Three-Mile Canal Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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From the west coast the Caloosahatchee snaked its way to Lake Flirt, where Fort Thompson was situated, and to a ten-foot-high waterfall. Between Lake Flirt and Lake Okeechobee were three lakes: Bonnet, Lettuce and Hicpochee, and a Indian canal connecting Hicpochee with Okeechobee. But there was no navigable waterway connecting one to another. Without roads or navigable waterways, settlement was impossible. Assistance from the State was not possible: the state of Florida was broke. In 1881 Hamilton Disston, appeared on scene. One of Disston’s three proposed undertakings was to dredge a waterway that would connect the Caloosahatchee with Lake Okeechobee. The dredging job went to Captain J. Fred Menge and his brother Conrad. To accomplish the task they built a dredge with continuous moving buckets which used its own paddle wheel for power. Following the shortest route, the Menges dug from lake to lake and then along the old Indian Canal from Hicpochee to Okeechobee that became known as Three-Mile Canal or the Caloosahatchee Canal. The opening up of the waterway simultaneously dropped the level of Lake Okeechobee by one foot, draining some two million acres of overfloed land. The Menges’ dredge was worn out, but it had served well the purpose of creating a corridor into the ‘glades and in 1883 the first steamboat made the trip from the Gulf of Mexico to Kissimmee, a laborious voyage that took fifty-two days. The Cache is overlooking a part of the Three-Mile Canal. It’s a green/camo’d tuperware type container. When placed it contained a Log book, pen, and the normal trinkets for trading. Hope you enjoyed the hunt.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gnyy Nhfgenyvn cvar pnabcl, haqre ybtf