To log this virtual cache you must post a photo of yourself, a gps or an appendage pointing at the clock tower. Include in your log the word(s) above the clock visible in your photo.
The year was 1887. Grover Cleveland was President of the United States. A New York inventor, George Eastman, was getting ready to introduce the first simple box camera, complete with film, which would put photography into the hands of ordinary people. Fashionable ladies were wearing bustles once again. And Benton County, Oregon was enjoying a boom of progress and prosperity. With 8,000 citizens, a rapidly growing county seat --Corvallis-- and civic enthusiasm at a fever pitch, the county's leaders decided the time was right to build a new courthouse: an impressive edifice that later would be described as "an ornament to the city and a credit to the county."
That same courthouse stands today, the oldest one in Oregon still serving its original purpose. Here, justice is dispensed, county business is conducted and vital records are filed just as they have been for the past century. Thanks to sensitive renovation in the late 1970's, the modern-day courthouse looks much as it must have when its doors first opened in 1889. The Benton County Courthouse is a living record of architecture and history: a tribute to those who conceived and built it, and to those who have preserved its beauty through the decades. Most of all, it is a tribute to the people of Benton County, then and now, who have made the courthouse the area's most recognized symbol.
The land the courthouse occupies was donated to the county by Joseph and Martha Avery and William and Julia Dixon, co-founders of the town first known as Marysville and later named Corvallis. The Benton County Courthouse, was built in 1888-1889. Its style is consistent with the Italianate architecture popular at the time. The total cost of the project, including furnishings, was less than $70,000. The Circuit Court, with Judge R.S. Bean presiding, sat in its first session in the new courthouse on November 4, 1889. The Benton County Courthouse was designated an Oregon Historic Site in 1968, is on the National Historical Registry and is the oldest courthouse in Oregon still serving its original purpose. Read more in this PDF.
The Benton Country Courthouse building includes a basement and four stories of functional rooms, housing county government offices and functioning court rooms. County government has outgrown the courthouse building, some offices have moved to other sites but the courtrooms are still active. There is current discussion about the safety of the structure and the need to preserve this historical building.
From the time of its construction in 1888, the spire of the courthouse has housed a gigantic clock, visible from four sides. Until 1953 the clock had to be wound by hand twice a week by a building custodian who climbed into the tower to manually raise the 650 pounds of weights which kept the device in operation. This process was modernized in 1953, when a small electric motor was installed to automate the process of raising the clock weights.
To log this virtual cache you must post a photo of yourself, a gps or an appendage pointing at the clock tower. Include in your log the word(s) above the clock visible in your photo.
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.