was known as Pacolet Mill No. 1 or Pacolet No. 1. It was completed in 1883 by John H. Montgomery, John B. Cleveland, Joseph Walker, and Dr. Charles Edwards Fleming, with the financial aid of Seth M. Milliken of New York.
Mill No. 1 was three stories high and was right beside the river at the south end of the dam. The mill flourished and by 1884, it had 250 workers and about 500 people lived in the village. The success of the mill led to the construction of the four story Mill No. 2 as an addition and enlargement of Mill No. 1. This construction work was started in 1888 and this mill was also very successful. Mills No. 1 and 2 stretched for 600 feet along the river.
However, a great disaster awaited the mill company, the community and all the residents of the Pacolet River valley. On June 6, 1903, the Pacolet Mills community and many others were struck by the Great Pacolet River Flood.
In just a few hours of an incredible rush of water, the Pacolet Mills Company operation was almost destroyed. Both Mills No. 1 and No. 2 were completely demolished. Downriver, Mill No. 3 was badly damaged. The covered bridge was washed away along with a church, a cotton warehouse and its contents, a meat market, a barber shop and the post office. A hotel that stood where the Cloth Room does today was also destroyed. In spite of all this devastation, only one person lost their life at Trough Shoals. He was a mill employee and was trying to retrieve floating cotton bales from the water when he drowned.
The community lost much of its population temporarily as the people had to go to other communities to find work. Officials of the Pacolet Mills Company asked other textile mills in the Spartanburg area to find jobs for their workers while they rebuilt. Most of them responded favorably and gave many folks employment. Eventually life and business at Pacolet Mills got back to normal. Another different type of disaster struck the Company and the workers in the late 1920's and 1930's with the coming of the Great Depression. The Mills had to "curtail" or cut down to only operating a few days each week. Many workers lost their jobs The economy of the area and even of the entire US did not recover until World War II. World War II brought a tremendous amount of business to Pacolet Mills and the other textile plants of the Upstate. However, there was a cloud on the horizon that most people could not have even imagined, It was to be worse for the Pacolet Mills community than both the Great Flood and the Great Depression.
The textile industry, all over the South, found itself in trouble. Competition from countries with cheap labor seemed to be the main problem. The bad news hit Pacolet Mills first in 1957 when the Old Mill (Mill No. 3) was closed. It was torn down a few years later. In 1983 the New Mill (Mill No. 5) was closed. It was torn down around 1995.
The textile era at Trough Shoals had come to an end. It had lasted about 100 years.
Finding this geocache shouldn't take you as long as it took to read that little history lesson!
This two-stage puzzle cache is located in the heart of the Pacolet. You will begin at near the entrance to the Town Hall.
Here you will find a commemorative marker for Walter Green. Note the year that this marker was placed.
The final Stage is located at:
N 34 55.XXX
W 081 44.ZZZ
Subtract 1819 from the year and place the resulting 3 digit number in XXX
Subtract 1468 from the year and place the resulting 3 digit number in ZZZ
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Qba'g srapr zr va!