A Cow's Tale Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Rock Rabbit: The cache owner is not responding to issues with this listing, so I must regretfully archive it.

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Hidden : 10/3/2005
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Mooving History, micro cache.

Journey west down main street in Battle Ground today and you will observe hugh, blue tanks rising near 3rd Ave. Although their purpose is obvious, few people know the history behind these tanks.

In 1855 Battle Ground could hardly be called a city. Indians roamed the hills. Tough lumberjacks huddled in a mucky campground that is now main street. Living off the land these pioneers traded wood products and furs for tobacco, liquor, and supplies from the Hudson's Bay Company that was headquartered at Ft. Vancouver.

As the campground grew, women and children began to move into the area. Milk was needed for the children but lumberjacks had little time for cattle. A traveling snake oil saleman, Aldus Anderson, came through the area one day and saw an opportunity. His snake oil sales were very low due to the reputation of the local medicine men (see "Boring Adventure" .) Milk was to be the key to his future success. He sold his wagon and remaining supplies to another traveling merchant and used the money to purchase his first herd of 6 Holstein cows. The cows had to be imported from back east and were shipped up the Columbia on the "Machigone" , a sailing vessel that sank in a storm several years later (see "Shipwrecked" .) Since these were the first Holstein cows in the Northwest, people came from miles around just to see the unusual black and white herd. You might say that this was Battle Ground's first tourist attraction.

Anderson's Dairy was located on main street with the milking barn near where you see the huge tanks today. The humble herd grew larger each year and soon became the largest dairy in the area. Anderson discovered that milk could be stored for a long time in large vertical tanks which he improvised from locomotive boilers that he obtained from the newly formed Chelatchie Prairie Railroad. In the summer, Chinese workers brought snow from Mt. Adams to cool the milk.

Eventually the locomotive boilers were replaced with these larger and more effecient tanks and the dairy became a milk bottling plant. Today the cows are gone. Anderson's dairy buys milk from as far away as Idaho, bottles it here in Battle Ground, and ships it all through the Northwest.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Oraq ybj gb zvyx. Fgnl ba gur fvqrjnyx. Abg va gur ohfurf be cynagref.

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)


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