HCWHA US 250th GeoTour
Taneytown Library
Party like it’s 1776 with the Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area’s 250th GeoTour! Designed for beginner and veteran geocachers, participants will travel through time, solving puzzles and following clues to learn more about mid-Maryland’s rich history. In honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States, our 250th GeoTour will take you throughout Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties to sites of historical significance, including battlefields, houses of worship, museums, parks, and more!
Our tour is an opportunity to learn more about the people, places, and events that laid the foundation for our country. While supplies last, those who collect 15 or more will earn this Geotour’s limited edition geocoin commemorating the 250th. Happy hunting!
The Taneytown Branch of the Carroll County Public Library offers free access to resources, information, and connection in their community, and are part of a long lineage of public libraries in the United States. Over the past 250 years, American libraries have transformed from privately funded and accessible collections to welcoming spaces for all to gather and learn. Today, the Taneytown Branch represents the culmination of the United States’ struggle for free and equal access by actively promoting inclusivity and the right to education for all.
In 1731, Benjamin Franklin opened the first membership library in what would become the United States called the Library Company to discuss “queries on any point of Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy.” Members of the Library Company had to pay membership fees, and non-members had to provide collateral to borrow books. Subscription, or membership, libraries were the predominant source of reading materials until 1790, when the first lending, or public, library opened in Massachusetts.
The first entirely tax-supported library opened in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 1833, and public libraries spread in earnest after the Civil War. Men from the New England elite dominated leadership positions in the early U.S. library movement, but public library patronage transcended gender and class. Race, however, divided public spaces in the late 19th and 20th centuries, and public libraries throughout the south became sites of peaceful protests during the Civil Rights Era of the 1950s and 60s.
Initially, librarians imagined themselves as missionaries, “bringing civilization and reform to the masses through educational opportunity,” and legislation of the 1950s and 60s echoed their sentiment. The Library Services Act of 1956, and later the Library Services and Construction Act of 1962, provided funding for new library spaces, books, and other materials to rural and underserved communities throughout the United States. Public libraries were also proponents of Americanization, and many branches offered activities to prepare immigrants for citizenship and literacy tests. In the 1950s, the American Library Association took a firm anti-censorship stance and adopted the “Freedom to Read” statement, despite a wide practice of book-banning in school libraries.
Public libraries fundamentally shaped education in the United States. Carroll County’s first public library, the Westminster Public Library, opened in 1863, and the initial Taneytown Community Library opened in 1969. Riding a wave of the American Public Library Movement, the Taneytown Branch opened in 1989 as a full-service branch of the Carroll County Public Library System, and more branches would follow. In 1980, Maryland’s systematic circulation recorded 504,582 materials, by June 1985, 1 million, and by 2001, over 3 million materials were borrowed or circulated in public libraries throughout the State. With their commitment to their community, the Taneytown Branch stands today as the newest evolution of public libraries in the United States with the promise to provide free, unhindered access to reading and resource materials to all.
“Statements.” Carroll County Public Library. https://library.carr.org/about/statements.asp.
Brady, Hillary, and Franky Abbott. A History of US Public Libraries. Digital Public Library of America. (September 2015). https://dp.la/exhibitions/history-us-public-libraries.
“CCPL History.” Carroll County Public Library. https://library.carr.org/about/history.asp.
The Geocache
The geocache is located somewhere in the Taneytown Library. The given coordinates will take you to a sign outside the Taneytown Library. The image is the same on both sides. Answer the following questions about the sign:
- 1. How many organization's logos are displayed on the right hand of the sign? Add one to that number.
- 2. How many people are on the sign?
- 3. Find the 3 digit number on the fourth line of the sign after the word 'call'. Subtract two from the first digit in that number.
- 4. What is the last letter in the first line of the sign?
You should have 3 digit number and a letter. The checksum of the three digit number is 12 and the letter is worth two points in the board game Scrabble. Please be respectful of the patrons and search for the geocache in the library.
The geocache has been approved by the Taneytown Library. Please be respectful of the patrons while searching for the geocache. The final container can be accessed during the following hours:
- Monday 9AM-8PM
- Tuesday 9AM-8PM
- Wednesday 9AM-8PM
- Thursday 9AM-8PM
- Friday 9AM-5PM
- Saturday 9AM-5PM
Thanks to the following members of the Maryland Geocaching Society in placing the hides for this GeoTour: deepdish23, hunterKat, GR8Caches, Snurt, Phos4s, JediTrashPanda, and AL's Guide.