This is our 300th hide , I wanted that milestone to be something in Story county that had a bit of history and been saving this spot.
The cache is tiny and no room for anything but a log, bring your own writing tool and abbreviate please, no dates. The cemetery is just east of the cache, now on private property, do not trespass, the cache is not there. The county farm is not accessible but you can see the former site from the road, the cache is a road side park and grab, no need to trespass to get to it.
copied from iastory.org
In southeast Milford Township, in the northern half of Sec 35, on top of a slight rise, there exists what remains of the Story County Care Facility. Set back from the road perhaps a hundred yards and at the furthest south portion of a semi-circle road stood a massive three story dusk colored brick chateau-like building with a lawn filled with stately elms and oaks. A goodly number of outbuildings, a big double corn crib, barns and sheds with the accompanying gravel drives, completed the setting. Also, down the slope and across a shallow drainage ditch to the northeast is the Knoll's Cemetery, one of three still recognized cemeteries in Milford Township. Many of the graves in Knoll's Cemetery are sadly unmarked. And down the road to the east just a half mile- on the northeast corner of that intersection stood the one room School Number 7. Now a lone pine tree and an old style concrete corner-post mark the vacant site. This location (school) is a quarter mile east of the start (or ending) of the diagonal road that ran to the northwest. This road is shown on the 1875 map on page 5.
This Story County Care Facility had its start in 1869 with the construction of a 15 person home on a smaller parcel of land and was known for decades as the Story County Poor Farm. By 1875 the farm had accumulated all the land (320 acres) in the northern half of Sec 35. It was, for years, a fully working farm and quite adequately self maintaining.
In mid Feb of 1917 the main dormitory house of the county home burned to the ground. The fire started upstairs in the residence of the steward, Mr. and Mrs McNew, and by the time of discovery was beyond control so effort was concentrated on getting the ten inmates to safety and then a small amount of the furniture was saved. “They, (the inmates) were mostly old people”. At the time there was a high wind blowing and luckily, the flames were not blowing toward any of the other buildings. The building was of frame construction and was two stories high. The loss was estimated to be $5000 with only a $2100 value on the insurance. The McNews lived upstairs and the inmates on the lower floor. The board of supervisors voted to construct a new, much larger, brick structure.
The impressive building that most people remember as the main residential hall had been constructed in 1918 with room for 120 people. It was torn down in 2002 after the surrounding land had been sold in 1992. At the closing of the main building in 1990 the SCCF encompassed 320 acres.
This area, with a few remaining buildings, is now used as a storage zone for the Story County Conservation and Dept. of Secondary Roads.