Knoxville's Oldest Grave Multi-Cache
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Note#1: Since we live pretty close to this cache, Team Wampus has asked us to adopt it. There is lots of history here in this little out of the way place. The church that once stood here was Knoxville's first organized church.
Elizabeth Carrick's grave is unique not only because her's is the oldest known marked grave in Knox County, but also because her burial was carried out entirely by women here where the Holston and French Broad Rivers meet to form the Tennessee River. In his "History of Lebanon In The Fork Presbyterian Church", Tennessee historian J.G.M. Ramsey tells that, although this area had been used for previous burials of trappers and traders, Mrs. Carrick's was probably the first Christian internment in the County. Dr. Ramsey is also buried here.
As the story goes, Elizabeth died from one of the fevers that were constantly a danger to early settlers. Unfortunately for her grieving husband, there was another immediate danger...that of an imminent Indian attack on the small territorial capital of Knoxville. All 38 white men in the area, including Rev. Carrick, were holed up in James White's Fort awaiting an attack by 1000 Indian warriors. I've read different accounts as to why Knoxvile wasn't wiped off the face of the planet that day, but it involved a single cannon shot. The various stories credit the firing of the cannon to A) welcoming a visiting dignitary, B) a military style drill, or C) a show of force to purposely scare away the Indians. For whatever reason, the Indians drifted west of the fledgling city and instead wiped out Cavet's Station, but that's a story for another cache. In the meantime, female relatives and friends of Elizabeth floated her body down the river in a canoe to this place and buried her themselves. Her grandson erected the headstone many years later. Read more about the fascinating history of this area at http://www.knoxcotn.org/churches/lebanon/ .
This is an OFFSET CACHE. The listed coordinates will bring you to Elizabeth's headstone. The cache container, a magnetic key holder, is located at N35° 57.62X and W083° 50.826. Add the last digit of Elizabeth's year of death to 4 to obtain the "X" in the decimal minutes for the first coordinate. The cache container is not at a gravesite. You do not need to go on or across the railroad tracks. If you happen to time your visit here when the Three Rivers Rambler excursion train is returning to the Knoxville riverfront, you'll witness a spectacular display when the locomotive stops on the trestle and purges steam.
Note#2 07/29/05:
I have moved the container from its original hiding place and changed the container to a magnetic key holder. It is not attached nor is it near any headstone. Hopefully, it won't go missing again.
I've provided a hint just in case your GPSr goes whacky after decoding the coords. Mine did, but I don't know why. When you find the cache, you'll know what I mean.
The hint is not intended to help you until AFTER you decode the coords.
Please be careful to place the container back EXACTLY as you found it.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Abegujrfg
Treasures
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