Lafayette Square Park is the oldest dedicated public park in St. Louis, originating in 1853. A longtime resident of the area, Ruth Kauphoefner, who is a person that was very instrumental in the tremendous rehab efforts of the homes in that area, says that the park is actually the oldest city park West of the Mississippi. Her book “Lafayette Comes Back” Copywrite 2000, is available at the public library. The park is landscaped and maintained by neighbors with the assistance of the city. You may see Ruth working in the ‘Ancient Rock Garden’ which she designed, planted and currently tends on a regular basis.
Some of the points of interest within the park are; the Lagoon and Ancient Rock Gardens, the pond with geese and ducks along with a real ‘Duck House’, remains of an old bandstand (which is scheduled to be rebuilt), one of six copies in the United States of George Washington by the sculptor Houdon, a statue of Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and three Revolutionary War cannons.
The neighborhood in which the park is located is on the National Register, and has the most Victorian homes in restored condition in the United States. It has been named one of Americas “Prettiest Painted Places”. There are small restaurants in the immediate area.
The park has concerts on Saturday nights 6PM - 8PM, biweekly throughout the summer, so caching would be a problem during that time.
This Cache has two waypoints and then the final cache itself. Use the following information to get from one to other.
WP1:
Coordinates for WP1 are those on the cache page. At WP1 you will find a stone plaque in front of three objects. It has the history of these objects that you see there. To find the decimal minutes of the latitude (North) coordinate of WP2, you must find the year that "a British vessel entering Charleston Harbor ran upon an obstruction...." Take that year and find the sum of the digits. Multiply that sum by 40 and add 11 to the product. Call that number ABC. It has a check sum of 17. The latitude (North) coordinate for WP2 is, N = 38 36.ABC.
To find the longitude (West) coordinate of WP2, find the year that the objects you are viewing were presented to Lafayette Park. Using that year, find the sum of the digits. Multiply that sum by 5 and add 16 to the product. Call that number XYZ. That number (XYZ) has a check sum of 6. Consider XYZ as the decimal number (.XYZ) and add it to the longitude (90 12.941) to get the longitude (West) coordinate of WP2.
WP2: At WP2 you are looking for a metal tag that has a three-digit number stamped on it with a check sum of 7. Call this number DEF. Add this number in .DEF format to N 38 36.482 and to W 90 12.467 to get the coordinates of the final cache.
Final Cache:
There is no need to wander into ANY of the garden area as the final cache is accessible from the path/trail you are on. The cache is a black container that is about 3”x 2”x 3/4” in size. Inside is only a log and no room for trade items. Please be very careful when retrieving the cache. When finished, be sure the container is closed and replaced in its original place and orientation. Good luck.