Kerns Fort was built by Michael Kerns in 1774 on a 400 acre land grant located on both sides of Decker's Creek. Settlers sought refuge there during the hostilities of Dunmore's War. The fort also served as a mustering location in January of 1778 for volunteers recruited during a Revolutionary War campaign to Ohio. It was never successfully attacked, and was still in use as a fort in the mid 1790's.
An all denominational church was built at Fort Kerns in 1785 for settlers who included Methodist congregants, and who would later establish churches elsewhere in the Morgantown area.
Information for this cache was taken primarily from the first two volumes of Earl Core's The Monongalia Story.
According to documentation from the National Register Historic Places, the structure began as a log cabin to which a fortifying perimeter stockade was added later. For more information concerning Fort Kerns, you may follow the link http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/monongalia/93000225.pdf.
Two things were remarkable during the research for this cache, first was the contrast between dense urban scene of the fort's current locale, and the forested Western frontier of the in colonial 1774. Perhaps when you arrive at GZ you will get a sense of how Deckers Creek valley looked to the settlers who were seeking life and sustenance nearly 250 years ago. Secondly, the continuity of faith evidenced by the establishment of a church at the fort, which in time developed into other churches in Morgantown, the subject of a cache under development.
The coordinates above will take you to a small marker in the Greenmont area of Morgantown. The solution to the puzzle can be obtained from the marker, and information from the cache page.
The cache is located at N39 37.ABC and W079 56.DEF where:
A is the first number in the acreage of the land grant.
B is the number of the letters of the seventh word on the marker.
C is the first number on the last line the marker.
D is the number of letters in the fourth word on the marker.
E is the number of letters in the second word on the marker.
F is the number of letters in the fourteenth word on the marker.
A new trackable awaits the first to find!
Congratulations to TwitchyandNixxy for the FTF, you were up early today!