Hartman Farm - Peruna Traditional Cache

On the south side of Columbus along US Route 23, a man by the name of Doctor Samuel B. Hartman owned that was once the largest operating farm in the United States. There, he grew grapes and processed them for his invention...the "Cure-All" for every ailment. From measles to blindness to arthritis to the common cold, Hartman's Peruna, or as he spelled it PE-RU-NA, was the cure for everyday Catarrhal illnesses. Perhaps this was due to the large amount of alcohol the so-called cure-all drug contained, nearly 25%. When doctors finally convinced medical associations that Peruna was nothing more than a strong whiskey, the drug was discontinued. Hartman's medicine empire came to an end in the 1940s.

 

However, the Hartman Farm was much more than just a place to raise grapes for the defunct medicine. One of the uses was as a large dairy farm. Many say that Columbus became known as "Cow Town" when southerners traveled north along Route 23 to look for work. When they passed through Hartman Farm and saw the massive dairy farm, they knew they had arrived in Columbus.

 

Today most of the land the Hartman Farm once occupied is a huge quarry (one of the largest in the Columbus area). Sections of I-270 were also built atop the old farm land. Only a few of the original buildings have survived, including one of the dairy barns (now a storage building for the quarry), an occupied home that sits next to a modern barn, a lonely one-room school house that has been abandoned since the 1960s, and a home along Parsons Avenue. 

 

To celebrate the snake oil salesman, Samuel Hartman, I have hidden this cache on land once used as his farm. This is community land within the subdivision where I reside ( which is on the farm land) so you are safe to search anytime.  This is a good first find or a good kids search.  I wanted to make it accessible for all.

 

Please take and leave an item and sign the log book