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
It is strange when doing research on various topics that you run across conflicting accounts. Earlier, we learned (or thought that that we had) that Mason City was named after the Freemasons who lived here. The following accout tells a different story.
Mason City is a city in and the county seat of Cerro Gordo County. The population was 28,079 in the 2010 census, a decline from 29,172 in the 2000 census.
The region around what would later be first called "Shibboleth" was a summer home to the Sioux and Winnebago nations. The first settlement was made at Shibboleth in 1853 at the confluence of the Winnebago River and Calmus Creek. The town had several names: Shibboleth, Masonic Grove, and Masonville, until the name Mason City was adopted in 1855, in honor of a founder's son, Mason Long.
In 1854, John McMillin opened the first store, and Dr. Silas Card opened the first medical practice in the area. Lizzie Thompson established the first schoolhouse in a log cabin in 1856. The United States Post Office Department started service to the town in 1857. Mason City was named as the county seat in 1858.
