Working the Rails Letterbox Hybrid
Hidden : 1/23/2016
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:


Welcome to Toronto! This cache will bring you to a little known monument close to the skydome in the entertainment district. The cache is a letterbox so you should find a stamp inside the bag with the logbook, please leave it there!

The monument is a tribute to the many Chinese railroad workers who lost there lives in the process of building the great railroad from coast to coast. A railroad that was instrumental in the development of Canada into the great nation that it is today.



The History of the railroad
Back in 1867 when confederation created the "Dominion of Canada", the country was a lot smaller than the continental sized country we see today. The colonies of Upper Canada (Ontario), Lower Canada (Quebec), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were well established at this point but there were still a lot of problems the first government had to face. For cities like Toronto and Montreal, the shipment of goods was heavily reliant on ships coming from Halifax, down the st. lawrence and the great lakes and for between 3-5 month of the year this route would be frozen over. Travel by land was possible but taking a shipload of goods by horse was not exactly an easy endeavour.

Another major worry was the constant threat of an attack from the United States of America. Today Canada and the USA boast about having the longest unprotected border in the world and are closing trading partners and allies. But this was not the case in the late 1800s. The americans had tried and failed to "conquer canada into liberty" back in 1812 and constantly seemed to be looking for another expansion project. If the American forced attacked, it would be hard to rally troops quickly.

MacDonald's Plan
Sir. John A. MacDonald was one of the key advocates for the creation of the Dominion of Canada and became the first Prime Minister of the country. His government met with representatives from the colony of British Columbia to talk about working together. He lured them into agreement under two terms.
1) Formation of a police force to protect western lands
2) Creation of a railway that would connect BC to the capital of Ottawa

With this dream the stage was set. The government purchased the large expansion of land (known as Rupertsland) that was owned by the fur trading Hudson's Bay Company and begun work on the railroad. They renamed the land "the Northwest Territories" and formed the Northwest Mounted Police (aka the Mounties) to petrol Canada's new territory.



The gruelling work and loss of life
In 1881 construction of the railroad commenced, with the last spike being driven in on the 7th of November 1885. Building a railroad through mostly uncharted Canadian wilderness was no easy task. This required a lot of work to get the job done. Seventeen thousand men from the province of Kwangtung, China came to work on building the railroad through the Rockies. The men laboured long hours in one of the most dangerous jobs of the time. They would have to use nitroglycerin to blast through the tough rock and then work to clear out the rubble. It was an extremely physically demanding job and considering how unstable nitroglycerin is, it was far from a safe job. All this, in hopes to earn enough money to support their families back home in China.

In total four thousand of these brave men lost there lives to complete this railroad and thousands had no means to return back to China when the job was complete. Their names all lost in the history of Canada.

The Monument is a touching tribute to those who worked so hard and lost their lives in order for Canada to progress and prosper into the great nation it is today.

Visiting Toronto?
Are you looking for some fun caches to do while sightseeing? Well here's a list of some Tourist Friendly finds in the city. They are all at key sightseeing spots, or really interesting. Or check out the Great White North Geotour - Toronto Trek to explore the entertainment district and be part of a Canada Wide Adventure!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Lbh znl arrq gb gnxr n fgrc bagb gur qveg. Hc haqre n envyvat, jrqtrq va avpryl. Cyrnfr znxr fher vg jbag snyy!

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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