Ohio's Trees #12 - White Oak Mystery Cache
Ohio's Trees #12 - White Oak
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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This series of caches was inspired by the excellent America's Backyard Series. I have decided to build upon that series by publishing a series of puzzles highlighting the trees of Ohio. Each puzzle has a final at or near its namesake tree.
The cache is NOT located at the given coordinates. You must solve the following puzzle to find the actual coordinates.
The White Oak (Quercus alba) is among our thirty largest and most valuable forest trees. Average specimens will be from 60 to 80 feet in height nine with a trunk diameter of from 1 to 2 feet; but it often attains a much larger size thirty. Occasionally we still see seven old giants from the virgin forest which are often well over 100 feet in height, with trunks from 3 to 5 feet in diameter. Freshly cut stumps of such three large specimens reveal that they are from 3 to 5 centuries old, by actual ring count. The White Oak grows slowly but attains a good old age. Open-grown trees in age develop a broadly-rounded crown composed of six many massive branches which are often gnarled and twisted. It is tolerant of most soils except those that are very wet, and is found in bottomlands and dry ridges alike.
The wood of the White Oak is very heavy, eighty hard, strong, tough three, and close-grained; a very high-grade, all-purpose fifty wood. It is among the best nine woods known for tight cooperage, and among the three finest for furniture and hardwood flooring. Other uses are for ship building, the manufacturing of wagons and agricultural implements, eight railroad ties, posts, and for fuel. The nine acorns of the White Oak are quite sweet and edible, and they were made into flour by Native Americans for use in bread-making. They are a very important source of mast and are utilized as food by many kinds of wild birds and mammals.
{Adapted from The Illustrated Book of Trees, William Carey Grimm, 1983}
You may read more about the White Ash tree in Ohio and see photographs of the tree and its bark, leaves, fruit, and twigs at this Ohio Department of Natural Resources webpage.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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