Greenspace Traditional Cache

When the first Earth Day called awareness to saving the environment in 1970, millions of people took up causes to support ecology and preserve nature. A small group of Elizabethtown and Hardin County residents were among the supporters. From that dedicated group came Greenspace Inc., a nonprofit agency organized to preserve streams and creek beds across Hardin County. Greenspace began in 1974, four years after Elizabethtown and the Hardin County Soil Conservation Service created plans for a 20-mile park system that would follow streams throughout the city. The group's mission is to work with the city to develop the Greenbelt Trail System. The original plan was to develop a continuous system of trails that would almost circle the city. The group traveled to several cities to get ideas for how a system would work. Today there are nine trails surrounding several streams and creeks, and two parks, but the circle still isn't complete. As the group grew, so did the trails, which currently add up to 13 miles. The original trails were dirt footpaths just a couple feet wide. Original Greenspace members liked the quaint feel of the paths, and it was hard to create more accessible paths without more help and more money. For the first 20 years, most of the work was done by volunteers. In the 1990s, Greenspace hired its first full-time employee as trail supervisor. It also bumped up its budget from a few thousand dollars to close to $40,000. Greenspace applied for federal grants and received appropriations from the city, and boosted its income from dues as membership grew. There are 13 members on the Greenspace board and about 160 members and contributors on the group's mailing list.

I would like to add that Greenspace has been very instrumental in the development of geocaching in this area. Without these trails we would not have such a great area for geocaching.

The cache is a Medium sized bison.

Greenspace Website