La Fantasma de los Cruces Traditional Geocache
La Fantasma de los Cruces
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
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Drive to the cache along Olde Highway 80 not far from the I-8 Buckman Springs rest stop. Finding the cache is just plain easy. Altitude is 3385 feet.
Amos Buckman and his family were some of the first folks to settle in San Diego County. They called their place Buckman Springs. Amos was born in 1821 and died seventy-seven years and eighteen days later on March 28, 1898.
Anyone that drives out Olde Highway 80 to Buckman Springs Road has surely noticed the old Buckman place. It’s the stonework ruin with the fireplace, chimney, and crosses. Many old foundations dot the nearby landscape where a feed store, a cafe, a gas station, and a bottling plant were operated by Buckman kin.
Many small springs were situated along the banks of nearby Cottonwood Creek. The Buckmans drew lithium water from the many springs.
Buckman Lithia Water was bottled for shipment to San Diego, throughout California, and even to Europe. Yes, the water was carbonated and considered a curative. Shipments from San Diego Harbor went south and around Tierra del Fuego to Europe. In later years the water was flavored and bottled as soda pop.
Just behind the hotel ruin remain one or two of the mineral-bath pits where clients soaked in mineral water. North of the house and up a slight rise one can view the ruins of a water cistern where a windmill supplied water to the the Buckman home and to other structures. The old Buckman feed store and cafe were located near the cistern. Behind the home one can see a poured-in-place septic tank. The tank was needed because the structure became a hotel during the 1930s.
It is supposed that when I-8 was brought near the property the source of the Buckman springs might have been cut off. Not only did freeway construction disrupt the springs but it also threatened to unearth Amos Buckman’s gravesite.
Special provisions were made to realign freeway right-of-way so that Amos could remain in his final resting-place. A marvelous gravesite obelisk marks his grave. The location of the Amos Buckman obelisk is intentionally undisclosed as it is situated on inaccessible private land.
Most people don’t know much about ghosts. Mostly what they have heard is bunk. Here’s the real story … ghosts remain in a grave with the deceased unless the gravesite is opened. Once a gravesite is opened the ghost escapes to haunt the property of the deceased. So it is that the old Buckman property is indeed haunted by the ghost of Amos Buckman. Painted crosses aside, the ghost of Amos will watch over you as you view the old place and discover the cache that we placed in honor of Amos Buckman. Please say hello to the ghost.
No spoilers here please and do be careful around the old place. Please do not damage the ruin nor take artifacts. Be good little Geocachers please. Please don't throw rubble and rocks into the hidey hole to make it easier for people to find the cache. Dammit!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Znagratn n zvene