This cache is part of the 2022 Taconic Region Geocaching Challenge. The NYS Parks Saratoga-Capital Region and the Central Region will be hosting a similar challenge!! Find 45 challenge caches in the Taconic Region and stamp your passport to earn a trackable geo-coin. Ten caches found in the Sara-Cap and/or Central Region Challenge can be used toward the Taconic Challenge. This cache contains a unique stamp which must stay with the cache. Use this stamp to mark your passport. This stamp is NOT a trade item.
Please visit https://parks.ny.gov/documents/regions/2022TaconicRegionGeocacheChallenge.pdf to print your passport .
For park fees, directions, maps and park updates, download the New York State Explorer App to your mobile device from the Apple and Google Play stores or be sure to check the Jay Heritage Center website for updated information and a trail map at: https://jayheritagecenter.org/
John Jay, arguably the most important Founding Father born in New York, spent his boyhood on a 400-acre farm here. The property was inherited by his elder son, Peter Augustus, who replaced the original farmhouse with the mansion that dominates the property today. The site, now reduced to 23 acres but still with a view across meadows that extend to Milton Harbor, is maintained by Jay Heritage Center. The Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to education and preservation.
You will be looking for this cache under the watchful eye of the property’s resident “zebra.” In 1906, Warner van Norden and Grace Talcott owned the property. They imported five zebras, planning to cross them with horses to create a better breed of farm animal. The experiment was not a success, and in two years those zebras were gone. But it appears that the Heritage Center’s replacement is not going anywhere.