The cache is placed in the USGS Nicolaus Quadrangle in
California. It is the nineteenth in our series of caches placed
near the site for which a USGS 7 ½-minute quadrangle map is
named.
Nicolaus is a small populated place located near where US 99
crosses the Feather River. The river runs along the north side of
the town (on the other side of the levee) and can be viewed from
the cache location.
The Quadrangle boundaries are:
N 38º 52’ 30” and N 39º 00’ 00”
W 121º 30’ 00” and W 121º 37’ 30”.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has many missions. At
one time, a major mission of the USGS was the supplying of
topographic maps of the United States on several scales. Our cache
series is based on the 7.5-minute quadrangle series.
The term quadrangle is used, instead of quadrilateral or rectangle,
because the sides of these blocks are curved. The USGS divided the
United States into quadrangles that are 7.5 minutes by 7.5 minutes.
Since a degree is divided into 60 minutes, a quadrangle one degree
by one degree contains 64 of these quadrangles.