Please note that the final wpt is in the last paragraph, the hint, and the additional wpt. I am leaving the original cache page up for those interested in the history of Colby cheese.
First location:
N44.54.403
W90.18.978
This historical marker is near train tracks, but there is no need to exit your car to get the information needed to find the final cache. The marker notes that “Joseph F. Steinwand developed a new and unique type of cheese. He named it for the township in which his father, Ambrose Steinwand, Sr., had built northern Clark County's first cheese factory three years before. The town had taken its name from Gardner Colby, whose company built the Wisconsin Central railroad through here. Colby is a mild, soft, moist cheese. . . After the turn of the century this area became one of the great cheese producing centers in the nation and Colby cheese a favorite in countries the world around.”
Second location:
N44.54.058
W90.18.920
This is an outlet of the Colby cheese factory, and many of their cheeses are made locally. You do not need to go inside to get the information needed for the final cache, but if you choose to, you can get some very good tasting cheese or ice cream.
Third location:
N44.53.259
W90.20.135
This is the actual factory where Colby cheese was first made. The factory has been abandoned, but it is still fully intact as it was when it was making cheese. It is not possible to go inside, and it is clearly private property, though not used.
Final location is in a cemetary, and there is no need to touch any monuments.
N44.54.ABC
W90.20.DEF
A = The number of doors on north side of factory.
B = The third digit of the year Colby cheese was developed.
C = The number of pines at the perimeter of the historical marker.
D = Are the windows the same style at the factory as at the Cheese House? (0 = No; 2 = Yes)
E = Last digit of the number of reasons a merchant said folks should trade with him, according to historical marker.
F = 5.
Colby cheese is similar to cheddar, but because it is produced through a washed-curd process, it is a softer, moister, and milder cheese. The washed-curd process means that during the cooking time, the whey is replaced by water; this reduces the curd’s acidity, resulting in Colby’s characteristically mild, pleasant flavor. It takes a little more than a gallon of milk to produce just 1 pound (454g) of cheese.
This is one of several caches I have placed along the route of the historic Yellowstone Trail. The trail is a historic motor route that went across Wisconsin from 1918 to 1930. The Wisconsin portion of the Yellowstone Trail is 406 miles long, starting at the state line south of Kenosha and going north, and then west to Hudson. The Wisconsin segment is just a part of one of America’s first transcontinental auto routes, a 3,754-mile long road that started in Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts and went to Puget Sound, Washington.
Before there were numbered highways in the United States there were names attached to roads to help motorists navigate from town to town or from county to county. Hailed as being “A Good Road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound,” the Yellowstone Trail began as a 25-mile stretch of road near Ipswitch, South Dakota. In October 1912, Mr. J. W. Parmley formed the Yellowstone Trail Association.
By 1917 the Yellowstone Trail had grown to become the main auto route for those travelling from the East Coast to Yellowstone National Park and the Pacific Northwest. While the Association did not build roads, it did lobby local governments in towns along the Trail to help promote the fledgling automobile tourism industry by building and maintaining “good roads.” Trail towns paid the Association a small fee or “assessment” to help cover advertising expenses and upkeep of the Trail.
Many towns along the Yellowstone Trail had a representative known as a “Trailman”, whose duties included providing information to travelers and supervising the marking of the Trail with its distinctive yellow circle and arrow signs, yellow painted rocks or painted bands on utility poles. In the 1919 Yellowstone Trail route folder, Trailmen were described as being “…businessmen of standing in their communities, and will always be glad to welcome tourists and serve them in any reasonable manner.”
More information on the Yellowstone Trail, including maps can be found at
http://www.yellowstonetrail.org/id18.htm
This cache placed by a member of:
(click to visit our website)******************************************************************************* Update of the cache page on 8/4/20. This multicache has become much more difficult to solve than I intended, though it is still solvable, so I am leaving the original cache page intact for those who are interested in the history of Colby cheese. However, I am making the final location visible on the cache page, so it is not a real multi anymore. I hope people go to the first wpt at least on the honor system before going to find the final which is at 44.54.182; 90.20.235. I also placed a new container today. Please be careful with replacing it.