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.
The Gun Lake Campground, beach ouse and picnic shelters will close for the 2024 season. Access to the geocache will not be available once construction begins. This cache will be archived and removed prior to sunsetting of the geotour.
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 look at the sign for the Sassafras Trail.
- N 42° 37.4AB W 085° 30.9YZ
- A = The number of HIKING TRAILS listed in the legend.
- B = The number of the rule prohibiting off-road vehicles.
- Y = The number of "Dont Feed the Unicorn" signs next to you.
- Z = The number of letters in the word "Sassafras".
- North Checksum: A+B = 10
- West Checksum:. Y+Z = 9
You are looking for a Regular size container. Please return everything as good or better than you found it.
Thank you
The Macho Homemaker
for creating, hiding and maintaining this MSPC GeoTour cache.
Photos courtesy of The Macho Homaker, used with permission!
Collage of photos from the Gun Lake Unit
Yankee Springs Recreation Area - Gun Lake Unit:
Yankee Springs Recreation Area is a landscape of rugged terrain, bogs, marshes, lakes and streams, which lends itself to many forms of outdoor recreation, including 30 miles of hiking trails, 12 miles of
mountain bike trails, 10 miles of horseback trails, two public beaches, picnic shelters and two universally accessible fishing piers (one at Gun Lake and one at Deep Lake). In addition, cross-county skiing on more than 10 acres of Nordic ski trails, snowmobiling, snowshoeing and ice fishing are available in the winter. Altogether, nine lakes are located within the park boundaries and provide excellent opportunities
for fishing and water sports of all kinds.
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Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Roosevelt Beach shelter at Gun Lake
The park is home to a modern campground on the shore of beautiful Gun Lake and rustic camping at Deep Lake, as well as equestrian and youth organization campgrounds. Three special points of interest include Devil's Soup bowl (a glacially carved kettle formation), Graves Hill Overlook and the Pines.
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Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Deer Lodge at Chief Noonday Outdoor Center, built by the CCC in 1936
History:
The park is stepped in history as it was once the hunting grounds of the Algonquin Indians and the famous Chieftain, Chief Noonday. The site was established in 1835 and the village was made famous by Yankee Bill Lewis who owned and operated a hotel along the stagecoach run from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids.
In 1833, the territorial legislature passed an act for the establishment of a territorial road to link Middle Village (Middleville) to an existing road between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. This former Indian trail became a busy stagecoach route shuttling passenger between Battle Creek and Grand Rapids, providing a route for pioneer migration into and through Barry County. The Yankee Springs Inn was a famous inn that served stagecoach passengers and travelers through what is now the east end of the Yankee Springs Recreation Area from the mid-1830s to the mid-1850s.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, there was an exodus from the area as agricultural pursuits slackened due to the first settlers growing crops that stripped the soil of its fertility. Recreation increased around the shores of Gun Lake and the numerous smaller lakes in the region. Early resorts and cottages established in the area served as camp meeting sites for church associations and rustic getaways for city dwellers from southern Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. Yankee Springs continued to develop as a recreation spot with the loss of productive farmlands during the early 1900s.
Federal land-related aid to Yankee Springs came in 1935 when the regional inspector with the Resettlement Administration classified the lands around Yankee Springs to be sub-marginal and
therefore, eligible for funding as a Work Relief Project. Later that year, final approval of the project was given, and the Yankee Springs Recreational Demonstration Project was begun. The Recreational Demonstration Area (RDA) program was implemented to acquire sub-marginal farmlands for the dual purpose of conservation and recreation. In the course of its existence, the National Park Service (NPS), through the RDA program, developed a total of 34 group camp facilities in 24 states. Two RDAs were established in Michigan, at Yankee Springs and Waterloo, which provided four group camp facilities, two at each site. The camps for Yankee Springs were named Chief Noonday and Camp Long Lake. The camp layouts and the designs for the camp facilities were created by the NPS. Construction work on the camps was done by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). In addition to the camp development, the NPS carried out extensive erosion control plantings and reforestation of denuded areas.
Through the RDA program, the NPS sought to initiate a conservation program along with a social welfare program. Landscape architecture and good design were key to the success of the group camps, ensuring that the physical form of the land was well integrated into the camp plan. The RDA utilized decentralized camps based on the innovative ideas of NPS landscape architect Julian Salomon. The architecture of the camp buildings reflected the rustic architectural style developed by the NPS for state and national parks. This style was based on the great camps of the Adirondacks and the Arts and Crafts movement. The buildings at both the Chief Noonday and Long Lake camps were designed by Michigan architect, Ernest Hartwick. The buildings at Long Lake are less rustic and more Arts and Crafts in design and use less fieldstone decoration than the more rustic style buildings at Chief Noonday. The landscape architect for both camps was Theodore Zaetsch of Lansing, Michigan.
Camp Chief Noonday opened in 1938 and Camp Long Lake opened in 1939. The Yankee Springs Recreation Area was turned over to the State of Michigan's Department of Conservation on July 1, 1943. At that time, facilities were reported to include the two group camps and a public use unit on Gun Lake, with picnic grounds, playgrounds, beach, bath house and parking lot. Use of the group camps was strong until the 1970s.
Major development at the park occurred in the mid-1950s, when fill was added to Murphy's Point to facilitate the development of a day-use area with roads and parking for 1,500 cars, a boat launch, beach, bath house, modern toilets, and a large picnic area. The Gun Lake campground was also planned, separated from the day use area by a man-made lagoon.
The 1966 Yankee Springs Recreation Area Master Plan identified the need for expansion of both the day-use area and camping facilities in response to increased demand as a result of the growing population trend in the surrounding metropolitan areas. It recommended expansion of the day-use facilities south on Murphy's Point, to include a new beach area and expanded parking, an additional 167 modern campsites adjacent to the existing campground facility and expansion of the Deep Lake rustic campground to a capacity of 126 sites. Improvements were made except for the expansion of the modern campground, which was never implemented. In 1981, 20 cabins from Chief Noonday were sold and moved. That same year, 24 cabins from Camp Long Lake were sold and moved. Except for the loss of these cabins, both group camps retain a high degree of their historic integrity.
The overwhelming majority (4,123 acres) of the Recreation Area along with its facilities was deeded to the State of Michigan from the United States Government (Secretary of the Interior) in 1943 as authorized by Public Law 594. The disposition of the recreational demonstration projects was conditioned upon the property being used exclusively for public park, recreational and conservation purposes. Additional smaller parcels were gifted to the Recreation Area or acquired through land exchange in the in the years since.
Map courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Activities:
Yankee Springs Gun Lake Unit has 200 modern campsites with access to playgrounds, swimming beaches, and boat launches. Swimming, boating and fishing are very popular. There are also several trails in the Unit:
- Hall Trail Loop is 2-mile loop from the Long Lake Outdoor Center that follows the shoreline of Hall Lake and continues to a spur trail leading to scenic Graves Hill and the Devil's Soup Bowl before looping back to its starting point.
- Chief Noonday Trail is a 4-mile beginning just off M-179, connecting with the Long Lake Trail.
- Long Lake Trail is 5 miles round trip. This trail adjoins the Sassafras Nature trail and has a starting point from Briggs Road just north of the area headquarters. The trail enters a boardwalk crossing to a beautiful bog area, continues down an old wagon road and leads to Graves Hill. From this point, the trail leads to the Devil's Soup Bowl where it connects with the Chief Noonday Trail. The Noonday Trail leads to signs and markers for a return to the Long Lake Trail.
- Sassafras Self-Guides Interpretive Trail is a 1-mile loop starting near the Gun Lake Campground Office. The flat wooded trail loops back to the starting point. Signs along the way provide information on the parks many habitats.
- Gun Lake Trail is a 1/2-mile linear, barrier free trail connecting the Gun Lake Campground with the Day Use area and travels across two boardwalks leading to the fishing pier on Gun Lake.
- Equestrian Trail, 10 miles total consisting of 2 loops, beginning and ending at the Horsemen's Campground. The six-mile loop connects to an additional four miles over rugged terrain. There is also a connector to additional trails in the Barry State Game Area.
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Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Yankee Springs Equestrian Campground
Information:
For more information, reservations and a calendar of events, follow this link to
Yankee Springs Recreation Area.
Special thanks to
Farkletime
for help with this geocache.
Special thanks to Cold Cache Crew and Silent Whistles for the Southwest regional prize.
Resources: