Can You Hear the Music???
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DO NOT CROSS THE FENCELINE!! THAT IS PRIVATE PROPERTY AND THE OWNER OF THE PROPERTY WILL HAVE TRESPASSERS ARRESTED ON SITE AND CHARGED WITH TRESPASSING!!!!!
THE CACHE IS NOT LOCATED ON PRIVATE PROPERTY!!!!!
BELLE PLAIN COLLEGE.
Belle Plain College was established in 1881 by the Northwest Conference of the Methodist Church.qv John Day gave the new school ten acres of land in Belle Plain, Callahan County, and local citizens donated generously in the beginning. During its first year (1881-82) the college operated in conjunction with the public school. F. W. Chatfield served as its first president. After a state charter was granted to the institution in the spring of 1882, Rev. J. T. L. Annis took over as president for two years. During his administration enrollment reached 122. Other presidents at Belle Plain College were John W. McIllhenny (1884-85), C. M. Virdel (1885-87), and I. M. Onins (1887-92). From the beginning the college advertised a department of music. By the end of the decade the school had fifteen pianos, a brass band, and an orchestra. By 1885 the institution had two buildings on its land, but the entire plant had been mortgaged to pay for classroom furnishings and musical instruments. Funds for the operation of the school came only from the local school district, a fact that hastened the institution's demise. The railroad skipped Belle Plain, Baird became the Callahan county seat in 1883, and the population declined. Two years of bad weather further eroded the college's financial base. By 1887 the trustees of Belle Plain College were unable to make mortgage payments. Judge I. M. Onins took over the school with its debts in 1887, after a successful school year, but the mortgage company foreclosed on the property in 1889. The company allowed the school to continue to operate until the president's death in 1892.
Belle Plain was established to the east of Abilene in 1876. So expansive were the hopes of the founding townspeople that Belle Plain College, an imposing three-story stone structure boasting a music department with fifteen grand pianos, was built alongside a luxuriously broad, stone-lined boulevard. In 1877 Belle Plain won one disputed and one undisputed county seat election over neighboring Callahan City. “Disputed” is putting it mildly. There was a series of nighttime raids between the two towns. Sentries were posted, gunfire was exchanged, and Callahan County documents changed hands several times between October 13 and December 8, the date of the second and apparently more carefully tabulated election. Why the fuss? Because it was a matter of community survival. Having lost the county seat, Callahan City declined rapidly and is today but a graveyard about three miles north of Admiral.
When the Texas & Pacific Railroad came to Callahan County, it was to a point six miles north of Belle Plain. A second rival, the town of Baird, was born. The county seat went to the more prosperous Baird in 1883, less than six years after Belle Plain had seemed the logical crossroads of county power and administration. When the drought of 1886 hit, it took a greater toll on Belle Plain, with its agricultural economy, than on Baird, the railroad town. By 1893 the big town hall that had held prayer meetings, dances, and Christmas pageants, the shops and saloons, the homes, and the pride of Belle Plain, the beautiful college, were largely deserted. Belle Plain had been planned and built, had thrived as a home for several hundred people, had declined and ceased to exist as something an outsider might recognize as a town, all in something less than seventeen years.
Belle Plain College must have been a beautiful structure in its prime. Now all that stands are the walls. These are located on private property, but can be seen from the road. The road winds around for a bit before it gets to the location that you are looking for. The walls actually can be seen from the road that goes to Belle Plaine Cemetery.
***The3defaus found this one missing, and were nice and placed a micro for now. We will try to replace it with a regular cache at a later date. Thanks Steve and Trish***
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ab uvag, vg'f whfg gbb boivbhf!!