CACHE: IT IS NOT AT THE POSTED CORDS. Do not park at posted cords, this is the location of the old Stone School, but it's private property. Once you solve the puzzle this cache is a park and grab. Puzzle can be done at home prior to adventuring or you can park south of here at the township hall, located at the intersection of Marathon and Klam Roads. Part 1 of the puzzle is a word search found in the cache images. Part 2, use the leftover letters to help decipher clues to the final.
N43 06.ABC W83 23.XYZ
Clue A = Column 1 has how many leftover letters?
Clue B = Last column, 2nd unused letter down, if this letter was a roman numeral it would be valued at what?
Clue C = 2nd to last row, one unused letter is repeated how many times?
Clue X = In the line containing the word school, how many times is the letter K used?
Clue Y = The letter before and after the word stove is the same. If A has a value of 1 and Z has a value of 26, this letter would be?
Clue Z = In the word list, one of the words has the same amount of letters as the number of the place it is in the list, what is it?
HISTORY: A school for this area was established prior to 1862, with the school located at the NW corner of Marathon and Klam Roads. The little building that sits across from this location was not the school and has always been the Oregon Township Hall building until a modern one was built on the SW corner. It is unknown what this first school was made up, typically it was hastily made and considered a shanty. Often these "leftover" buildings were moved and used for a barn on a nearby farm when a more suitable structure was built. When the first school was needed, Oregon Township didn't have a large population, and most of the residents lived near Millville. Twelve sections in the township out of it's 36 didn't have any residents at all, and of the others more than half were land speculators who bought the land for the timber. Once these lumbermen cleared the land, farmers settled in quickly. Some settlers cleared their own land, however a great portion of Lapeer County was booming with lumber companies. They had better means to get the great pines growing in and around the thick swamps. Some contracts were made between farmers and cutters. Often it is the trees that grew on the land that were cut to build the houses and barns that sprouted up after their demise. Oregon eventually grew by leaps and bounds due to it's many lakes and the main artery of the Flint River traversing through one third of it's sections. The railroad came shortly after. It is with all of this growth that historians are surprised the township didn't have any major communities, the area stayed pretty rural, but more on that history when I do the Oregon cache. By 1874, enough children were in the area to need a more permanent school. Stone School was built on the McGunegle farm and from stones he milled out of his fields, and as you can guess that's where it got it's name. He placed the school on his land near a watering hole and because of this, it was one of the last schools to get indoor plumbing. As with most schools in Lapeer County, Stone was closed in the late 1950's, early 1960's when modern multi-room buildings were built. Most of the children who attended Stone School went to Mayfield School and thus on to Lapeer High School. A few may have attended in Columbiaville. Seaton School didn't exist for several more years. The school sat empty for a spell before becoming a residents and today it sits empty and neglected, the present owner unfortunately not able to maintain it at this time. The original bell is in their care. It is private property and not much of the school can be seen from the public right of way despite sitting mere feet from the road. There are photos attached this this cache listing. It is by far one of the most unique of the 200+ one room schools that existed in Lapeer County, as almost all of those were made of brick and wood.
A huge thank you goes out to Nomer4 for checking the puzzle before I published.