This Geocache is part of an annual Geocache Challenge put on by the Heritage Program at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area as part of our outreach to the public, to get people to explore their forest and their history, and to share the unique heritage of the families from Between the Rivers.
This Geocache is part of the “2022 Land Between the Lakes Heritage Geocache Challenge: Conservation Heritage Between the Rivers”. There are 6 geocaches placed across Land Between the Lakes related to the history of wildlife conservation between the rivers. If you locate each geocache, and collect a numbered aluminum tree tag from each cache, you can turn them in at the Golden Pond Visitor Center for one of 150 Challenge Coins created for this event.
The Geocache is a 6” x 6” orange watertight plastic box marked “Heritage Geocache” on the top. The geocache is placed at the base of a tree near a historic wellhouse.
Thank you to Phillip Toon for providing the new Geocache Boxes.
Kentucky Woodlands Wildlife Refuge
The Kentucky Woodlands Wildlife Refuge (KWWR) took over the Hillman Game Refuge in 1939, making it one of the nation's first National Wildlife Refuges. In 1964, the 65,000 acre Refuge became part of the Land Between the Lakes under the management of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). And in 1999, management of LBL was turned over to the U.S. Forest Service.
Through it's successful management practices, the KWWR was instrumental in replenishing stocks of wildlife around the state of Kentucky--particularly deer and turkey. In 1949 alone, KWWR trapped 124 deer and 37 turkeys on the refuge and released them as founding populations in other state-owned areas.
CityThe employees of KWWR were provided housing that included a house, a barn, and several outbuildings for themselves and their families. Most of these houses were near each other in Bell City. The structure you see found this geocache at was the original well house for that neighborhood of government workers!
Starting in 1940, KWWR
and the Works Progress
Administration created
3 lakes to promote
waterfowl recovery and
conservation: Hematite
Lake (left), Honker Lake,
and Empire Lake (now
part of Lake Barkley).
The waterfowl development program, however, began
in earnest in 1960 when it was assessed that 25,000
geese and between 60,000 and 70,000 ducks wintered
in the area.
A Visitor Center-Museum was created for the public
from salvaged materials of historic structures that
removed by the Army Corps for the construction of
Lake Barkley. This Visitor Center-Museum is now LBL's
Nature Station.