This geocache is a bonus cache for completing the Walking Tour of Historic Bluefield, WV Adventure Lab. It is not at the listed coordinates. You must complete the Walking Tour of Historic Bluefield, WV Adventure Lab to receive the actual cache location. The clues needed to solve for the final coordinates of the cache are provided after each stage of the adventure lab cache.
There’s no mistaking Bluefield. Thanks to its boomtown past and high altitude, “Nature’s Air-Conditioned City” is distinctively quirky. Case in point: free summer lemonade— if certain conditions are met.
Bluefield was dubbed “Nature’s Air-Conditioned City” by its residents. The moniker is accurate. At 2,611 feet above sea level, Bluefield gets unusually cool summers. Temperatures rarely hit 90 degrees— a characteristic worthy of celebration. In fact, that’s what happened.
In 1939, Bluefield Chamber of Commerce manager “Eddie” Steele had a novel idea. Since the city had such mild summers, why not stir up some fun? He proposed offering free lemonade if weather reached 90 degrees or more. To make things official, temperatures would be recorded by Mercer County Airport.
Still, nature didn’t cooperate until 1941— the official start of Bluefield's partnership with lemonade. It was a hit from the start. The chamber of commerce ladled free drinks, as did “lemonade lassies” and businesses throughout Bluefield.
Then— as now— anticipation makes things even more fun. You never know when drinks will appear! Bluefield’s lemonade days are truly fickle, too. Case in point: there was only one 90-degree day between 1960 and 1982. On the other hand, some years are much more thirsty. The standing record is 2007, when locals enjoyed 18 days of lemonade. The most recent lemonades day happened in August of 2019.
This cache is located at N 37 16.2LE' W081 13.MON'
Congrats to steelersrull for the FTF!