For your protection and the protection of others, please use gloves and/or hand sanitizer before and after handling each cache.
This Cache is placed as part of the 2020 Taconic Region Geocache Challenge. The NYS Parks Saratoga - Capital Region and the Central Region will be hosting a similar challenge!! Find 45 challenge caches in the Taconic Region and stamp your passport to earn a trackable geo-coin. Ten caches found in the Sara-Cap and/or Central Region Challenge can be used toward the Taconic Challenge. Please visit https://parks.ny.gov/parks/default.aspx to print your passport
This cache contains a unique stamp which must stay with the cache. Use this stamp to mark your passport. This stamp is NOT a trade item. Many thanks to the staff at Staatsburgh State Historic Site for the cards in each challenge cache. Those informational cards are to remain in the cache – they are not trade items.
There is no fee to enter this park. Be sure to check Mills Norrie State Park website for updated park information and a trail map. https://parks.ny.gov/parks/millsnorrie/maps.aspx
About this cache: You are looking for a lock ‘n’ lock container at Margaret Lewis Norrie State Park.
Contests and shows were no stranger to Dutchess County during the Gilded Age, especially when your neighbors wanted to show off. One of the most popular shows was the flower show usually held in Rhinebeck. Dutchess County was once known as the “Violet Capital of the World” as violets were extremely popular due to a local immigrant who wrote a book entitled, How to Make Money Growing Violets. The Mills family were very involved because they had their very own flower garden and greenhouse on their 1,600-acre estate. They were very proud of their flower crop. They would enter the flower shows often and win or score very high. Ogden Mills would enter flowers such as roses, chrysanthemums, begonias, and violets. In a show hosted by the Dutchess County Horticultural Society in 1906, Ogden Mills submitted several different floral arrangements, and placed first for chrysanthemums, first for roses, and second for various variety arrangements. In another event presented by the Horticultural Society in Dutchess County in November of 1909, Ogden Mills came in second place.