Cache Is Not At The Posted Coordinates
Mr. Toot is the mascot not only of the North Iowa Band Festival, but also for Mason City as a whole. His image has appeared on everything from T-Shirts to business cards to city light poles. Now his image also appears on the geocaching map just south of Mason City Iowa. Each of these puzzles will include a fact or story in theme with the art series. Some may also include a question or two for you to answer correctly to find the coordinates.
Mason City
As the years went on a number of manufacturing ventures were launched with a flourish of optimism only to be doomed to defeat. There were, for instance, the Verney Organ Company, which build pipe organs, the Chase Manufacturing Company, which made gasoline engines and manure spreaders, and Martin Manufacturing Company, maker of tin ware. It was soon after the turn of the century that the Verney Organ Company established a factory here and manufactured pipe organs. William C. Verney, head of the new enterprise, had made himself a celebrity in this county and in Europe by building an automatrom orchestra, which was exhibited at the Paris expositon.
The making of organs got under way, but the factory operated only a short time, giving up its building in 1913 to the Martin Manufacturing Company. This company mapped out an ambitious program that included a purchase of a tract of land, West Haven, which it subdivided into lots, ostensibly to provide living quarters for its employees.
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Note: According to a Globe-Gazette article, March 13,2012, Verney Organ Company operated in Mason City for about 10 years. William C. Verney had received a patent on his pneumatic system for organs, called the Verney Individual Value System. The Verney organ, relocated to Cedar Rapids, was at risk of being dismantled for parts until it was purchased by the VIVA! Performing Arts School in Dixon, Illinois, where it was installed intact in Philander Hall, one of the performance venues of the school. Only two other Verney Organs still exhist - one in Terre Haute, Indiana, and the second in Highland, Wisconsin.
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