This cache has a story...
Nobscot Mountain in northern Framingham and Sudbury has a rather extensive trail system on it. Unfortunately, the trails are owned by four different groups and are poorly documented. The Wittenborg Woods area, owned by the Town of Framingham and maintained by the Sudbury Valley Trustees, is the only one well mapped. The adjacent town of Sudbury area is mapped, but the details are inaccurate. The other areas, owned by the Boy Scouts and the state (as part of Callahan State Park) are unmapped. Still, with lots of trails and caches in the area I found myself exploring...
On one hike I had completed most of a loop and was about to connect to the trail I had started on when the trail stopped right in someone's back yard. My GPS showed I was only a couple hundred feet from connecting and since the ground was only sparsely covered I just set off in the right direction, trail or no. And here, in the middle of the woods, I found a small cemetary. One large stone with two metal plaques on it with four names: Jonathan and Candace Hill Greenwood on the left and Asenath and Caroline A. Greenwood on the right. So, what was this doing in the middle of the woods?
Temple's History of Framingham, published in the late 19th century, includes a complete geneology of everyone who had lived in town up to 1880 so I knew I'd be able to find these people listed. Sure enough, they were there. Jonathan and Candace were married and the other two were their children who apparently died unmarried.
Jonathan is not mentioned in the history portion of the book, so apparently he never did anything particularly noteworthy, but is named as "deacon" so he was apparently active in his church and he's also shown on a list of town selectman so was active in the town too. So clearly these are people who would have been well known. So, how did they end up in the woods?
Next I turned to old maps (like this one) and found "J. Greenwood" shown, right off of Edgell Road and exactly where the graves are now located. Not too surprising really as much of the land we think of as woods now was cleared farmland in the 19th century. So, the graves were on the back of the family property and the nearby cellar hole, though too small for a house, was no doubt part of their holdings too.
I tried searching the Internet to find out more about these people. Greenwoods were among the early settlers of Massachusetts so I expected to find something. I did find some ancestors listed but not much else, except for one interesting hit that brought me to...eBay? What's this...a listing for a Bible. An early 19th century family Bible which, as typical for that era, includes a section to record family births and deaths. And there was the whole family I had been trying to find listed. This was clearly Jonathan Greenwood's family Bible. The last listing is of his death when the book must have been passed on to others.
So, what are the odds? This is quite possibly the last remaining artifact of these people, with writing in their own hand, and it shows up for sale at the exact moment I'm looking.
The Cache
OK, that's the story, now on to the cache. It's a simple two part hike, with a total distance of about one mile. The first stop is the Greenwood grave site where you'll need to read some dates to determine the final location. The hike is entirely within Callahan State Park. Please note that the trails in this area are often a little vague. Look for green paint splashes on the trees ("green on wood").
Parking is on Edgell Road at N42° 20.509, W71° 26.379. There is an area to pull off which holds several cars. The trail head goes directly into the woods and though there is a warning sign about the Boy Scout property it should be of no concern as you won't be going on their property unless you take a wrong turn.
Hike in and find the grave at N42° 20.397, W71° 26.637. Look at the dates on the grave; the numbers you need are Caroline's year of birth and Jonathan's year of death. Now go to:
42° 20.xxx
71° 26.yyy
xxx is the year of Jonathan's death minus 1551
yyy is the year of Caroline's birth minus 1001
Coordinate calculations updated 04/10/09 based on feedback from finders and new readings.
The contents initially include finder's buttons, the usual trinkets and a number of travel bugs, one of which is green and another of which is wood (there's a theme going on here...)
Those wishing to explore the area further may find the map I've been working on useful. This is a work in progress, but shows many of the trails in all four of the parcels on the mountain. I believe all the major trails are included and many landmarks are indicated for reference.
Team Periwinkle has created some KMZ maps of the area that might be useful to Garmin owners:
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/byuser/13384/