This virtual is located on the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. Parking is free with the America the Beautiful pass, otherwise a $3.00 donation to the Wildlife Refuge. You will be taking a short walk, approximately 0.35 miles, along a flat trail or road to the Twin Barns observtion site.There you will find not only the beautiful old barns but an informational sign which will provide the information that you need to claim your find.
The Twin Barns before you are a monument to an era that began more than a hundred years ago, when the Nisqually Delta was the scene of bustling agricultural activity. Alson L. Brown purchased 1500 acres of Nisqually Delta Land and built a 4-mile dike around his land to keep out seawater, turning the saltmarsh into hayfields and pastures for dairy cattle. It was a thriving operation for many years. The land ownership changed hands many times and survived a fire in 1929 which destroyed numerous buildings, the Great Depression, and in 1949 a magnitude 7 earthquake. With changing patterns of land use, farming on the delta became increasingly unprofitable. In 1968 the farm was put up for sale and a superport facility was proposed for the site. Following a grassroots effort by many citizens to save the Nisqually Delta, the Fish and Wildlife Service purchased the land with funds from the Migratory Bird Conservation fund and the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge was created.
After a damaging flood in 1996 and increasing problems with invasive canary grass and other management problems within the diked area of the refuge, Nisqually NWR staff initiated a planning effort to reevaluate habitat management. After eight years of extensive consultaions including the Nisqually Tribe and Ducks Unlimited to mention two of the major consultants, and major outreach to the public with over 50 presentations, a Comprehensive Conservation Plan was created. The vision of the plan was Estuary Restoration through removal of the Brown dike and restoring the native saltmarsh habitat. In May of 2009 the removal of the dike was begun and was officially completed in November, 2009. Further restoration activity included re-connection of large tidal channels to historic sloughs. Some trees were removed, other native species planted. In the spring of 2010, construction of the mile long boardwalk through the estuary began and was completed in February of 2011. With the restoration of the natural tide marsh ecosystem, recent monitoring at the refuge has shown improvement in the Chinook salmon as well as other native species.
The Twin Barns are the last remaining evidence of the agricultural era that once dominated this landscape. The return of the land to a tidal marsh that supports native species is still in process. This virtual is intended to give you an interesting snapshot of history and a view of change over time.
To claim a find for this virtual please do the following. Answer the following questions and send them to me. Do not include the answer with your log.
1)What animal is Alson Brown holding in the photo?
2)What was the brand name of the tractor that Brown used on the farm?
3) Please post of photo of yourself with the Twin Barns as a backdrop and add it to your log. If you prefer not to be in the photo a slip of paper with your caching name on it is fine. Or some other personal object. Of course you will need to hold one of these in front of the Twin Barns.
Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.