Thank you, George Veditz!
I met Ranger Jonah a few years back after seeing some of his YouTube videos set in Mason Mill Park. They weren't captioned. One day while walking my dogs at Mason Mill Park along the boardwalk behind the tennis courts, I noticed a gentleman on the trails that was wearing the same uniform and wearing the same hat as Ranger Jonah in the videos. I asked if he was Ranger Jonah. He was!
I asked if he could add captioning to his videos so I could enjoy them. He started to sign to me in American Sign Language (ASL). He said he would investigate it and right away I noticed captions became available. Not too long after that, we worked together to set up a series of geocaches in Mason Mill Park. KuroKitty and K4WK were also part of this process. I digress. Let’s get to the puzzle.
You must be flummoxed wondering what George W. Veditz has to do with any of the above. He was a major contributor to the preservation and promotion of ASL. He was one of the most visible advocates of ASL. (nad.org). You must be wondering why that is even important. If you google the Milan Conference of 1880, you will see that at the conference a declaration was made that oral education (via learning to speak and lipread) was better than manual (sign) education. As a result, sign language in schools for the Deaf was banned. This had a large impact on the education of Deaf children. Its impact is still around today. Its impact is why (even a century later) my parents were told not to learn ASL or have me learn ASL when I was a child. Veditz filmed himself in 1913 in a film titled Preservation of the Sign Language. This film is now a part of the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. (See the link on the bottom to view the amazing video and also the transcript.)
I told Ranger Jonah where I hid a new cache and he found it. Can you?
I hope you enjoy this puzzle and search as much as I enjoyed crafting it!
Cool links:
You can validate your puzzle solution with
certitude.