A year in the planning, this cache was placed for multiple reasons: to honour our younger son’s birthday; he comes from a line of talented men and women who have always worked hard with their hands, and cared about integrity and excellence in their work... at this cache’s original location, if you look carefully, you will find just a glimpse of the results of people having worked with their hands...
When thinking about where to place this cache, this location, which honours the building skills of Thomas McComb, who, in 1896, used Tamarac Logs to build this original square-logged home for Robert Tate of the Wicklow District on land called the Valley River Homestead. It was rebuilt in 1972. (Recently I discovered that this log cabin was moved from its original location - taken apart carefully by a group of high school students, numbered and reassembled on this sight!) To honour work completed from need for shelter, and from “scratch”, the geocache was delighted to originally come to rest here.
And, finally, though our immediate family has never lived in Grandview (until now), our family research has shown that when our children’s great grandfather came to Canada from Glasgow, Scotland, he initially located to Grandview, where he worked as a night porter at the King Hotel...a business long since burned; the CIBC bank stands in its place. While researching the Manitoba Archives, we found letters written to the office dealing with Homestead Applications, written on King’s Hotel stationery. Though his life continued elsewhere in Manitoba, it excites our family historian that the great-grandfather had the wisdom to consider life in pioneer Grandview initially.
Unfortunately this cache container was moved, and then destroyed. It was graciously reassembled by museum people who care, and moved to a safer location, only to be vandalized again. This saddens me... but once again, we have created and replaced a perhaps temporary cache, hopefully hidden in a challenging location. If you find it, please log your find, carefully return to its original condition and location...thank you!