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.
Booming Sounds – Location 29.1236, -81.7192
Over the past fifty years Floridians have periodically heard unexplained booming sounds. These acoustical mysteries have occurred in both the atmosphere and underground. In the 1950s, booming sounds were frequently heard in the Ocala National Forest but most of those were attributed to the military’s Ocala Bombing Range. However, in more recent times the same kind of sounds have been heard over a wider area without any apparent connection to military activities. People described the sounds “like a super-sonic aircraft makes when it breaks the sound barrier.” Windows would rattle and the ground would shake which caused some people to say it was coming from underground.
On January 25th and 26th, 1994, several sonic booms were heard across Central Florida with reports coming from Leesburg, Ocala, Gainesville, Dunnellon, and as far east as Deland. Seismographs at the University of Florida, that are capable of detecting vibrations as far away as China, showed no record of the acoustical phenomenon. When contacted by the authorities, local military installations at Tampa and Jacksonville said the sounds were not made by military aircraft. Likewise, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) could offer no explanations for the bizarre booms. A few people claimed to have heard a quick “double boom” similar to what Central Floridians experience when the Space Shuttle breaks into the atmosphere just before landing. However, there were no shuttles flying during this period. A meteorologist, speaking on the evening news, theorized that the noise could have originated some place other than Florida, like an acoustical mirage caused by the inversion of air…but made audible over Florida.
Here is the super duper, way challenging, really hard trivia question, which, if solved properly, will lead you to the final coordinates:
Question: Which US state has a law prohibiting being naked in bed?
A: Mordor = N29° 26.545' W81° 48.558'
B: Hogwarts = N29° 26.555' W81° 48.558'
C: Minnesota = N29° 26.565' W81° 48.558'