THERE IS NOTHING HIDDEN at the posted coordinates, but they do point you near to a fine place to park for this easy puzzle. Welcome to Bonneville Point, named for U.S. Army Captain Benjamin Bonneville, an early Idaho explorer whose party reached this viewpoint along an old Indian trail in 1833. Since, it has became a fondly remembered location for emigrants on the Oregon Trail as they took in their first view of the Boise River Valley.
This geocache is here to commemorate three things: the peoples who lived here before Bonneville showed up, a song about the plight many Indian tribes have faced, and the local band who performed this song into a #1 hit in the USA. (If you don’t care to read about any of these, hey, it’s basically just a double Park ‘N’ Grab).
"Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)" is a song written by John D. Loudermilk. The song was first recorded by Marvin Rainwater in 1959 and released on MGM as "The Pale Faced Indian", but that release stayed unnoticed. The first hit version was a 1968 cover by Don Fardon — a former member of The Sorrows — that reached number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 3 on the UK Singles Chart.
As performed by the Raiders, "Indian Reservation" entered the Billboard Hot 100 on April 10, 1971. It climbed to number two on late June, where it stayed for three consecutive weeks, stuck behind Carole King's double single "It's Too Late"/"I Feel the Earth Move". On July 24, it reached the top spot for a single week. "Indian Reservation" spent a total of 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. On 30 June 1971 the RIAA gold certified the record for selling over a million copies. The record was later certified platinum for selling an additional million copies. The song was the group's only Hot 100 number 1 hit and their final Hot 100 top twenty song. Raiders lead singer Mark Lindsay is part Cherokee.
A story told by Loudermilk is that, when he was asked by the Viva! NashVegas radio show about the origins of the song "Indian Reservation", he fabricated the story that he wrote the song after his car was snowed in by a blizzard and he was taken in by a small group of Cherokee Indians. A self-professed prankster, he spun the tale that a Cherokee chieftain, "Bloody Bear Tooth" asked him to make a song about his people's plight on the Trail of Tears, even going so far as to claim that he had later been awarded "the first medal of the Cherokee Nation", not for writing the song, but for his "blood". He went on to fabricate the detail that on that day the tribe revealed that his "great-great grandparents, Homer and Matilda Loudermilk" were listed on the Dawes Rolls (the citizenship rolls of the Nation). Had this detail of his tall tale been true, he would have been a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, which he was not. Neither the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, nor the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, nor the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma communities are known as "reservations."
We happen to be big music fans, and so do our kids. Please enjoy the hunt for this easy puzzle cache!
THE PUZZLE... Stand in front of the infographic signs. Pay attention to the one titled, "The Shoshone and Northern Paiute."
NORTH COORDINATE: N 43° 29.ABC
WEST COORDINATE: W 116° 02.ADE
A = According to an 1845 emigrant, clothes could be traded for horses, costing a range of dollars to obtain a "very good horse." SUBTRACT the lower amount from the upper amount to get A.
B and C = The Idaho Territory Governor struck the first of two treaties in the year 18___ ___. B and C are 18BC.
D = According to the information below "Echoes of an Ancient Homeland" (the title for the sign doesn't mention all of them), there were ______ tribes whose families called this landscape home. That number = D.
E = C + D.
You now have the information you need to find the final stage, less than a third of a mile from here. You may Geocheck your answer here: http://www.geochecker.com/index.php?code=d41a02e5b33f08444ea2eca311ed8f4f&action=check&wp=474337465a325a&name=22496e6469616e205265736572766174696f6e2220e18fa3e18eb3e18ea9e18eaf20e18ea0e18fb0e18eb5 Chances are Stage 2 / final are on your way back to I-84.
For more about Bonneville Point, check out these links:
Bureau of Land Management https://www.blm.gov/visit/bonneville-point
Boise the Great http://www.boisethegreat.com/articles/bonnevillepoint.php
If you enjoyed this cache, please check out our tribute to the band -- a traditional cache in downtown Boise: GC63KWM Paul Revere & the Raiders https://coord.info/GC63KWM (premium members only). The band had its roots in Oregon and Idaho. Or check out our easy puzzle in Meridian: GC7KX1F https://coord.info/GC7KX1F for more Native American information.
First-To-Find prize is a collectible coin rarer than our usual leave, a 1938 Denver Buffalo nickel, issued 99 years after the creation of Cherokee Nation. This coin design has been acclaimed for many years for its unique American motif and artistry. The sculptor of this coin design had various models: from the Cheyenne, the Sioux, and also possibly the Iroquois and the Blackfoot Indian tribes. The buffalo model was “Black Diamond,” a resident in the New York Zoological Gardens. Congrats to dizziellama for again being FTF, well done!