This series will explore the eastern portion of the Pine Log Segment of the Florida Trail, from Hwy 79 to the Power Line Trail. Most of the caches involve lock-and-snap snack boxes wrapped in duct tape. As with all of my caches, if you have better coordinates, please feel free to share. The hints should give it away.
This snack is a tiny one.
In 1824, while Florida was still a territory, Congress adopted an act authorizing "the laying out an opening of certain Public Roads in the territory of Forida." The road went from Pensacola to St. Augustine through Tallahassee, and in its eastern section crossed the "Choctawhatchy River" at the "Cow Ford", "thence direct to the Natural Bridge on the Econfinan river; thence to the Ochese Bluff on the Apalachicola river". The road was to be "plainly and distinctly marked" and have a "width of twenty-five feet." The Act authorized the use of military troops to complete the road.
Captain Daniel E. Burch, a quartermaster with the U.S. Army, was ordered to survey and construct the road. In a communication with the territorial governor, George Walton, he budgets $924 to provide each soldier with a gill of whiskey a day while working on the road. He explains that "In making this estimate I have calculated the road will be opened only wide enough for a waggon to pass with ease and experience proves that such roads, being shady, are most proper for southern climate."
The budget for the 45 miles fro the Choctawhatchie to Ocheesee Landing is $2,397.
The road west of Tallahassee does not exist to any meaningful extent any more. Significant portions of the road in east Florida still exist, especialy the road named after John Bellamy, who helped to finance it.