This multicache was developed by one of the MaxineKnowsBest team members for her Girl Scout Gold Award project. It is included in the 2020 Metro Parks GeoTrail with permission from the Metro Parks.
Be sure to check out the other 19 other caches that are a part of this year’s Metro Parks GeoTrail! And, remember to wash your hands when you finish caching!
To participate in the Metro Park GeoTrail go to Metroparks.net to find complete instructions. Download and print the GeoTrail page and complete at least 15 GeoTrail caches. As you find the caches, fill in the code word on the GeoTrail page. The first 100 teams to submit their forms online are eligible to receive a Metro Parks Geocoin. You will need all 19 code words to complete the puzzle and unlock the coordinates to the Bonus Puzzle Cache.
While doing this multicache you will learn about the Native American history of Scioto Grove Metro Park and the surrounding areas. This will be an interactive experience, but please do not actually collect any materials while you're here, just imagine yourself gathering supplies. Please leave any items in the containers where they are.
Remember as you travel along this historical journey, be stealthy in finding the caches, be respectful of the plants, wildlife, and others you may encounter, and leave the place better than you found it. The park offers bags by the main parking locations for cleaning up trash and pet waste.
SOME HISTORY OF THE AREA: The Shawnee people were established in the Scioto valley in southern and central Ohio by 1750. They strongly resisted encroaching settlers, siding with the British against the Americans in the war of 1812. Famous Shawnee chiefs include Cornstalk, Blue Jacket, and Tecumseh.
The area where Scioto Grove Metro Park sits was a part of the Shawnee territory. Although there are no historical records of major Native American settlements where the park is currently located, Metro Parks staff and amateur archaeologists have found notable artifacts over the years, such as flint points and axe heads.
Imagine you are a Shawnee tribe member. You have been busy traveling along the river, so you’re hungry and tired. Before you can rest you need to find some items to take back to your shelter.
PART ONE: Quick quiz….what is Ohio’s State Official Gemstone? If you answered flint, you’re correct! Flint in Ohio comes in a variety of color combinations that include red, pink, green, blue, yellow, gray, white and black.
Highly skilled Flint Knappers shape tools from the flint, as well as weapons and ceremonial pieces such as knives, arrowheads, and pipes.
Flint can also be used to start a fire! Striking a piece of flint against a piece of steel or iron can start a fire when needed. Native Americans relied on their ingenuity to figure this out, and so for this first part of the multi-cache, you will be looking around for something that doesn’t quite match the rest of the rock around you.
Can you find the flint to make your fire with? What makes it stand out from the other rocks you see around you on the ground? Now that you’ve found something to make a fire with, next we need to find our “fuel” for the fire! Be sure to collect the coordinates from this cache to not only find PART TWO, but also for the first set of coordinates for the final cache location!
PART TWO: Now it's time to take a walk in the woods! While walking along this part of Scioto Grove Metro Park, which is considered “the flood zone” along the Scioto River, we want you to take the time to look around you….what do you see? What do you hear? Can you identify the trees you see and/or the birds you see and hear? For this second aspect, you are now pretending to collect the wood you will need for your fire! Look at the downed trees, look at the various sticks, can you see the termite trails in the stick or maybe the woodpecker holes in the wood? Do you see the cool openings in trees that can be used by wildlife for their homes? Again please be respectful of the native plants that are growing in the area and try not to crush any of them as you explore! And if you find trash, pick it up!
Like the paths you are following around the park, the original paths through the forests of Ohio were created by animals, such as buffalo, elk, and deer. State Route 104 was once such a game trail, and over time as more traveling was done Native Americans and settlers, that path began to widen and take the shape of the highway it is today.
Look around Scioto Grove Metro Park as you walk along the main trails and see if you can spot some of the game trails that are present throughout the park. These game trails are made today by large animals such as deer and coyotes as well as smaller animals like raccoons, skunks, and opossums. Note what direction the trails go, look for animal tracks in the soil, can you identify the animal tracks made, and, can you tell what the animals may have been using the game trails for (hint: leading to water for example)? You should be able to easily find deer tracks, raccoon tracks, and sometimes along the river bed areas you will see duck and geese tracks. Of course you will see plenty of dog tracks as well; can you tell if it was a large dog or small dog?
Be sure to collect the second set of coordinates from this cache to find the final cache location! And at this point, you can go back to your car. There is parking near the final cache location, which is recommended so that you don’t accidentally end up off trail in the restricted archery area, so if you decide to walk to the final cache location from PART TWO, you WILL NEED to follow the road inside the park to get there, as there are no path areas leading to this aspect of the park that you can walk otherwise.
PART THREE: Congratulations! You now should have the coordinates to the final geocache location. We hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little about the Native Americans who came before us in this area and how they used the natural resources around them in their everyday lives. From the plants like cattail stalks to make siding for their homes, to the bark off of trees to make the roofs to their homes, to the rocks for making fire to cook and heat with and to make tools, to the animals for food and clothing, they found a purpose for everything.
Think about how their homes would have looked; living in such wooded areas around Scioto Grove Metro Park, how would they have made their homes for their families? We all know the winters in Ohio can be really cold, so how would they have made their homes so that they would stay warm and dry even in the winter months? How would they have used the animal furs from the animals they hunted for food to stay warm in the winter?
We want to thank you for taking the time to find our multicache and we hope you enjoyed your adventure! We wanted to make this as educational as possible by incorporating some of the history of the area that ties in with Scioto Grove Metro Park. Native Americans are an important part of the history of Ohio and many of the city/town names, street names, and river names we find in the state were named after Native American tribes or words from their languages. We hope that every time you visit Scioto Grove Metro Park you will think about this history and see not just this park, but ALL of the Metro Parks in a new way. Remember, the planet is not ours to keep, we only borrow it from our children! HAPPY CACHING!!
For more information, please seek out “Historic American Indian Tribes of Ohio, 1654-1843” published by the Ohio Historical Society, “Exploring Ohio’s Flint Ridge,” and “Ohio State Route 104".