This is a series dedicated to our love of history and the wonderful hobby of geocaching; once we saw that other cachers were enjoying our history-oriented caches, this series was the logical next step! Each cache in this series will tell you about a piece of Lanark Highlands history, including stories of the people and events which shaped this region. Once you have read about the history of the location, you will be able to feel the past around you as you explore the site and search for the cache itself.
The caches range in difficulty and terrain, but they should all be quick finds. They are all in quite rural/treed locations where GPS accuracy is often questionable, but none are difficult hides and we have provided helpful hints it you need them. They are all traditional caches, except where ideal locations are inappropriate for a cache, in which case simple redirects are used. For each cache page, though we have written the story, much of the information and many of the photos are courtesy of the Lanark and District Museum; please do not reproduce the story or photos without consent from the author (Matt Stafford) or the Museum. We hope you have fun learning something new and interesting about each location you visit in the Lanark Highlands; happy caching!
Jacob's Well
While each of the other geocaches in the Lanark Highlands History series deal with the region’s history following the arrival of European settlers in the 1820s, this cache is dedicated to the thousands of years of history prior to their arrival. This cache will bring you to a geological formation known as a pothole, indicative not only of the interesting geological history of the region but also important in the area’s aboriginal heritage.
Known locally as Jacob’s Well, likely a biblical reference, the hole that you can see from this cache’s location is in fact a pothole. Potholes (also called rockmills or kettles) are round depressions in solid rock ranging from very small to many feet in diameter and depth. They are a relatively rare geological phenomenon formed by a process known as corrasion, a geomorphological process by which bedrock is eroded by materials transported by running water. This process occurs when a fast-moving current, transporting rocks and other sediments, flows over bedrock. When pebbles and other materials become trapped in a small depression in the rock, the moving water causes them to swirl around, eroding the edges of the depression. The flowing water keeps the fragments in motion, constantly wearing away the sides of the depressions, which gradually become deeper and wider, forming a pothole.
As mentioned, this process requires certain ingredients to be possible, namely a stream or river carrying sediment and moving rapidly over bedrock. Though this cache is some distance from the nearest river or lake, the pothole indicates that this was, at one time, the bed of a river. This pothole was likely formed approximately 12 000 years ago, as massive glaciers receded at the end of the last glacial period, or ice age, leaving in their wake the massive expanse of exposed bedrock known as the Canadian Shield. As the land rose up from under the weight of the ice sheets in a process known as post-glacial rebound, lakes and rivers formed and eroded the land into its current topography, and created formations such as this pothole.
While this is almost certainly the process which created Jacob’s Well, local legend tells that it was created and used by Native Americans. As 
you can see above, and given the fact that the hole is hewn from solid bedrock, it is very unlikely that it was created by hand; however, though not created by Native Americans it was quite possibly used by them, as stories suggest. Prior to European settlement, the Lanark Highlands were populated by members of the Algonquin First Nation, and the numerous artifacts found in this particular area, including on the farms close to this cache, suggest the one-time existence of a well-established native population. Artifacts found in this area include spearheads, arrowheads, and other tools dated to 5000-1000 BCE during the Archaic Period; as Aboriginal tribes of this era were the first to live in Southern Ontario these finds are, archeologically, extremely important. The native population was still present in this area when European settlers began to arrive, and accounts such as this one by a Dalhousie pioneer detail their first encounters;
When we first came to Dalhousie the Indians were quite numerous, as many as fifteen or twenty families went up the river every fall to their different hunting grounds. When they first made their appearance, we were a little afraid, but as they were remarkably civil, we soon were all right. They only wanted to trade with us, offering us mitts, venison and skins on reasonable terms for potatoes, corn and flour, all of which was quite acceptable to us, and quite a trade went on for a number of years, quite satisfactorily to both.
In the same account, the settler later wrote that “alas! The familiar bark canoe has long since ceased to float on the placid waters of Dalhousie Lake, and nothing remains but the relics of pottery, arrow heads, etc. to tell of what had once been.” While use of this particular pothole cannot be proven, the number of artifacts found in this immediate area indicates that there was certainly a native presence here, and archeological research has proven that potholes were indeed used by ancient peoples. Common uses of potholes included grinding corn and other materials much like a large mortar and pestle, and boiling food by filling the pothole with water and adding superheated stones. The story of Jacob's Well is a great reminder of the rich history which existed in the Lanark Highlands prior to the arrival of those often referred to as the area’s first settlers.
PLEASE NOTE- New Lanark Highlands History caches were placed in rural areas using an iPhone; coordinates have been checked many times but if you encounter a problem, please let us know by personal message and we will attend to it right away. Useful hints have been provided if you need help!