UPDATE: 3/1/2024:
2019 was the 100th Anniversary of Michigan State Parks and we're still celebrating!. Join the Michigan Geocaching Organization (MiGO), the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Geocaching.com for the first official GeoTour in Michigan.
This tour was originally scheduled to run for three years, kicking off on Friday of Memorial Weekend in 2019 and continue through May 31, 2022. The success of this awesome tour has not gone unnoticed. On February 2, 2022, The DNR announced the extension of the GeoTour through September 24, 2024! Join us in making a final push to complete this very popular and very successful GeoTour before the sun sets on it.
Each geocache is in one of Michigan's state parks. The geocaches are arranged by MiGO Region, with twenty-five geocaches per region. The Ticket to Celebrate 100 is available for download from the DNR's Geocaching page. It explains how to qualify for prizes in each of the four regions and for the GeoTour as a whole.
Day use areas of state parks are open from 8AM to 10PM. Geocaching is limited to those hours. Entry into Michigan's State Parks requires a Michigan Recreation Passport. See the Resources section below for more information.
The sun will set on the MSPCGT at midnight Tuesday, September 24, 2024. The MSPCGT will go off the air as a GeoTour and the caches will disappear from the map. There is a lot of construction going on in our State Parks in 2024. Some of the GeoTour caches will have to be pulled earlier. The remaining geocaches in the tour will be archived October 1, 2024. Players will have until December 31, 2024 to claim any prize they have earned. Hiders will be contacted to request removal of the geocaches they hid unless they have made arrangements with park managers and have their own permit in place to keep the geocache in play, with a new GC Code.
Construction activities in the modern campground area starting in September, 2024, should not impact the ability to access and find this geocache.
Now for some good news: MiGO and the DNR are busy working on a new project that will kick off in the Spring of 2025, code named MSPGT 2.0. Are you interested in helping? Keep your MiGO Membership up to date and stay tuned to the website.
Cache:
This cache was hidden as part of the Michigan State Parks Centennial GeoTour, presented by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Geocaching Organization. Record the codeword printed on the log book and on a label inside the cache container to the appropriate box on the Ticket to Celebrate 100 form. See the instructions on the form to claim prizes.
This is a two stage multi-cache with a field puzzle and is not at the posted coordinates. To determine the location of the cache, go to the posted coordinates and answer the following questions with information there. To get the coordinates for the FINAL stage you must get information from the Chapel, the sign at the posted coordinates and a nearby (N.487 W.490) plaque. Then insert the numbers you gathered into:
- N 44° 44.ABC W 084° 39.DEF
- A = 3rd digit of the year that the chapel was dedicated.
- B = # of different names listed as builders on the plaque.
- C = 2nd digit in the # at bottom of Chapel photo.
- D = # of cross shaped windows in the Chapel.
- E = Last digit of the construction years listed on the plaque.
- F = last 3 digits of the cost of the Chapel added together.
- North Checksum: A+B+C+D+E+F = 21
You are looking for a Regular size container. Please return everything as good or better than you found it.
Thank you
DinoDuo
for creating, hiding and maintaining this MSPC GeoTour cache.
Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Trail through the trees at Hartwick Pines
Hartwick Pines State Park:
Hartwick Pines State Park is located in Crawford County just northeast of Grayling on M-93 Exit 259 off I-75. With an area of 9,672 acres it is one of the largest state parks in the Lower Peninsula. The principal feature of this park is the 49 acre forest of old growth pines which gives the park its name.
Photo courtesy of Michigan History Center
Big Wheels were used to transport sawn logs to rivers and railheads
History:
In 1927, Karen Michelson Hartwick purchased over 8,000 acres of land from the Salling-Hanson Company of Grayling and a short while later she donated the land to the State of Michigan as a memorial park to be named for her late husband, Major Edward E. Hartwick of Grayling, who had died overseas during WWI. She also wished to commemorate the logging history of the region and her family, so requested that the HP Logging Museum be built in the park, which was accomplished in 1934-5 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. In November of 1940 a fierce wind storm struck the park and removed nearly half of the old growth pine. Today only 49 of the original 85 acres remain standing.
Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Looking up through the tall trees
In the midst of this old growth forest a chapel was built in, depending on which sign you believe, either in 1951-2 or 1953 by Harold Ogren and John Cederberg. The chapel was dedicated in 1954 to Donald A. Johnston, co-founder and first president of Kiwanis International.
Map courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Activities:
Hartwick Pines State Park offers many recreational activities including, but not limited to: camping, hunting, fishing, kayaking, hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, Snowshoeing, a picnic area and shelter, a group use area, and of course, geocaching.
Hartwick Pines Logging Museum: Situated among the towering trees of one of Michigan's largest remaining stands of virgin white pine, Hartwick Pines Logging Museum depicts the state's 19th-century logging era, when Michigan led the nation in sawed lumber production. The Logging Museum is located along the Old Growth Forest Foot Trail, a quarter mile walk from the Visitor Center. Check the Information link below for museum hours.
Information:
For more information, reservations and a calendar of events, follow this link to
Hartwick Pines State Park.
Special thanks to
joy2u
for help with this geocache.
Special thanks to Are You Geocacher Enough? Road Rally for the Northern Lower regional prize.
Resources: