Welcome to historic Allentown, NJ. This 12 stage, 17 stop multi will take you through many historic sites within this small town and offer some other geocaches along the way. If looking to find the other caches in Allentown, I’d recommend solving the puzzles before coming here.
For this cache, you’ll walk about 2-3 miles on generally flat, asphalt terrain, although to get to some stages you’ll need to walk on some grass, so if there’s been a lot of rain recently it may be wet. The area around the final has some overgrowth, so just be prepared. Do not drive between stages, not only do you cheat yourself out of seeing the rest of the town has to offer but it’s also quite difficult to find parking at some of the stages!
Assume N 40 10 XXX W 74 35 YYY for all stages.
Parking for this cache is available at the end of Gordon Street in Heritage Park. The first stage is located at the posted coordinates. Look for an object that doesn’t belong at these coordinates. A year should be visible on that object. Subtract 1311 from this year to get the north coordinates to stage 2.
Stage 2 is located at XXX 388.
When you arrive at stage 2, you’ll see a sign with some information on it. Take note of the middle 3 digits of the phone number and the depth. Assume the depth to be D, use that information to get the coordinates to stage 3.
Count the middle 3 digits of the phone number as E.
Stage 3A: 587 (D + 162)
Stage 3B: 586 (D + 166)
Stage 3C: 585 (D + 175)
Stage 3D: 573 (D + 197)
At stage 3A, locate a small sculpture. Find a year on this sculpture and write down this number on a piece of paper.
Walk to stage 3B, located just a few feet away. On this locate a month on it. Add this month’s “number” (so January is 1, April is 4, etc.) to the year from stage 3A.
Stage 3C is also located just a few feet away. Along the sidewalk you’ll see a few words engraved into it. Take note of the middle word of the three.
TRUE OR FALSE: This word shares at least one letter with the month found at stage 3B.
TRUE: Add 4 to your number, then divide by 5.
FALSE: Add 1 to your number, then divide by 3.
Then head over to stage 3D. Locate a sign and determine who is thanking you.
“The city” - Add 122 to your number.
“The people” - Add 54 to your number.
“The birds” - Subtract 54 from your number.
“The fish” - Subtract 96 from your number.
Stage 4 is located at XXX 169.
At stage 4, find the “circa” of this building which has been admitted to the National Register of Historic Places. Subtract 1153 from this to get your stage 5 north coordinates.
Stage 5 is located at XXX 192.
At stage 5, locate the number after the “U-”. Take in the view while you’re here!
Stage 6 is located at 589 (Y + 49)
At stage 6, locate a plaque. Take note of when British general Clinton set up camp in Allentown. Refer to this as C. Also take note of when the Christ Church Parish first used this plot of land.
The year the Christ Church Parish first used this plot of land should be considered F.
Stage 7A is located at 550 C
Stage 7B is located at 538 (C + 29)
At stage 7A, locate the sign and read the latest time in which tennis lights are allowed to be used. The hour number should be written down.
At stage 7B, locate the number of years this man served the community. Add this to the hour number found at stage 7A. Also take note of the year of his death.
The year of this man’s death should be considered G.
Stage 8A is located at 680 (Y - 42)
At stage 8A, locate a plaque which indicates when this building was admitted to the historical society (this should be the building on the corner, it has a bushel of wheat in the corner if you’re unsure what you’re looking for). Write down this number.
For stage 8B, locate ALL the plaques between this one and Broad St. and find which one is the oldest. (Hint: it predates the 1800s). Walk on both sides of the street, and please respect people’s property! Subtract this number from the number you got at stage 8A.
Stage 9 is located at 717 (Y - 3)
Stage 10 is missing as of 7/4/2020. Follow the instructions in the owner maintenance log dated 7/4/2020 to advance to stage 11.
At stage 9, find when the building was founded. It can be a bit hard to see! Subtract 1094 from this number.
TRUE OR FALSE: This building is newer than the one you found on stage 8B.
True: H = 179
False: H = 203
Stage 10 is located at XXX 147.
Stage 10 will bring you to small plaque located along a side street. Find when the object being referenced here was demolished. Subtract 1195 from this number.
Stage 11 is located at XXX 382.
Find the object located at stage 11. This object was placed on Allentown’s ____ Anniversary.
I = ???
The final cache is located at N 40 10 J W 74 35 K
J = (G - F) + E + 304
K = I + H
The final is a camoed preform soda bottle container. Assuming the coordinates are accurate, you’ll likely find this in the first spot you look, but you’ll have to take a couple of steps into some high brush to retrieve it so be careful. Cache is log only.
Edit 7/23/19 - Terrain lowered to 2.5 from 3.