Welcome to Chicago! We are famous for a lot of things - Bears, Blackhawks, Cubs, another baseball team, hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches, and a fire. But not juts any fire. The Great Chicago Fire! While most people believe it was a cow owned by Mrs' O'Leary that started the fire, nobody knows for sure. But it was her barn that was the first building destroyed. The fire burned for 3 days, and destroyed over 17,000 structures, including most of central Chicago and the Near North side. This led to building code changes (which are particularly dear to my heart), and the codes continue to evolve in response to tragedies across the globe.
This particular location is where the fire began. The building here is the Richard Quinn Fire Academy, complete with a sculpture titled, "Pillar of Fire". There is also a monument in the background that lists honorabbly retired Chicago firefighters.
In order to log this virtual cache, PLEASE post a photo of yourself (face not required) with some part of either "Pillar of Fire" or the retiree monument. If you do not want to take a selfie, your hand holding your GPS receiver, phone, a TB, or piece of paper with your name on it will be fine. I also encourage you to learn more about fire safety, which you can do here during business hours, or at any time from home. Happy, and safe, caching!
Please leave the following text at the bottom of the page, so cache finders understand the Virtual Rewards 2.0 project.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.