Thirty caches are located in five different regions throughout NC. Instructions for sending the documentation are in the passport. Once all five regions are completed, you have earned a special NC Civil War trackable geocoin. Mail the passport to the address inside the passport – then your passport will be returned with your unique coin.
All of the containers are the same - camouflaged 6 inch PVC tubes - the code word you need for your passport is inside the container on a laminated card and also taped on the container that holds the log sheet. Date your logbook and add your code word in the numbered area for the cache. As the containers may become over tightened, carry a TOTT to ease the opening process.
Passports will be available at the event, some Civil War Museums in NC, and via mail if you send me you address or you can download your passport here.
Leaksville Cotton Mill:
Former Gov. John Motley Morehead built the Leaksville cotton factory here in 1839. Water from the nearby Smith River rapids powered the stone mill. In May and June 1861, the factory furnished 1,700 yards of osnaburg (a coarse, strong cloth developed in Osnabruck, Germany, by the 16th century) for uniforms for Confederate infantry companies commanded by Capts. John H. Boyd, Thomas T. Slade, and Giles P. Bailey. That winter, the factory also made 500 twelve-man tents for the Confederate forces. Known as Sibley tents for their inventor, Gen. Henry H. Sibley, who sided with the Confederacy, they were also called “bell” tents because of their shape.
When authorities ordered additional cloth from Morehead, he refused even after they threatened to confiscate the mill because sales to civilians were more profitable. After the younger male employees were conscripted into military service, Morehead used older men, women, children, and slaves to manufacture cloth. He finally closed the mill when all able-bodied men under fifty were forced to serve. Morehead later convinced Confederate authorities to detail two older men to work in the mill and resumed the production of cloth for sale to civilians.
After Morehead died in 1866, his son James Turner Morehead managed the Leaksville factory. The original structure burned in 1893, and a brick mill was built on the site using the rock from the old building as a foundation. The mill was demolished in 1992, leaving only the stone foundation.
From the starting point of the sign “Leaksville Cotton Mill: Cloth For Sale”, take 13 steps (singles) towards 11 o’clock. Don’t fall.