HCWHA US 250th GeoTour
Fort Frederick
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!
Courtesy of Dave Harp, The Bay Journal
Fort Frederick was built during the French and Indian War in 1756. It is one of the largest fortifications built by the British in North America. Today, the Friends of Fort Frederick State Park sponsors educational activities and programs to support the park's historical, cultural and administrative needs and teach the public about the fort’s prominence in Western Maryland.
The Fort has endured through the French and Indian War, Pontiac’s War, the American Revolution, and the Civil War. When it was built, it marked the gateway to the western frontier.
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 prohibited British settlement west of the Appalachian mountains. Colonists ignored this, sparking conflict with the indigenous peoples living there. Ottawa leader Pontiac met with the Potawatomi, Ottawa, Wyandot, and other Native allies to discuss British land encroachment, high prices on trade goods, and a lack of respect for Indian customs.
Over the next two years, a vast alliance of Indigenous peoples from the Great Lakes region and west of the Appalachian mountains engaged in war with the British. Over 700 western settlers sought refuge at Fort Frederick during the conflict. Due to waning support from both French and Native allies, Pontiac’s Rebellion ended in the fall of 1764.
In 1777 during the American Revolution, Fort Frederick was refurbished and used by the Americans as a prison camp. Following the war, the fort was sold and the land was farmed, with minor activity during the Civil War. Eventually, Nathan Williams, a man who had purchased his freedom from slavery, purchased this land to farm and raise his family here.
Guarding the gate to the western frontier, the fort offers visitors the opportunity to learn about Maryland’s history and see its many perspectives.
“Fort Frederick State Park History.” Maryland Department of Natural Resources - National Park Service. https://dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands/Pages/western/FortFrederick/History-FFSP.aspx.
“Letters from Horatio Sharpe, 5 July 1763.” Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1761-1769, Maryland State Archives vol. 32: 60-2. https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000032/html/am32--61.html.
McCutchen, Jennifer Monroe “Proclamation Line of 1763.” George Washington’s Mount Vernon. https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/proclamation-line-of-1763
“Pontiac’s Rebellion.” American Battlefield Trust. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/pontiacs-rebellion
Waddell, Louis M. “Defending the Long Perimeter: Forts on the Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia Frontier, 1755-1765.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 62, no. 2 (1995): 171–95. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27773800.
To find the coordinates to this cache, play the corresponding Adventure Lab at Fort Frederick State Park and gather the bonus words and the end of each stage. Enter the bonus words into Certitude in alphabetical order, no spaces, lowercase to receive the final coordinates and a hint. Parking for the final location is listed in the waypoints. The cache is a medium-sized lock-n-lock container.
You can validate your puzzle solution with
certitude.
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.