Cache is not at posted coordinates. That is a historical marker, but there really isn't any legal place to park nearby. There used to be a big rock here with a metal plaque supposedly marking Thomas Cresap's home location. However, it was moved further north to the Zimmerman Center which seems to be closer to his actual home which no longer exists because it was burned when Cresap was arrested in 1736.
Read through some history below to find the location of the magnetic cache contaiiner somewhat appropriately on the Mason-Dixon Trail which is named in honor of the surveyors but which is not actually on the Mason-Dixon Line they surveyed.
This is a short explanation of Cresap's War. John Wright (a Pennsylvania Quaker) had settled north of here around 1726. He established Wright's Ferry across the Susquehanna River. To Wright and other Pennsylvanians, this area was well within William Penn's charter. Around 1730, Thomas Cresap (a Maryland trader) obtained a large tract of land in this area and built a homestead "fort" called "Pleasant Garden" roughly where the Zimmerman Center now is although that was not the building. He worked with Maryland's Lord Baltimore, collected taxes, established the Blue/Blew Rock Ferry, and insisted this area up to the 40th parallel was part of Maryland. He encouraged folks from Lancaster County to come across the river on the ferry and settle in what is now York County on property he "sold" to them.
Pennsylvania settlers said this area was Pennsylvania. Cresap and Lord Baltimore said it was Maryland. Cresap insisted Pennsylvania laws did not apply to him and violently enforced his view that the land was Maryland. Despite a 1732 agreement between Lord Baltimore and William Penn's sons, Cresap still fought. Violence over the border dispute was called Cresap's War. The Sheriff of Lancaster County tried to arrest him in 1733 but didn't manage to do so. The Maryland Militia came to support Cresap in May and September of 1736. In November 1736, he was finally arrested by Pennsylvanians and his "fort" was burned.
The 1737 peace agreement confirmed the 1732 setting of the border as 15 miles south of Philadelphia. That border is what Mason and Dixon finished surveying in 1767. That agreement set this area well inside Pennsylvania, so Cresap moved to western Maryland where he died about 1790.
The cache container is where the tree melds with the metal at N 39° 58.ABC W 76° 29.XYZ
Who established the Blue/Blew Rock Ferry?
A. Lord Baltimore (ABC = 087)
B. John Wright (ABC = 143 )
C. Thomas Cresap (ABC = 021)
D. William Penn (ABC = 159)
What year was Thomas Cresap's "fort" burned?
A. 1730 (XYZ = 596)
B. 1736 (XYZ = 674)
C. 1737 (XYZ = 705)
D. 1767 (XYZ = 792)
Ref: Smithsonian Magazine by Kat Eschner
Ref: Blue Rock Heritage Center - Cresap's War
There will be more adventures here.
Congratulations to NoBlueCircles on the First-to-Find.