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.
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 traditional cache hidden at the posted coordinates. You are looking for a Regular size container. Please return everything as good or better than you found it.
Thank you
2_UP_Geologists
for creating, hiding and maintaining this MSPC GeoTour cache.
Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Picnic Shelter built by the Civilian Conservation Corps
Wells State Park:
Wells State Park, on Green Bay, includes 678 acres, a three-mile sandy beach shoreline for swimming, large picnic area, a modern campground and rustic cabins. The park is open year round for winter recreation such as cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and ice fishing. 30 miles south of Escanaba, or 25 miles north of Menominee on M-35.
Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Trail side shelter built by the CCC
History:
This history of development of Wells State Park is from the National Archives, from the nomination of the park for a historic site. It is a continuation of what is described on the cache page for GC801N0:
J. W. Wells State Park first opened to the public in 1925 and initial development of the park began in 1927-1928. An old Boy Scout structure located at the north end of the property was tom down and replaced with a structure made from pulp logs found along the shore. An existing residence located at the southern end of the park was renovated for use as the park's headquarters/residence and one of its outbuildings was converted for use as the park's garage and workshop. A road was graded to a small camping area in the southern portion of the park. Trees were planted and stoves, toilets, a well, and play equipment were installed. A ten-and-one-half acre triangular piece of land at the center of the park that was still privately owned was purchased and the buildings on it were razed. In 1929 a log bathhouse was constructed in the southern region of the park and a well was sunk in the Boy Scout camp in the northern region.
In 1933, as the country continued to battle the effects of the Great Depression, a two-hundred man Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was established within the park's boundaries. Begun in March 1933, it was known Wells Camp SP-9. The camp was one of many CCC camps located throughout Michigan and the country providing work to men in their teens and early twenties. The CCC began extensive work on the park creating the basic layout and many of the structures that still exist today. Over an approximately ten-year span, the CCC developed five distinct areas within the park: the day-use (or picnic) area, the residence area, the group camp area, the campground area, and the trails and trailside shelters area. Phased out in July 1942, the CCC camp left a lasting legacy of park improvement in the form of building construction and landscape design that can still be seen today.
The CCC camp quickly set about preparing Wells State Park for patron use. To accommodate the park goers, initial improvements targeted the park's natural landscape and its infrastructure. During 1933 and 1934 the CCC began work on a two-hundred car parking lot. According to the Michigan Department of Conservation Biennial Reports, during the period of 1933-1938 a major reforestation project was undertaken in the areas of the park that had been logged. The project resulted in the planting of25,000 pine seedlings, 2,000 native trees and shrubs and 1,000 nursery trees. Wetlands to the north of the park were drained. Three miles of foot trails, incorporating the topographic features of the park as well as shoreline views, were marked and graded. Outdoor recreation enthusiasts would find one baseball and two softball diamonds recently completed and available for use. Sanitary facilities were constructed and a water system drawing water from Lake Michigan was completed.
During the mid 1930s, CCC work on M-35 included relocating and straightening the right-of-way further west (although still within the park boundaries). Whereas the original M-35 right-of-way bisected portions of the park area and was likely recognized by park officials to be a hazard to its patrons, the new right-of-way for M-35 would lessen the impact of the traffic on the park-going public.
Additional infrastructure improvements (in addition to the fifteen CCC camp buildings constructed) included the subsequent expansion of the parking area, the construction of a pump house, and the construction of water and sewage systems for multiple park areas such as the shelter/toilet building and the group camp.
Map courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Activities:
A short drive south is the city of Menominee Michigan, the 4th largest city in the Upper Peninsula. The city borders the northern Wisconsin city of Marinette. Two highly favorited caches are located here, one on each site of the state line; GC4E6AY, Take a seat travel bug rest area in Michigan and GC79E4, Northwoods Catastrophy, a virtual from 2002, in Wisconsin.
Information:
For more information, reservations and a calendar of events, follow this link to
Wells State Park.
Special thanks to
Cosmo411
for help with this geocache.
Special thanks to Cherry Capital Cachers for the Upper Peninsula regional prize.
Resources: