Oakland County - Letters From Home Letterbox Hybrid
LettersFromHome: The postmaster has determined these letters are no longer deliverable. They have been returned to sender.
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Oakland County - Letters From Home
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Parking for the caches in the "Letters From Home" series can be found at N43 02.850 W85 48.512 (Marne), N43 07.578 W85 52.886 (Conklin), and N43 11.031 W85 56.816 (Ravenna).
| Cache is not located at the coordinates listed above. See below for further details |
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| LETTERS FROM HOME |
OAKLAND COUNTY |
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Oakland County is composed of 61 cities, townships and villages, and is part of the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city of Detroit is located in neighboring Wayne County, south of 8 Mile Road. Oakland County is among the ten highest income counties in the United States with populations over one million people. It is also home to Oakland University, a large public institution that straddles the Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills border.
The county's knowledge-based economic initiative, coined "Automation Alley", has developed one of the largest employment centers for engineering and related occupations in the United States. But Oakland County has shared in the recent economic hardships brought on by troubles at General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. It has fared better than Detroit and Flint, as its economy is more diverse and less reliant on manufacturing jobs. All three automotive companies are major employers within southeast Michigan and have a significant presence within Oakland County. |
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Founded by Territorial Governor Lewis Cass in 1819, sparsely settled Oakland was originally twice its current size. As was customary at the time, as populations increased, other counties were organized from its land area. Woodward Avenue and the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad helped draw settlers in the 1840s. By 1840, Oakland had more than fifty lumber mills, processing wood harvested from the region and the Upper Peninsula. Pontiac, located on the Clinton River, was Oakland's first town and became the county seat. After the Civil War, Oakland was still primarily a rural, agricultural county with numerous isolated villages. By the end of the 19th century, three rail lines served Pontiac, and the city attracted carriage and wagon factories. In the late 1890s streetcars were constructed here and to Detroit.
At that time, developers made southern Oakland County a suburb of Detroit; a Cincinnati firm platted a section of Royal Oak called "Urbanrest." Migration worked both ways. Several thousand people moved from Oakland County farms to Detroit as the city attracted factories. By 1910, a number of rich Detroiters had summer homes and some year-round residences in what became Bloomfield Hills. The auto age enveloped Pontiac in the early 1900s. The Oakland Motor Car Company was founded in 1907 and became a part of General Motors Corp., which was soon Pontiac's dominant firm.
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To find the geocache, you must follow these instructions:
1. Read through the description of Oakland county. In year "A" Oakland had fifty lumber mills. In Year B the Oakland Motor Car company was founded. Oakland is composed of C cities, townships and villages. Let D = A+B+C-408.
2. From the posted coordinates travel D feet on an azimuth of 241.5 degrees
3. You will find what you are looking for hidden in typical fashion nearby. |
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In each geocache container you will find a stamp. Use this stamp to complete your Map of MI (related webpage above)
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| Remember to bring your own ink pad. No ink pads will be placed in any of the geocache containers in this series. |
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| For more on Oakland County visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_County,_Michigan |
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For those that might not have tools to project waypoints geolifeline.com may be of some use to you.
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| There are 83 caches in this series. That is a lot to maintain so feel free to help by bringing along a spare bag and maybe a towel to dry out anything that gets moisture in it. Please keep the containers hidden from muggles. Thanks for playing. |
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Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
uvqqra va glcvpny trbpnpuvat znaare
Treasures
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