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!!
Please visit during daylight hours only! This cache will be disabled during the annual air show.
The C-47 Dakota was the cargo aircraft which was the workhorse of the Army Air Corps during World War II. It was also affectionately known as the “Gooney Bird.” It served in all theaters of the war and served in civilian capacity to help establish the U.S. airlines as the DC-3.
When the National Warplane Museum first received the donation of a Douglas C-47/DC-3, it had undergone many changes from its WWII configuration. Along the way, it was at different times a cargo plane, an airliner and, when we received it, a private corporate aircraft. The Museum decided immediately to restore it to its C-47 heritage. It was at some later point that we discovered the historical significance of this particular airframe.
This aircraft originally served with the 12th Air Force in the Mediterranean Theater in 1943 and the 9th Air Force in England 1944-1945 as part of the 316th Troop Carrier Group. It was one of the lead aircraft of the first strike of the D-Day invasion on June 6th, 1944, over Ste. Mere Eglise, Normandy (that was called Operation Boston). It transported paratroopers for the 82nd Airborne Division as part of Operation NEPTUNE. Flak was very heavy during these missions, but this C-47 managed to survive it all.
In May of 2014, a five-person, all-volunteer aircrew flew Whiskey 7 (Whiskey is for W in the NATO phonetic alphabet) 3,600 miles back to Normandy for 70 year anniversary ceremonies. This trans-Atlantic crossing was made to pay tribute to the young Americans who went to war in Europe and those who never came home. The route went from Geneseo, New York, to Duxford, England, by way of Presque Isle, Maine; Goose Bay, Labrador; Narsarsuaq, Greenland; Reykjavik, Iceland; Prestwick, Scotland; Ramstein, Germany; and Cherbourg, France, with some 25 hours of flying time. The volunteer crew included Chief Pilot/Captain Chris Polhemus, Captain Naomi Wadsworth, Captain John Lindsey, Co-Pilot/Crew Chief Craig Wadsworth, and Flight Engineer/Crew Chief Mike Lindsey.
The twin-engine, propeller-driven Douglas C-47A was built in 1943, one of 10,000 produced during World War II. It is one of a small number still flying among those that took part in the June 6, 1944, invasion.
Whiskey 7 is currently hangered at the National Warplane Museum in Geneseo, NY, which is dedicated to the preservation of WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam era military craft, equipment, and the stories of those men and women who served our country at home and abroad.
Sources: https://nationalwarplanemuseum.com, https://eflyer.barnstormers.com/2014/315-eFLYER-FA01-normandy.html , https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/06/14/whiskey-normandy-geneseo-d-day/10517225/
Thank you to CMalone and LMalone for their assistance in hiding this cache! Thank you to the Warplane Museum for permission to place this cache!
This is an easy two part multi cache designed for geocachers to learn about the National Warplane Museum that is right in Geneseo, NY! You will go to part one to get the coordinates for the final. At the final, you are looking for a Lock-n-Lock box that is big enough to hold small items to trade or trackables. Please look for the cache during daytime hours only. The cache gets you close to the airport but not right near the planes. We would encourage you to drive down the road after the final to drive by the planes parked outside the visitor center! Happy caching!
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
