Vandalia Roots Traditional Cache
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Overlooks Stonewall Jackson Lake during summer pool on what used to be called the "hard-road." Parking where your GPS unit leads you!
This cache is a Jiffy Peanut Butter Jar and is the second of several this hider intends to stash around the Stonewall Jackson Lake. Contents include: Tooty Fruity Peace Wrist Band; West Virginia "P" Quarter; fresh water clam shell from Big Skin Creek; lump of coal found along the shore of the lake below the cache; red, white, and blue necklace rescued from the Stonewall Jackson 4-H cache on 11/22/06; foil "Falling Leaves"; a rubberband; Curad bandaid; small bottle Avalon Gray Hand Lotion, logbook, and small pencil.
In pioneer times, an Indian trail wound through the valley now drained by Big Skin Creek. Native Americans used it to travel from the eastern reaches of what is now West Virginia to go to the salt works located near today's Burnsville Lake in Braxton County. The white man did not come to live in this section of today's Lewis County until after the Greenville Treaty of 1796 brought peace between the Europeans and the Native Americans to this area.
The community of Vandalia is located in Skin Creek District, Lewis County, West Virginia. It was first known as Austin and later as Baltimore. It was renamed Vandalia in 1890. There was a post office there until 1907.
One time Vandalia had four stores, a blacksmith shop, a shoe shop, a cabinet shop, a planing mill, and at least one hotel. The P.F. Linger store was on the south side of the creek just across the way from this cache. It later was the Vernon Hyre residence. The second store was the J. M. West Store at the entrance on the north side of the village; it later served as meeting rooms for the I.O.O.F. and Modern Woodmen of America lodges. Will "Bill" Gibson had a store and blacksmith shop across from the West store. The fourth was the Will Linger Store on the upper end. Will's son, Warren, took over from his father. Willard Casto had a store for many years in the middle of the village and Vernon Hyre was the last to operate a store in the community.
Jim Peterson had a mill on the south side of the creek. He sawed lumber five days a week; on the sixth day, he ground wheat and corn. The eighty foot smokestack stood long after the mill was gone and was a village landmark.
The late Creed McCue lived in the village most of the 20th century. He said that after World War I attitudes changed. The automobile came into being and should have brought people to church; instead, it worked the other way and took them away to other activities.
History abounds in this area. Persons interested in further information should try to track down one or more of the local histories written about the area at either the public library in Weston or the historical library in the old Horner School.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Qevir pnershyyl be lbh znl svaq n tenir fvgr!
Treasures
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