CACHE: No need to step off the grass to find stage 2. The container is camo'd from muggles and to be a trickier hide. You'll need a pen. If you've cached Rowden Park already, see Puzzle #2. You must visit Stage 1 to solve either puzzle. All waypoints are for those solving Puzzle #1, which takes you on a tour of the park and past a few other caches. Both puzzles take you to the same cords.
PUZZLE #1: N43 03.ABC W083 18.XYZ
A = The # of letters in the 2nd word of the sign at N43 03.855 W083 19.008
B = The # of letters +4 in the 1st name on the bench at N43 03.969 W083 19.030
C = At N43 03.945 W083 18.905 count the tall yellow things and +1
X = Subtract 3 from # of mailboxes at Stage 1, the subject of this cache.
Y = Add the numbers on the concrete post starting with a D at this location N43 03.879 W083 18.806.
Z = In front of Stage 1 there are horseheads. Count them and +3.
PUZZLE #2: N43 03.DEF W083 18.XPZ
D = The _th owners turned the mansion into a hospital.
E = 3rd # in the address.
F = Last # in the year the mansion was built.
X = See Above
P = Add the #'s of the speed limit in front of the mansion.
Z = See Above
HISTORY: The house on Pine Street is formerly known as the Peter VanDyke Mansion, added to the National Register of Historic Places 26 July 1985. Peter VanDyke was the man who built the 1875 French Second Empire mansion in Lapeer. It is 3 stories, with a walnut spiral staircase and 69 windows. Interior woodwork is made up from cherry, walnut and oak. VanDyke sold the house to Samuel Tomlinson, editor of the Lapeer Clarion. He moved here from his home at 841 N. Calhoun Street, also on the National Register and often called the Watermelon House because of the colors it appears today. Tomlinson sold the Pine Street property to a John Williams who in turn sold to the 4th owner, Robert White. White owned Lapeer Brick and Tile. It's said White then sold to Clarence Butler.
The 6th owners of the structure is who added the most interesting, and most well known, historic to the building. Sisters Frances and Mary Ellen Hunter established a hospital here after much renovation and upgrading of the electrical. They opened 6 September 1924 and continued to run the hospital until 1 August 1953. Frances (1887-1965) was a registered nurse and Mary Ellen (1882-1971) did all of the administrative duties. Both women helped the others with cooking and cleaning, as well as other odd jobs. The ladies, who never married, lived on the first floor. Eulalie Bullock was the first of 1,778 babies born here. The hospital had originally 9 beds and 5 nurses, and a slew of doctors who had practiced here. It upgraded the amount of nurses to 8 and 18 beds, opening up the 3rd floor to patients, they had to be carried up by staff. One of the doctors was the well known Dr. H.B. Zemmer. Some of you may be familiar with the school, park and road, all named for him. Dr. O.J. O'Brien was the saving grace of the hospital during the Great Depression. He was also the mayor and would hold mayor's birthday balls to raise funds for those who couldn't afford to pay their bills. Lapeer County built a new, modern hospital by 1954, when the ladies chose to retire. Both are buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery in Clifford.
The 7th owner reverted the mansion to a private residence and presumably the 8th owners converted it to apartments in the 1960's. The current owner did a huge restoration to it in the 1990's. The roof was originally black shingle and at one time it had a huge tube as a fire escape on the south side. Ron Jarvis, a columnist with the local paper, writes that there was a shootout between the Lapeer and Oakland Co. Sheriff departments and robbers in Deerfield Township. It ended tragically with one of the robbers fatally shooting himself so he wouldn't get caught and an Oakland deputy was fatally shot on the lawn here.
[FTF] goes to Nomer4 and [STF] goes to S&M. Special thanks to The Dawgs for testing out parts of the puzzle for me before publishing.