A Little Inspiration Goes A Long Way Virtual Cache

Nolde Forest History:

Nolde Forest sits on land formerly owned by Jacob Nolde, a hosiery baron and environmentalist who immigrated to the United States from Germany. He first arrived in Philadelphia in 1880 and eventually relocated to Berks County where by 1897 he formed his own textile enterprise, Nolde and Horst Company, which employed five-hundred workers in Reading knitting mills. When Jacob first saw this land in the early 1900s, it had been either farmland that had lain fallow for a number of years or scrubby deciduous forest just beginning to recover from being stripped to make charcoal by colliers for the nearby iron furnaces.

However, Nolde saw potential and in 1904 bought the first five hundred acres of what would become Nolde Forest. After purchasing the land, he found a single large white pine growing in the middle of vegetation by the sawmill, about 500 yards down the valley. Inspired by this single tree, he said: "If one white pine can grow here, why not others?" He then set out to create the most beautiful pine forest in Pennsylvania to be a source of family pride and pleasure. His dream was that his forest would resemble the coniferous forests of his native Westphalia.

The original white pine tree, known as the "Inspiration Pine" by the family, was soon surrounded by a forest of native and foreign coniferous trees that were planted by Nolde with the help and the supervision of Austrian born forester William Kohout. Kohout was a master forester and Nolde hired him as head forester for Nolde Forest. Kohout later hired a contractor to build roads and trails to the forest to help prevent and fight forest fires.

Nolde and Kohout had planted nearly 500,000 coniferous trees by 1910. Some were set in cleared plantations and others were underplanted in the oak forest. His system yielded a showplace of forest management and became known as the "Berks County Method." At this point, Nolde realized that his dream of a small forest had surpassed all his expectations and saw the need to properly manage the forest which he did until his death in 1916. Nolde Forest was eventually acquired by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the late 1960s and it became the first environmental education center to be operated by the Bureau of State Parks.

Logging Requirements:

Make your way to the posted coordinates starting from one of the parking areas listed below. I think you will be impressed by what you find. Then perform the following requirements to log the cache:

Photo Requirements:

Take and post a picture of yourself fulfilling ONE of the following requirements (the choice is yours...you can do both if you want!)

Option 1: Standing next to the tree at the posted coordinates with the mansion in the background. Your pose must replicate Jacob Nolde with the Inspiration Pine as shown in the picture on the cache page.

OR

Option 2: On or near the back patio with the large tower in the background.

Additional photos are encouraged, but please no spoiler photos.

Messaging/Email Requirements:

Walk around the mansion and look for the green and white information signs telling about its history:

1. Find the sign titled "Hans Nolde". What is the pool lined with?

2. Find the sign titled "Library and Tower". What did the family place at the base of the tower steps each year?

3. Find the sign titled "Servants' Wing". According to the sign, where are you standing?

4. Find the sign titled "Nolde Children" and use it to locate the child sized door on the mansion. On the door, there are iron nursery rhyme characters. Name 5 of the nursery rhymes depicted on the door.

I prefer the messaging center on Geocaching.com for sending your answers, but email will work okay too. Please send your answers before you post your log. I reserve the right to delete any logs that do not have the required picture attached and/or the correct answers sent.

Additional Waypoints:

The Mansion parking lot closest to the posted coordinates is listed in the waypoint section. It is only open Monday-Friday 8AM-4PM. All cars must be out of the lot by 4PM. If you visit outside of these times, you will have to use one of the alternate parking lots.

The larger alternate parking lots (Sawmill, Gate#3, and North Pond) are also listed in the waypoint section. These parking lots are open 7 days a week from sunrise to sunset. Please note that the terrain rating will increase if you hike in from one of these alternate lots.

The mansion is where the park office is located. It is also open only Monday-Friday 8AM-4PM. If you can, plan your visit during these times so you can get a tour of the inside too.

Park Regulations/Trail Maps:

Pets must be leashed at all times, no Alcoholic Beverages, no Bicycles allowed in the park.

Follow this link to see the online trail map: Nolde Forest Trail Map

Virtual Reward - 2017/2018

This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.