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.
Roanoke Canal
The Roanoke Navigation Company - a collaboration among North Carolina, Virginia, and private shareholders - began building the Roanoke Canal in 1819. The company created an inland navigation system from the upper Staunton and Dan Rivers in Virginia, down the Roanoke River through North Carolina, and then via the Dismal Swamp Canal to Norfolk. Construction of the 8.5-mile-long canal around the Great Falls of the Roanoke to the terminus of the project in present-day Weldon, using mostly slave labor, took several years to complete. Locks were built in three locations and an aqueduct was constructed over Chokoyotte Creek in Weldon. The canal boats, or batteaux, were about 60 feet long with an 8-foot-beam. Often, free blacks and slaves were engaged to pole them; each vessel transported 10-12 hogsheads (5-8 tons) of cargo. The canal operated until the railroads, providing more efficient transportation, forced its closure in 1859.
Four major railroads served Weldon, making the town a major transportation center by 1861. Because of the movement of troops and supplies was such a critical component of the Southern war effort, the Roanoke Navigation Company experienced a resurgence. The canal was once again used to carry regional farm products to the rail junctions at Weldon for Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Although Union forces destroyed ports, railroads, and bridge throughout the South, the Roanoke Canal remained in service until the end of the war. The navigation company function through Reconstruction era until it ceased operations in 1875.