Welcome to the Farewell to Finder’s Fest geo-art, brought to you by the Forest Minions! This series celebrates weird and unusual things throughout the Sunshine State. Please do not go to the posted locations. Rather, solve the challenging quiz found at the bottom of each page, for the final location. For the letterbox caches, please leave the stamp in the cache. They are not trade items. For the discerning traveler, we’ve included the GPS coordinates for these bizarre locations, when we were able to establish them.
Devil’s Millhopper – Location 29.7069, -82.3950
Northwest of Gainesville, Florida, is a gigantic, funnel-shaped hole in the ground that is an astonishing 500 feet across, 120 feet deep, and nearly a half-mile around its rim. This geological wonder, now owned by the state, is called the Devil’s Millhopper...a portal straight to hell...according to some old timers.
Among the many weird stories about this hole, the earliest comes from Indian legends regarding a princess that the devil wanted to marry, and to make a long legend short, she ended up being swallowed by the hole. Another tale, supposedly from the 1880s, is about a black pioneer family who were on their way to town with a wagon-load of cotton when they saw the hole open up and gobble down an acre of tall pines. As a preacher once repeated their story, “The ground began rumbling like Satan himself was coming out of the earth, then a big, frightening hole opened-up swallowing trees, rocks, and at least one liquored-up sinner.” The Devil’s Millhopper was well known in early preaching for eating up a sinner or two, usually drunk ones. A traveling evangelist, in a fire-and-brimstone sermon aimed at persistent sinners, once preached, “It’s the gateway to hell; the devil’s own door!”
Here is the super duper, way challenging, really hard trivia question, which, if solved properly, will lead you to the final coordinates:
Question: Which German theologian claimed he could drive away the Devil, with a fart?
A: Donald Duck = N29° 29.848' W81° 50.509'
B: Mickey Mouse = N29° 29.838' W81° 50.509'
C: Martin Luther = N29° 29.828' W81° 50.509'