Water, Water Everywhere Multi-Cache

This cache has been archived.

*gln: RBKTJC requested Water, Water Everywhere (Multi-cache) to be archived at 4/2/2006

Removed by park staff...... be on the lookout for a new one.

Glenn, your friendly Geocaching.com admin.
Missouri Geocachers Assoc http://www.MoGeo.com
THE Forums for Mo & Ks. http://mogeo.ipbhost.com/index.php?
[b]St. Louis Area Geocachers Association http://www.GeoStl.com
and Email List http://www.freelists.org/list/geocaching
[/b]

[b][red]Come to the Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure 2006 (MOGA) in Grafton, Illinois
March 25-26, 2006:[/b][/red] http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=b6150af5-0e64-48ef-8651-2290235a2fd1

Dave's Handy Hiding Hints http://www.ratisher.com/geocache_hiding.htm
Add yourself to the Geocachers map at http://www.frappr.com/missourigeocachers
[b]Missouri Caches Scheduled to be Archived[/b] http://tinyurl.com/87cqw

More
Hidden : 1/20/2005
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
3 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works
Looking for a different adventure?

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:

This multi-cache is located in Rock Bridge Memorial State Park and visits three different sources of water. The coordinates for the first cache are given. You must find each cache in order to receive the coordinates for the next one. All three caches are near trails but at different elevations. Minor bushwacking is required--look out for hidden barbed-wire fences.

The first cache is a small plastic jar (keep trinkets small); the 2nd and 3rd caches are green ammunition boxes. Clues for all three sites are listed. If you don’t want to see all three clues at once, decode them by hand.
While some call Missouri the Cave State (with more than 6000 known caves), we also have more than 4000 springs. A spring is where water that flows underground re-emerges back to the surface. This multi-cache takes you to a small cave-like overhang that is the source of a small spring. Springs were important resources to early settlers in the area. Residents of a mansion house built in the 1830s used water drawn from cisterns or wells, at least one of which was connected by pipes to a nearby spring. What remains of the spring house and the mansion are caches #2 and #3.
Historically, people mistakenly believed that cave springs were excellent sources of fresh water. Local settlers would take home barrels filled with “clean, pure spring water” from nearby Connor’s Spring which emerges from Devil’s Icebox Cave. In the 1850’s, under the ownership of James McConathy, the Rockbridge Mills distillery produced up to 17 percent of the state’s whiskey using water from Connor’s Spring.
In truth, however, the quality of a spring is directly connected to the quality of the watershed which feeds the spring. A watershed is all of the land that drains into a particular stream or river. If an area is high in pollutants and chemicals (such as pesticides, lawn fertilizers, animal manure and industrial waste), the groundwater will also be contaminated when rains wash those pollutants into the ground and into nearby streams.
During the McConathy era, the Rock Bridge area had become a small town with a flour mill, hog farms, tanyards, a post office, a general store, and a population of about 300 people (free and slave). These people, whether they knew it or not, directly impacted the quality of the groundwater, including local springs.
Water that filters through the ground in cave or “karst” areas usually travels quickly through the cracks and crevices in the limestone bedrock without time for the filtering and purification that occurs in non-karst areas. When this water emerges back to the surface as a spring, it may be just as contaminated as when it entered the ground. The Devil’s Icebox Cave watershed contains more than 7000 acres, only 10 percent of which is currently owned by the park. Therefore, the quality of the water depends on everyone.
As you wander from water source to water source, you must look carefully to see remnants of the town. After Boone County passed a law in 1907 prohibiting the manufacture and sale of whiskey, businesses in the Rock Bridge area gradually closed or moved away. Fires destroyed both the distillery and mansion house. Time and nature have cleverly hidden the rest except from the keen observer.
Please note that any artifacts found are property of the state park and should not be removed. Please leave them where you find them. This cache has been placed with permission of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of State Parks.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

[#1] Erfg njuvyr ng Ebpx Vfynaq Whapgvba [#2] V urneq vg guebhtu gur tencrivar. [#3] Ohfl nf n ornire orgjrra gjb pvfgreaf.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


Attributes

No attributes available

Advertising with Us

Inventory

There are no Trackables in this cache.

View past Trackables

What are Trackable Items?