Phillip Nolan vs. Lewis and Clark Traditional Cache
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Phillip Nolan vs. Lewis and Clark
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Cache is located near the Nolan River just north of Blum. Medium walk along the banks of the river involved. Park area off of 933 just across from the baseball fields.
This is just a regular old cache, but I have included some interesting historical info on caches and the people who placed them.
This Cache is named for Phillip Nolan. He is often credited with being the first Anglo-American to map Texas, but his map has never been found. His observations were passed on to Gen. James Wilkinson in Kentucky, who used them to produce a map of the Texas-Louisiana frontier around 1804.
In the decade between 1791 and 1801 four expeditions were made to Texas from neighboring Spanish Louisiana under the leadership of Phillip Nolan. Due to Nolan's links with the nefarious Gen. James Wilkinson, these expeditions are generally considered to have had a political character and were regarded by early historians as filibusters. In view of the lack of documentary evidence, however, these expeditions are more correctly described as horse-catching operations motivated by personal profit rather than as revolutionary efforts to free Texas from the rule of Spain.
He intended to meet with Thomas Jefferson, who had written him concerning Texas and its herds of wild horses, but the meeting apparently never took place.
Meanwhile, Thomas Jefferson did meet with Captain Meriwether Lewis and set the stage for he and Captain William Clark to explore the new lands of the Louisiana Purchase.
I don’t know if Nolan ever crossed paths with Lewis or Clark, but if they had, they could have Geocached. As Lewis and Clark approached the Rocky Mountains and were unable to continue over water en route to the Pacific Ocean, they placed caches to store goods for their return trip.
The following is an excerpt from “Those Tremendous Mountains, The Story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition” by David Freeman Hawke. It describes how caches were placed 200 years ago.
It is in a high plain about forty yards distant from a steep bluff of the south branch on its northern side; the situation a dry one, which is always necessary. A place being fixed on for a cache, a circle of about 20 inches. In diameter is first described. The turf or sod of this circle is carefully removed being taken out as entire as possible in order that it may be replaced in the same situation when the cache is filled and secured. This circular hole is then sunk perpendicularly to the depth of one foot; if the ground be not firm somewhat deeper. They then begin to work it out wider as they proceed downwards until they get it about six or seven feet deep, giving it nearly the shape of the kettle or lower part of a large still. Its bottom is also somewhat sunk in the center. The dimensions of the cache is in proportion to the quantity of articles intended to be deposited. As the earth is dug, it is handed up in a vessel and carefully laid on a skin or cloth and then carried to some place where it can be thrown in such manner as to conceal it, usually into some running stream where it washed away and leaves no traces which might lead to the discovery of the cache. Before the goods are deposited they must be well dried. A parcel of small dry sticks are then collected and with them a floor is made of three or four inches thick which is then covered with some dry hay or a rawhide well dried. On this the articles are deposited, taking care to keep them from touching the walls by putting other dry sticks between as you stow away the merchandise. When nearly full the goods are covered with a skin and earth thrown in and well rammed until with the addition of the turf first removed the whole is on a level with the surface of the ground. In this manner dried skins or merchandise will keep perfectly sound for several years.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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