This cache is dedicated to the memory of the Wappingers Tribe. At one time, before the arrival of the Dutch, the Hudson Valley was home to a thriving culture of Native Americans known as the Lenni Lenape Indians, made up of the Wappingers (or Wappani), Delaware, and Mahican Tribes, who all spoke Algonquin. The Wappingers tribe controlled all of the land east of the Hudson between Manhattan and present-day Poughkeesie.
This all changed in 1624 with the arrival of the first Dutch settlers. Between 1624 and 1683 the Lenni Lenape tribes were decimated by disease and war. For example, in 1643 a group of Wappingers were attacked by a Mohawk raiding party (who were allied with the Europeans). When the Wappingers fled to the Dutch shelter at Pavonia, 80 men, women and children were viciously slaughtered, and the Dutch soldiers reportedly played games with their severed heads.
This brings us to the cache at hand…As has so often been the case, the Wappingers lost their lands to the Europeans. The Wappingers signed a contract in 1683, giving land to Francis Rombout and Gulian Verplanck. In return for this land, the Wappingers recieved gunpowder, lead, beer, and guns, among other items. The land on which the cache is located is the Verplanck farm in…are you ready…Wappingers!
Before leaving the land, however, the last of the Wappingers left a coded message for any future kinsman that may pass. It was found carved into a boulder, and many believe that it will lead to a stash of treasure somewhere on the Wappingers lands. Can you decode it?
