The Goat Lady's Home Traditional Geocache
Wis Kid: As there's been no cache to find for months, I'm archiving it to keep it from continually showing up in search lists, and to prevent it from blocking other cache placements. If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact us (by email), and assuming it meets the guidelines, we'll be happy to unarchive it.
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A green ammo box, a very short hike off the road. (Not winter -friendly if there is snow cover.) Please be respectful of any (generally worthless) relics you might find. The box includes custom-made 2nd Ave Geobusters CDS, and a Where's George bill.
The cache was re-hidden in August, 2007 in the same general vicinity. The coordinates may not be exact. Please let me know of updated coordinates if you find it.
NOTE: The cache is now missing, and needs to be reset. My apologies.
The Goat Lady
When I was young, we vacationed each summer at a family cabin on Birch Lake. As we drove along Lakewood Road near the Bearskin Lake boat ramp a path leading into the woods was always pointed out to us as the place where The Goat Lady lived. Although I never did meet or see The Goat Lady, her presence loomed large in our young imaginations.
I’ve gathered a few bits of information here about The Goat Lady. If you have items to add, please do so in the log or online. Much of this information came from my uncle, Mike Skalecke, of Wausau, WI.
The Goat Lady’s real name is not known to us;
At one time she liver under the small bridge at the foot of the path into the woods, with tarps at each side of the bridge for protection. She then built a small shelter out of corrugated tin and paper. The cache is located in the vicinity of where this shelter once stood.
She lived in this shelter for many years – perhaps 20 or more – tending to a small herd of goats. She made her living by selling the goat’s milk to the locals. She also had an old, old Ford (a Model-T, so we heard) that she used for transportation and used to park in the woods here;
At one point a fire destroyed her shack, and she moved into her car.
A large black bear claimed most or all of her goats at one point. Several men in the area – including my grandfather, Stan Skalecke – treed the bear, shot and killed it. It was transported in the back of a pickup truck to Idewild resort on Birch Lake. Word has it that the bear was buried across the road from the resort.
Eventually The Goat Lady moved (or was moved) into a nursing home – either in Woodruff or in Madison - where she spent the remainder of her life;
A movie was made, very loosely based on the life of The Goat Lady, although I can find little connection at all, based on the movie’s synopsis. The moved, The Bog, was apparently a singularly horrible movie, starring Gloria de Haven. The movie was shot in this area, and included some locals.
NOTE: Thanks to THE GIBBERS geocache team, we have the following additional information:
Her real name was Selma Wikkins and moved in as a squatter in the 1930's starting out in a shack and the truck till they burned and then moved under the bridge with her 20 goats.
Many locals helped her with rides to town when her truck gave out. In the early 70's with the help of locals she was moved into a nursing home in Rhinelander
There is a picture of her in the History Book for the Town of Cashin which I found.
The other story I loved is she was stopped one time by the police for lack of a license to drive and she told them they could not put her in jail because she had 20 kids at home.
One local quoted "Times were tough, If that is the way she wanted to live then she had a right to. It wasn't like it is today, back then we just had to live the best we could.
She was reclusive but anyone who took the time to get to know her really liked her
The 2nd Avenue Geobusters
Nyack, NY
Additional Hints
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