The columns of the Windsor Ruins stand among the trees along the Mississippi River lika a misplaced Parthenon. Of course, when the columns were built by slave labor they were much more visible; the trees were not there; the land was mostly cotton fields.
The columns supported the roof of the plantation mansion of Smith Coffee Daniel II, a millionaire who owned thousands of acres and hundreds of enslaved peoples. He had barely unpacked in his newly built home when he died from a mosquito bite (Yellow Fever). The date was April 12, 1861, which also happened to be the first day of the Civil War.
The Windsor Ruins, however, did not become ruins at the hands of the Yankees. Grant's Army of the Tennessee landed near here to start their march to Vicksburg - but Grant spaired the mansion. It stood as the Daniell family home for another quarter century, until a careless houseguest dropped a lit cigarette on February 17, 1890. The house burned to the ground, leaving behind only the columns -- and the mosquitoes.
The Windsor runis today still stand. Routine groundskeeping keep the 45 foot tall columns free from sprouting trees, and the grass is mowed where the house used to be. The latticework connecting the tops of some of the columns are not a modern attempt at stabilization, but the remains of the iron railing that encircled the home's upper veranda. Everything else is gone, either burned up, looted, or sold for scrap during the great depression. Kudos to the quality craftsmanship of the enslaved people who made the bricks in the columns, as their work have stood, ramrod straight, all these years.
The ruins have a long history as an attraction. Postcards of it go back a century. Hollywood has stopped by, filming moody scenes for movies like Raintree County and Ghosts of Mississippi. People pose for their wedding pictures here, although the setting seems a little off message. Ghost-hunters frequent the site, which has its own ghost, a Union Soldier who has been seen by tourists in broad daylight.
There is no reason to ignore the warning signs and go beyond the fenced area. It is fenced for two reasons: 1. It is a historical site being preserved and 2. The columns are unstable, if you get conked by a falling brick, you'll have no one to blame but yourself. STAY OUT OF THE FENCED AREA! As for the cache, it is a virtual meaning there is no container to find. To prove your visit to this virtual cache location you will need to post a photo of you with the ruins and then do some research. There were four cast iron stairways, that survived the 1890 fire, three disappeared from the site. The fourth was moved where? (Email me the answer.)
If no picture, no email, or if email answer is posted in log NO SMILEY.
The last cache that was placed here was by L Allen Brewer a navy veteran and a park ranger at Vicksburg National Military Park before he moved on to Arkansas. On June 17, 2022, he was killed in car accident. I met him at an event that the KREWE hosted. For not being from the area he was very knowledgeable about civil war history in the area. It was a peanut butter jar hidden sightly in the woods to the left of (when facing) the ruins. There is a trail that led to the cache. At the old GZ you can see the remains of a toppled column that someone pushed off into the woods and you can take an up-close look at the bricks and how the columns were constructed.
RIP A_No1
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.