Hitting the Books - Hope Springs Eternal Multi-cache
Hitting the Books - Hope Springs Eternal
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Welcome to the Spartanburg County Public Library "Hitting the Books" Geocoin Trail!
On this page, there is a link to download your passport. At each Library, you can find a geocache nearby that contains a specific stamp. Collect and record these stamps on your passport and you can collect your very own unactivated SCPL Geocoin!
The year was 1885. Grover Cleveland had just been inaugurated the 22nd president of the United States. Mark Twain had just released his classic novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” And October 17, 1885, Spartanburg's first “public” library opened.
Thanks to a gift from Mrs. Helen Fayssoux Kennedy, the Kennedy Library opened its doors on the lot where her husband's office once stood. It began with a grand total of 900 books and a $3 per year subscription fee. Her gift honored her husband, Dr. Lionel Chalmers Kennedy, a well-known and respected physician who had died five years earlier. Among the library's first holdings was Dr. Kennedy's 600-volume medical library and some 300 other books collected and donated by the citizens of Spartanburg.
The library began an explosive period of growth between 1969 and 1979. An automated circulation system became operational in 1979, making Spartanburg the first public library in a four-state area to do so. A year later, the library system loaned half a million books for the first time.
In 1980, the Boiling Springs Business and Professional Association was formed for businesses and clubs in the Boiling Springs area to network and plan for the area's growth. One of their early goals was to establish a branch library in the area, which until then only received weekly Bookmobile visits. They helped to form the Boiling Springs Friends of the Library, which eventually procurred the funding needed to create the Boiling Springs Branch Library. The library opened on January 2, 1984 and was formally dedicated on January 21st, 1984. The library remained there until the current location was built. Formal dedicated happened on April 17, 1994.
The Library building was expanded and updated on the same site and that dedication happened on November 9, 2008.
Boiling Springs by all rights should have been named Boiling Spring. There’s only one, and it used to be deep and roiling. People came from all over to see the pure water shoot six feet into the air, and the roar of the geyser could be heard from a quarter mile away.
By 1765, there were farmers living in the area, and by the 1780s, two churches had been established. According to early accounts, Boiling Springs received much consideration as a location for the county seat before Spartanburg was chosen.
The textile industry forever changed many communities of Spartanburg County, but Boiling Springs stayed true to its pastoral roots with peaches becoming a source of income in the early 1900s. Businesses grew up around Highway 9, with general merchandiser P.D.’s Place at the corner of Highway 9 and Parris Bridge Road becoming a landmark. Otis J. Cantrell’s Mercantile was a longstanding store located beside the spring.
Recreation has played a major role in Boiling Springs during the 20th century and beyond. Rainbow Lake, north of Boiling Springs, was a popular resort. Amid the controversy of integration, Spartanburg Water Works officials announced in April 1968 that because of the expansion of the R.B. Simms Filtration Plant the lake would not reopen for the summer season. It never reopened as a recreational facility. Lake William C. Bowen was completed as a water source and recreational facility in 1960. Lakes Bowen and Blalock, also north of Boiling Springs, provided the impetus for more recent upscale housing developments that have greatly spurred growth in the community.
As for the spring, its glory days are over. By the 1930s, it had become a shallow, barely bubbling dimple of water. Development encroached on the spring in the late 1990s. In 1998, the spring’s surroundings were landscaped and an enclosure built around the spring’s opening. However, as you can plainly see, the commerce has still remained and flourished!
Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blessed:
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
– Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man
At the posted coordinates, you will find yourself at the Boiling Springs namesake. Use the following info to solve for the final cache location:
N 35° 02.6[AA]
W 081° 58.8[BB]
As you are on the sidewalk approaching the springs, to your right is a large dark granite marker commemorating the local veterans. On the front of this marker, how many stars are above the eagle on the seal? Add this to the TOTAL number of stars on the FRONT of this monument.
This number is to be substituted for [AA]
Continue down the path to the spring, where you will find the historical marker. At the very bottom of this marker is a date. Add all of the numbers of this date together and then add 45 to that amount.
This number is to be substituted for [BB]
As with many caches, be aware of muggles!
Boiling Springs Library Hours:
Mon, Tues, Thurs - 10am to 8pm
Wed, Fri, Sat - 10am to 6pm
Sun - 1:30pm to 6pm
Download your "Hitting the Books" Passport Grid here to begin:
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
V nz fghpx va gur "L"