This cache is one of several placed in Herculaneum to celebrate the Great American Eclipse (GAE), August 21, 2017. Not since 1442 has a Total Solar Eclipse occurred in this part of Missouri. In fact, it has been 148 years since a Total Solar Eclipse has occurred anywhere in Missouri. And the next Total Solar Eclipse will not occur in this part of Missouri until 2505! I doubt anyone alive today will be around to see the next one.
Eclipse Timeline in Herculaneum
Partial Eclipse Starts: 11:49:46 am
Totality Starts: 1:17:06 pm
Totality Ends: 1:19:38 pm
Partial Eclipse Ends: 2:44:37 pm
Please wear special eclipse viewing glasses for all phases of the eclipse.
In 1798, Moses Austin, a settler from Connecticut, obtained a Spanish land grant of one square league (approximately 3 square miles) of land after learning of the richness of the area’s mineral deposits. After bringing in equipment and workmen from Virginia, he began mining and smelting lead, despite frequent problems with the neighboring Osage tribe. In 1808, Austin and Samuel Hammond laid out a town at the mouth of Joachim Creek. The purpose of the new town was to serve as a shipping point for the lead smelted at mines in Jefferson and Washington Counties. It is believed the town was named by Austin, who called it Herculaneum, because the limestone strata were so eroded that they resembled seats in the amphitheater of the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum buried by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D.
The first post office in Jefferson County was at Herculaneum, established soon after the town was laid out, and it remained the only post office in the county for nearly thirty years.
By 1813, three shot towers had been constructed on the bluffs. These were designed for the production of shot balls by dropping molten lead through copper sieves. The balls were then caught in a water basin and taken to an adjoining building, to be turned through cylinders to round and smooth the pellets for use as projectiles in firearms.
On December 8, 1818, Jefferson County, along with seven other counties, was formed from parts of Saint Louis and Ste. Genevieve Counties by an Act of the Territory by the Missouri State Legislature. In 1819, Herculaneum was named as the county seat. The county seat was relocated to Hillsboro in 1839.
In 1970, acting on an incorporation petition from 1819, a committee for the incorporation of Herculaneum filed a petition with the Jefferson County Circuit Court, asking the court to order Herculaneum incorporated and to appoint commissioners to oversee an election of a Board of Trustees. On September 15, 1971, the Jefferson County Circuit Court took under advisement the petition to reactivate the incorporation of Herculaneum. Attorneys presented evidence that Herculaneum was incorporated on July 27, 1819, two years before Missouri became a state. Attorneys also claimed that the boundaries of the town were well established by common knowledge. On January 7, 1972, the Jefferson County Circuit Court notified the Herculaneum incorporation committee that the 1819 incorporation was being reactivated and that Herculaneum would officially function as a city.
An election was held on April 4, 1972, for the purpose of electing a five-person board of trustees. On April 9, 1972, the trustees were sworn into office. Donald Stotler was unanimously elected to serve as the first chairman of the board of trustees. On September 5, 1972, the City of Herculaneum officially opened the doors to city offices located in the old Douglass School building at the end of Wedge Street. On April 3, 1973, the first board of aldermen and the first mayor were elected.
This cache is available only during the day. NO night caching. Bring your own writing instrument. Permission for this cache placement was granted by Mayor Bill Haggard.
A gold dollar coin is the reward for the first to find this cache.