VA Star 050 v2 Mystery Cache

Because of health issues and extreme damage to the trail on which the original VA star was located the original star had to be archived. Many thanks to Nocona 1, queenofscots, and others who made that star possible. Nocona 1 graciously allowed us to use her descriptions and questions to make v2 possible.

Thanks to Andyw3901, vabreeze, Team K.M.Y, and NPGlenn for their time in making v2 possible. And a special thanks to High Bridge Trail State Park for permission to place the caches along the trail.

A State Star Geoart is being planned for each of the 50 states here in the US. Here is your chance to lay claim on ours.

Answers to the Virginia trivia questions are in the CACHE LISTINGS for #001 or #050 to get your coordinates to each of the other caches. A question and multiple choice answers are on each cache page. Once you find all 50 caches in the series, you will have a HUGE star comprised of smiley faces on your caching map!

The Virginia state star is in High Bridge Trail State Park ,a rail trail in Southside Virginia converted from a rail line last belonging to Norfolk Southern. The lineal park traverses Appomattox, Nottoway, Cumberland, and Prince Edward counties as well as Pamplin City, Prospect, Farmville, Rice and Burkeville. High Bridge was built by the Southside Railroad in 1854 to cross the Appomattox River and connect Petersburg with Lynchburg. The bridge is approximately 2,400 feet (730 m) long and ranges from 60 to 125 feet (18 to 38 m) high. It was originally made of wood trusses laid onto 20 brick piers. The upper level held a rail bridge and a pedestrian walkway, while the lower level was for wagons.

Several Native American tribes lived in Virginia -- Cherokee, Powhatan, Manahoac, Meherrin, Monacan, Nahyssan, Nottaway, Occaneechi, Saponi, Shawnee, and Tutelo. In 1570, Spanish missionaries built a settlement along the York River, but were killed only a few months later. English explorers arrived in the late 1580s, but their expedition failed due to lack of supplies. The first permanent English settlement in America, the Jamestown colony, was established in 1607 by Captain John Smith. He called the first settlement in the New World Virginia, named for England's "Virgin Queen," Elizabeth I. Many settlers died that winter from starvation. Fortunately, ships bringing new colonists with food and supplies arrived early in the spring. Jamestown was the first of the original 13 Colonies, and trade with England would soon be established. One might guess, with Virginia’s fertile land and mild climate, that tobacco would be the major cash crop for the new colony. However, Jamestown was actually founded for the purpose of silk cultivation. Silk was to be traded with the Court of King James. After blight fungus destroyed the mulberry trees (silkworm food), sericulturists turned to tobacco as a cash crop. John Rolfe of Jamestown began planting tobacco in 1612. He developed a method that enabled tobacco to be exported, allowing it to become the leading industry in Virginia. The harvests were bountiful and the first Thanksgiving in North America was held in Virginia in 1619. Education was certainly important to the early colonists. The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg is the second oldest in the United States, founded in 1693. There are many beautiful historic homes in Virginia. One worth visiting near Charlottesville is Monticello. Not only was Thomas Jefferson our third president, he also designed his own home. Jefferson's "summer home", Poplar Forest is located between Bedford and Lynchburg. The National D-Day Memorial is in the same area. George Washington's home, Mount Vernon, is also located in Virginia. Other famous historic homes are, Ashlawn, Chippokes Plantation State Park, Jeb Stuart's birthplace in Patrick County, Berry Hill near South Boston and Staunton Hill near Brookneal (both designed by the famous architect, Dabney Cosby.

Jamestown was not only the first settlement in Virginia but was also the state’s first capital. Virginia was the 10th colony to join the original 13, and was admitted to the union June 25, 1788. During the American Revolution, the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in coastal Virginia ended the war and was the site of the final victory of the American Revolution. Early on, Patrick Henry made his "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" speech in St. John's Church in Richmond. His home, Red Hill, near Brookneal brings many indications of its local history to the area. It is now owned by the Patrick Henry Boys and Girls foundation and is dedicated to the well being and education of troubled youth. Nearly 100 years later, on March 9, 1862, in the waters near Hampton Roads, Virginia, the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (formerly the USS Merrimac, put into use by the Confederacy) met in one of the most famous naval engagements in US history. Their battle, the first of its kind between metal armored vessels, changed for all time the nature of naval warfare. No matter what state you grew up in you probably learned that Richmond is the present day capital of Virginia (since 1780), but did you know that Richmond was also the former capital of the Confederate States of America? Richmond wasn’t the only confederate capital, Danville is known as the "Last Capital of the Confederacy". Near the end of the Civil War, Jefferson Davis was fleeing the city in the last days of fighting. His route of escape from Union Forces closing in on Richmond took him and the entire Confederate government through the Virginia countryside. They actually passed through Halifax County and over the bridge where the "Battle of Old Men & Boys" was fought on. With all the county's men of fighting age off to war, a motley group of old men and boys fought off a Union force to keep control of the supply rails over the Staunton River and stop its destruction. They were able to keep control of the bridge until reinforcements arrived. The site is now the location of Staunton River Battlefield State Park. Many artifacts of historical note (including a Native American dugout canoe!) found in archeological digs there are on display in the South Boston Museum. Jefferson Davis' train traveled on the Richmond & Danville rail line during its trip south from Richmond, the location where you'll be finding the VA Star caches. What do you think of that tidbit? The train eventually reached Danville where he set up the government in the Sutherlin Mansion (the current home of a museum and myths about Confederate treasury in gold being buried in a nearby cemetery). Soon after, miles northeast of Danville, General Robert E. Lee, Commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered his men to Ulysses Grant, General-in-Chief of all United States forces at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Waynesboro was the site of the last major battle of the Civil War in central Virginia, the Battle of Waynesboro in 1865 between Generals Jubal Early and Philip Sheridan. This particular conflict started at Lynchburg near Fort Early, where the redoubt still stands and earthen battleworks can be seen today. This "running battle" started nearby in an attempt by northern forces to destroy railroad supply depots and rail lines in Lynchburg, thus crippling the southern army. Though great efforts were made, Jubal Early and his army contingents repelled those attempts. They hounded the Union forces all the way to the Shenandoah Valley. It seems that everywhere one travels in Virginia there is Civil War history. Of the 4000 battles fought, over 2200 were fought on Virginia soil. Two major battles were fought in Manassas, the second of which, where General Thomas Jackson got his nickname "Stonewall". Officially, Virginia has had 3 capital cities: Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Richmond. At one time, the Commonwealth of Virginia encompassed a much larger area. Eventually the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the state of West Virginia were formed from sections of Virginia. During the early days of the Civil War, West Virginia opted to stay a part of the Union being admitted to the Union in 1863. In the context of the American Civil War, the border states were slave states that had not declared a secession from the Union (the ones that did so later joined the Confederacy). Four slave states had never declared a secession: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. Four others did not declare secession until after the Battle of Fort Sumter: Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia—after which, they were less frequently called "border states". In Kentucky, there were both pro-Confederate and pro-Union governments. Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to the border states. Of the states that were exempted from the Proclamation, Maryland (1864), Missouri (1865), Tennessee (1865), and West Virginia (1865) prohibited slavery before the war ended. However, in Delaware and Kentucky, slavery continued to be legal (affecting about 40,000 slaves) until December 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified. (From wikipedia, Border States.) Virginia is the birthplace of the following United States Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson. On the other hand, only seven Presidents are buried in Virginia: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Tyler, Taft, and Kennedy.

Believe it or not, about 1/2 of all the people in the United States live within a 500 mile radius of the Capital of Virginia. More Virginians work for the United States government than any other industry. The Pentagon is the largest office building in the world. Located in Arlington, it has nearly 68,000 miles of internal telephone lines. About 1/4 of Virginia's workforce get their paycheck from ‘Uncle Sam’. Virginia has been dubbed the "Internet Capital of the world". Another interesting fact is that Virginia's largest private employer is also the world's largest ship building yard. So with all the shipbuilding near Virginia's coast, it makes sense that Virginia is the home base for the United States Navy's Atlantic Fleet. The Atlantic headquarters of NATO is located in Norfolk as well

Virginia’s nickname is "Old Dominion". Our state flower is not really a flower, but the blossom of the dogwood tree, which is also the state tree. Something a lot of states don't have is an official dog. The American Foxhound is ours. Fox hunting, or riding to the hounds was a favorite sport of the early Virginia gentry. Today, fox trials are still held in many areas of the state. Virginia's state bird is the Cardinal, the state fish is the Brook Trout and the state insect is the Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. Here's a strange one! Virginia's state beverage is (believe it or not)…milk! Virginia’s state folk dance is not the Virginia Reel, as one would think, but the square dance. What is Virginia's state song you ask? Well, it's a song written by James A. Bland (1854–1911), an African American minstrel who wrote over 700 songs. It is an adaption by Bland of the traditional "Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny", popular since the 1840s and frequently sung by Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War. Bland's version, the best known, was adapted [adopted ?] in 1878 when many of the newly freed slaves were struggling to find work. The song has become controversial in modern times. A third, reworded version was Virginia's state song from 1940 until 1997, using the word "Virginia" instead of "Virginny". In 1997, it was retired on the grounds that the lyrics were considered offensive to African Americans. On January 28, 1997, the Virginia Senate voted to designate "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia" as state song emeritus and a study committee initiated a contest for writing a new state song. In January 2006, a state Senate panel voted to designate "Shenandoah" as the "interim official state song". On March 1, 2006, the House Rules Committee of the General Assembly voted down bill SB682, which would have made "Shenandoah" the official state song. There is currently no official state song. Virginia’s state shell is the Oyster and the world's only oyster museum is on Chincoteague Island. We even have a state boat, it is the Chesapeake Bay deadrise. It was adopted in 1988, and is described as "a wooden boat with a sharp bow, a tiny cabin, and a long cockpit. It can be operated nearly everywhere on the bay for crabbing, oystering, and fishing". Virginia’s motto, "Sic Semper Tyrannis", means, “Thus always to tyrants” and is included on our flag. The Blue Ridge Mountains, helping make up the Appalachian Mountain range, are located in Virginia, and Mt. Rogers in Grayson County is the highest point in Virginia at 5,729 feet. You can see wild ponies on a hike to the summit and the Appalachian Trail passes over it. The first peanuts grown in the United States were grown in Virginia. The Great Dismal Swamp is in Virginia near the North Carolina border. Bristol, in the far southwestern part of the state, is legally two cities but they share the same main street. (One in Virginia and one in Tennessee, each with its own government and city services.) Speaking of government services, Virginia happens to be the only state in the US where cities are separate from their counties that they lie in. Also in southwest Virginia, the Breaks Interstate State Park is just one of two parks in United States that lies in 2 states (KY/VA). The Barter Theatre (that is how it is spelled) is located in Abington. 'Virginia's Theatre' is where actors Gregory Peck, Ernest Borgnine, and Kevin Spacey have acted. As for geocaching trivia, Virginia is home to two of the "stashes" hidden in the infancy of the game. Burke Lake Park (coord.info/GC175) was placed on December 17, 2000, accidentally archived and revived as a new cache. It's located in Fairfax County. On this cache page, we learn how the GC number came to be higher than the second oldest. "It was first listed as GCEE. I confirmed with the original owner Drew, that the cache was in fact placed on 17 Dec 2000 but was never found until the coordinates were updated using a different datum. He also stated that he re-listed the same cache with the updated coordinates as shown above a few weeks later after confirming it was still in the same spot he placed it." as noted by the owner. Either way, you get credit for Dec. 2000 on your Jasmer Chart. Several weeks later, Elvis Confluence (coord.info/GC135) was placed on January 6, 2001. "This geocache is located at a confluence point of N37 00.000 and W81 00.000 degrees, in the Jefferson National Forest. 2.3 miles (3.7 km) NE of Stringtown, VA, USA." according to the cache page.

This website may help, but not absolutely necessary to solve the puzzles. Everything you need is on this page. Virginia Facts and Trivia