Welcome to Livingston County’s Bicentennial GeoTrail!
My name is Find R. Fox. I’ll be your guide to super-sleuthing the hides at these amazing, historical locations all around our beautiful 200-year-old county!
To make your travel through history a bit easier, imagine yourself in a Time Machine (your best mode of transportation will do). Set the dial (your gps unit) to the first year (coordinates) listed below, check the waypoints for Parking and push the navigate button! Whirl your way there then switch your coordinates as needed to navigate to the geocache to sniff out the container and sign the log sheet. Good Luck & Enjoy the journey!!
No night caching.
In 1829, Lima was chosen by the Genesee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church to become the home of Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. The people of Lima raised money for construction costs and a prominent hilltop building site that included a 90-acre farm was contributed by Attorney Augustus A. Bennett. The school opened in 1832 with 239 young men and 11 women, making it one of the first co-educational institutions of higher education in the country.
Genesee Wesleyan Seminary drew students from across the state and beyond, and provided the children of Lima residents an opportunity for an exceptional classical education at a time when Lima still had no public high school. While technically a high school, GWS offered courses in Latin and Greek, literary arts, music, engineering preparatory, and commerce. The student body grew to over 600 by the 1850s, attracting a host of nationally-recognized faculty and staff enhancing the overall community, culturally and economically.
Genesee College, located on the same site, was chartered in 1849, expanding the educational opportunities available on the Lima campus. The architecturally imposing College Hall was completed in 1851. Within a decade there were over 1000 students on the shared campus. Around 1870, the Genesee College trustees opted to move to Syracuse, NY, and ultimately became the nucleus of Syracuse University. The college assets, including the majestic College Hall, were transferred to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary which continued to educate students for another 70 years.
GWS was forced to close in 1941 due to declining enrollment. The National Youth Administration, a New Deal program of the Roosevelt administration during WWII, utilized the campus for the Lima Resident Work Center between 1941 and 1942. Lamps, radios, medical instruments, table silverware and other electrical appliances were repaired or produced for sale to military camps, libraries and schools.
From 1947-1951, the Genesee Methodist Conference opened Genesee Junior College, offering a two-year program of post high school study with a comprehensive curriculum.
At present, the campus is home to three separate but related entities: Elim Bible Institute & College, Elim Gospel Church, and Elim Fellowship. Through the years, the Elim campus has added new buildings in addition to the historic structures.
Another historical note - the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary was purported to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Some of those stops were simply places where escaped slaves could stay during the day and possibly receive a meal, as traveling was safer under the cover of night.
Let's pretend that you are a student at the old seminary and you have been given a math puzzle to solve, which leads to another math puzzle. At the starting coordinates, you will see a sign (count information only on one side). WP2 will be found at N 42 54.(A), W 077 36.8BC where
A = the last 3 digits of the North Coordinates plus the last 2 digits in the year Genesee College was established
B = the number of "W's" plus the number of "M's" that appear on the sign
C = the number of "K's" that appear on the sign
You can validate your puzzle solution for WP2 with certitude.
That will take you to a sculpture where you will gather the information for the final. Final will be found at N 42 54.(D), W 077 3E.FGH where
D = the age of "Sister Ruth" + 42 added to A (the last 3 digits of the North coordinates for WP2)
E = the number of letters in the word before Teacher
F = the first digit in the year of the Class honoring the Rev.
G = the last digit in the number of years "Sister Ruth" taught here
H = the last digit in the year of the Class honoring the Rev.
You can validate your puzzle solution for the final with certitude.
Thanks to ElbaPatch and HFJohn for placement of this cache!
This cache is 1 of 36 caches comprising the Livingston County Bicentennial GeoTrail (LivCo200) placed in the summer of 2021 in honor of Livingston County’s Bicentennial by members of the local geocaching group called the Bee Hive. For more information about Livingston County’s Bicentennial, visit the County Historian’s Bicentennial web page on the Livingston County New York website at https://www.livingstoncounty.us/1115/County-Bicentennial
