118 WGA Geo-Art Mystery Cache
Wisconsin Geocaching Association: On 11/30/2016, the WGA GeoArt was published. The 2022 Board of Directors along with BigJim60 who is the trailboss of this awesome GeoArt have made the decision to retire the WGA GeoArt starting 09/01/2023. Thank you to all that have made the trip, or multiple trips to find these 192 caches over the years.
The cache containers will be picked up and will not qualify for the WGA Cache Rescue game.
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Welcome to the WGA Geo-Art Series! The cache is NOT at the posted coordinates. Please solve the puzzle below in order to find the final.
Official State Fruit of Wisconsin
Wisconsin designated the cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) as official state fruit in 2003 (Act 174); the result of a class project of 5th-grade students from Trevor Grade School in Kenosha County. Cranberries are grown in 20 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties (mostly in the central part of the state), and Wisconsin accounts for over half of the nation's cranberry production. Cranberries are a tradition for all Americans at Thanksgiving (and also a state symbol of Massachusetts).
Cranberry Facts
Cranberries evolved in unique wetland conditions created by melting glaciers (they are now commercially cultivated in "bogs" in the northern United States). This tart, ruby-colored berry was first named "crane berry" by the Pilgrims, presumably because just prior to blooming, the flower and stem resemble the head of a sandhill crane (these birds also love cranberries, and were seen wading the bogs, scooping them up).
Cranberries were important in the diets of native Americans for hundreds of years before the Pilgrims landed. They ate them raw, dried, boiled with honey or maple sugar, and baked with cornmeal into bread. A mixture of cranberries, cornmeal, deer meat, and animal fat was pounded into cakes and dried in the sun to make pemmican (a 'trail cake' that did not spoil for hunting trips and long journeys).
Native Americans also used cranberries for dye to color robes, rugs and blankets, and for medicinal purposes (they believed cranberries had a calming effect on nerves, and they made a poultice from cranberries to draw the poison from arrow wounds). Pilgrims learned about the berry from the American natives and cranberries became part of the colonial diet as well.
Sailors began taking cranberries aboard ships for whaling expeditions and the long journeys to China (cranberries are high in vitamin C and prevented scurvy).
Cranberries are one of only three commercially cultivated fruits native to North America (blueberries and concord grapes also originated in North America).
Cache is located at the following coordinates:
N44 36.abc W 090 03.def
a: Y-R-B-E
b: C
c: R-N+A
d: R/B
e: A+B
f: R/C
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
purpxfhz = svsgl-svir