The L.G. Balfour Riverwalk Park is a community park in Attleboro featuring a skate park, playground and a volleyball area. Also in this park you will find this fascinating scultpure as seen below.
On June 13, 1913 Lloyd Garfield Balfour built a company and an industry in Attleboro, and through sheer will of personality kept it going through wars, depressions, draining lawsuits, court battles and gold fluctuations.
Balfour is a name that has become synonymous with high school and college class rings as well as some of the most memorable trophies in the world of sports, including the Cy Young Award, the World Series Commissioner's Trophy, championship NBA rings for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ers, among others, and countless All-Star game and World Series pins, buttons, and plaques.
On the 90th anniversary of the founding of the L.G. Balfour Co., the city formally dedicated a sculpture in Balfour Riverwalk Park depicting the heritage of jewelry making in Attleboro.
Jewelry manufacturing in Attleboro dates back to 16th or 17th century France and religious persecution of the Huguenots, a Protestant sect. By the late 18th century, just prior to the American Revolution, the Huguenots fled France. Some settled in Germany, where they were chartered to make jewelry. Others headed for the New World. And at least one of them came to Attleboro, a legendary figure known today only as “The Frenchman,” (possibly because his real name was all by unpronounceable to colonial contemporaries). The Frenchman is reputed to have made buttons for the uniforms worn by American army officers. He was soon followed by Col. Obed Robinson, who built the first jewelry shop in Attleboro in 1807. Moved forward to 1913 and the addition of the L.G. Balfour company, and the rest is history.
Look carefully at the sculpture. You’ll see symbols of daily life in Attleboro during the 18th century, and the construction of mills in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Tying the historical timeline together is the waterwheel whose purpose was to irrigate the farmland and power up the factories.
To get credit for this virtual cache, please take a picture of either yourself or a geocaching item with the sculpture at the posted coordinates in the background. Either upload the photo with your log or send it to me through the geocaching message feature to prove you actually visited the area.
This Virtual cache location was chosen as a way to thank the city of Attleboro for playing hosting to a Mega-Event and thus bringing in hundreds of geocachers from all over!
Special thanks to Esoxx for donating her Virtual cache reward to us to be used for the SEMAG Mega-Event. You made a lot of geocachers very happy doing that!
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.