Plug’s Pond is a popular recreational area. The beach area is open for swimming during the summer months. There are bathroom facilities here, but they are only open during the summer and during special events. The pond is stocked with trout in the springtime, which makes it a popular fishing hole as well. You might want to bring your rod and reel along, too! And there are many trails suitable for mountain biking, including the ones that lead to the cache. If you continue on these trails, down the hill towards Kenoza Lake, you will find yourself in the vicinity of two other cache sites, so you might want bring a picnic lunch, and spend the day caching. And don't forget to visit Winnekenni Castle, located at the top of the highest hill in the park! It has been fully renovated and is now used for recitals, weddings and other group functions.
Along the trails near the cache are the remains of the barn, outbuildings and the original foundation of Birchbrow (see photo below), an elegant mansion that once graced the hillside here in the 1800’s. It was the home of Thomas Sanders, built in 1880 with profits realized from the recently invented telephone. Alexander Graham Bell's association with Sanders, as the tutor of his deaf son was one of benefit to both men.
In an excerpt from "The Story of Winnekinni," by author Donald C. Freeman, Freeman relates how Bell used the basement of Sander's house on Kenoza Avenue for some of his experiments. "From this house (which is still standing) the telephone line was extended to City Hall in 1877 for Bell to give a public exhibition of his invention. In the uncertain days between 1874 and 1878 Sanders provided nine-tenths of the money to get the telephone company started and signed notes, mortgaging his property, for one hundred and ten thousand dollars. When the tide turned, munificently, for the Bell Telephone Company, Thomas Sanders, one of the three partners, may be said to have 'splurged.' In 1880 he built 'Birchbrow,' a forty-room home with an interior finished with mahogany and other costly woods - at a cost of three hundred eighty-five thousand period value dollars. The estate was plagued by fires; the huge and elaborately finished barn, costing eighty thousand, was burned in 1895 and again in 1929. The house had bad fires in 1886 and 1892. Some fifty thousand dollars-worth of vandalism was done in 1946!"
Birchbrow was known for its warm hospitality. In the rubble you can still see the remains of the ornate brickwork from the chimneys and the front stairs of the grand, main entrance.
One of the special events that is held here, on the shores of Plug's Pond, on the third weekend in September, is the Chief Red Blanket Memorial Powwow. This site has been a gathering place for Native Americans for hundreds of years and the tradition continues with the powwows each year.
Slow Turtle cache was created to honor the memory of a very special Native American, Slow Turtle, whose "tax name," as he referred to it, was John Peters. He was supreme medicine man of the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian tribe and the first and only executive director of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs. He lived nearby, in Bradford, Massachusetts.
Slow Turtle performed traditional services when tribal members died or were given their Indian names, and at the opening of tribal powwows and social events. He opened and closed the Chief Red Blanket Powwow here, for many years.
Slow Turtle is also credited with state legislation that became the model for the federal Native American Graves Repatriation Act, which requires museums and other institutions to return skeletal remains and cultural artifacts to Indian tribes.
Slow Turtle spoke often about his concern for the next 'seven generations" to come - our children's' children - and what kind of a legacy that we would leave to them. He stressed the importance of respecting and preserving Mother Earth for future generations.
Getting back to the cache... it is now a small/medium cammoed Lock 'n Lock container that has been well hidden. Hint has been updated for the new location. It is entirely concealed but the hide will be obvious to the trained eye of a geocacher. Please rehide as found. Thank you!