The last of the 150 challenge coins for the 2025 Challenge was given out on Friday, April 11th. Thank you all for participating!
This Geocache is part of an annual Geocache Challenge put on by the Heritage Program at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area as part of our outreach to the public, to get people to explore their forest and their history, and to share the unique heritage of the families from Between the Rivers.
This Geocache is part of the “2025 Land Between the Lakes Heritage Geocache Challenge: General Stores Between the Rivers”. There are 7 geocaches placed across Land Between the Lakes related to the history of the Community General Stores between the rivers. If you locate each geocache, and collect a numbered aluminum tree tag from each cache, you can turn them in at the Golden Pond Visitor Center for one of 150 Challenge Coins created for this event.
The Geocache is a 6” x 6” clear watertight plastic box marked “Heritage Geocache” on the top. The geocache is placed in a fallen tree.
The “2025 Land Between the Lakes Heritage Geocache Challenge: General Stores Between the Rivers” was researched, written, and placed by archaeologist Lacy Risner. Please thank Lacy for her hard work and dedication.
The Center Furnace Commissary
The company store was generally an employee-only store that generally accepted a form of payment called scrip. This was a non-cash voucher issued by the com-pany ahead of payday so workers could purchase goods.
On the surface, this might seem to be an advantage for the worker, and in some cases it probably could be. But, ultimately, this was a method for the company to ensure worker’s wages were re-directed back to the company.
Company stores like the commissary here at Center Furnace had little competition for worker’s earnings, since the next nearest store might have been in Energy, Golden Pond, or Ironton, depending on the era involved. The workers at Center Furnace were paid in silver, but allowing purchases on credit created what some call a debt slavery, obligating employees to stay with the company in order to pay their debts.
