Edward Babcock is considered to be the father of what are known today as the Allegheny County Parks. In the 1920's, Pittsburgh was surrounded by farmland and the purchasing and landscaping of this land into county parks was expensive. In 1927 though, Allegheny County commissioner Edward Babcock, who proposed North and South Park, decided to buy the land himself and turn it over to the county for a cost. But political infighting over financing nearly killed this plan. But once financing became feasible, the areas of North Park and South Park were established.
Mr Babcock wa born on a farm and raised there near Fulton, New York. He set out at age 21 and started his own lumber company in Pittsburgh, in 1889. In 1911, Governor John K. Tener, appointed Mr Babcock to be a councilman for the City of Pittsburgh. In 1918, he was elected Mayor of the city. As mayor, he led the effort to build many playgrounds, provided free transportation within the parks, and appointed the first woman to lead the Buearu of Public Relations.
In 1925, he was elected to become one of the County Commissioners for Allegheny County. He wanted to preserve large tract of rural lands within the county from suburban growth. In the 1920's, most of the county was still farmland and most residents had to just step outside their door to go hiking. This did not deter him from following his dream and he personally bought two huge tracts of land, totaling nearly 4,000 acres. He sold the land at cost back to the county. Despite mocking the idea at first, the public quickly came to love the "people's country clubs" and the County soon acquired another 500 acres.
North and South Park provided the foundation for the county-wide system, which expanded to a total of nine parks and over 12,000 acres from 1958 to 1979.
Now, in order to get the coordinates for this cache, you have 2 possible ways of getting the final coordinates. An easy way or the hard way. They both involve going to the listed coordinates above. The easy way, you will be searching the front of the sign for a date and a keyword to come up with a phrase. You will enter that phrase into the certitude checker. The hard way, you will need to search out on the opposite side of the sign. Here you will be creating the coordinates by reading the sign, finding letters and numbers to spell out the final coordinates. This way will take longer. If you choose to go the route of using the certitude checker, the difficulty for this cache is the listed 2. But if you go the other route and hunt and peak for the coordinates on the other side, then the difficulty could be a 3 to 3.5, depending on how well you are able to search for the answers needed. But for the purpose of the cache listing, I am setting it to a 2.5 difficulty. Either way you choose to solve this puzzle, you will get the final coordinates.
Option A - Certitude:
On the side of the sign that faces Corrigan Drive, locate the picture of Edward Babcock. There is a year on this picture. Note the year. Now, look on the sign and locate the picture of the down tree. What is the tool that is leaning against the tree stump. Combine the Year with the Tool to form YearTool and enter that key phrase into the checker. If entered correctly, you will be given the final coordinates.
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
Option B - Search for the Coordinates
On the side of the sign that faces away from Corrigan Drive, start at the top and work your way down to find the information for the final stage. Answer these questions. The final coordinates will be N 40 18.ABC W 080 00.DEF.
A - South Park's naturalistic swimming pool closed in the early 1970's. What year did the pool first open?
5 - 1921
6 - 1931
7 - 1941
B - In 1932, this person was hired as Bureau of Parks Director. Who was he?
0 - Henry Hornbostel
1 - Paul Riis
C - At 2,0X3 acres, South Park is not just a nature preserve, it is a designed landscape. Fill in the blank
D - What is the name of the homestead, where in 1794, the first shots of the Whiskey Rebellion rang out.
1 - George Washington
0 - Oliver Miller
E - There are 2 pictures that show animals. Which one of these are not the animals pictured
4 - Bison
5 - Cow
6 - Mule
F - About how many miles of trails can be found within South Park
5 - 20
6 - 30
7 - 10