This is one of the caches available on the Wayne County Bicentennial trail! The purpose of this project is to highlight local Wayne County History and share geocaching with folks that may know nothing about it! Your job is to go find this cache and open it and record your name on the log paper inside. You can also trade items that are in the geocache with items of your own if you want. Then put it back in place for the next visitor! Permission has been given to place a cache here. You are looking for a plastic food storage container.
If you're participating in the Bicentennial Passport program, please punch the correct area on the passport for this geocache and leave the punch in the cache container. You can get a paper passport at the public libraries in Wayne County or download it at www.waynecounty200.com
The Passport Program is planned to start around May 1st and go to November 1st.
From the Wayne County website:
On November 24, 1824, the NYS Legislature passed a law authorizing the Town of Savannah to be separated from the Town of Galen on February 28, 1825. The town of Savannah was created from the town of Galen on November 24, 1824, and is comprised of nearly 21,000 acres. A savannah is an extensive open plain covered with grass. The town was aptly named. The southwest portion of Savannah is comprised of an extensive swamp of nearly 1,900 acres which was covered with coarse grass.
Savannah was part of Lot 27 of the Military Tract, land given to officers and men who served in the Revolutionary Army from the State of New York. It is bounded on the north by Butler, on the east by Cayuga County, on the south by Seneca County, and on the west by Galen.
The highest point of land in Savannah is Fort Hill, the site of a Jesuit mission established by Father Rene Menard as early as 1657. Much earlier, about 1300 A.D., this area was the site of an Owasco village. It was described by Beauchamp as an oval earthwork, about a mile south of the Savannah village comprising about 5/8 acre.
The first settlement in the area was by Dr. James Young. Dr. Young, a veteran of the American Revolution, settled on Lot 37, near the Seneca River. A well was dug on this property which produced a strong brine. A salt works was established but was proven unsuccessful and only lasted about three years.
Soon other settlers began to arrive in Savannah - Joseph Mosher, George Vredenburgh, Daniel Harrington, along with many others. Royal Torrey built the Crusoe House in 1824. It stands on what is now Route 89 just north of the former village of Savannah. In 1825, the Crusoe House was the site of the first town meeting in Savannah. Several years later, it served as the first post office. Today, the Crusoe House is the oldest building in the town of Savannah.
The village of Savannah has dissolved over twenty years ago. The current town supervisor is Mike Kolzyncski who gave permission for the cache to be here.
A quiz about early Savannah history: http://wayne.nygenweb.net/savannah/quiz.html