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Castle Point Traditional Geocache

Hidden : 12/17/2006
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

The cache is at an outstanding viewpoint along the Castle Point Trail. To the west you can see Carris Hill and Wyanokie High Point. To the southeast you can see High Mountain in Wayne and the NYC skyline is visible on clear days. The cache is a very short distance from the Van Slyke Castle (a.k.a. Foxcroft) ruins. Its a great place for a picnic lunch. It's also very popular so, make sure you aren't being watched and that you re-hide the cache well.

Cache is in a small Nalgene screw top jjar.

Easiest access is from the either of the Skyline Drive parking lots.

Foxcroft

The history of Van Slyke Castle revolves largely around Ruth A. Coles and her husbands. Coles was a nurse who had the good fortune to care for Charles E. Halliwell, a captain of industry in New York. She became his second wife in the fall of 1906. He died a year later leaving her one and a half million dollars, a large fortune in those days.

In 1909, she married William Porter, a stockbroker and close friend of her former husband. At that time, Porter was building a house on Fox Mountain above Le Grande Lake (Now know as Ramapo Lake), which he called "Foxcroft".

Porter died in an automobile accident two years later before he could realize his dream of developing the area around Ramapo Lake.

In 1913, Cole married her third husband, Warren C Van Slyke, an attorney. He was an assistant to the chief of naval intelligence in World War 1, and later argued the claims resulting from the sinking of the Lusitania. They lived near Jamaica, Long Island. After Mr. Van Slyke's death in 1925, his widow lived year around at Foxcroft. She died in 1940 at the age of 63.

Foxcroft was left to her family who promptly sold it. In the early 1950's it became involved in a bitter divorce and was not used. Vandals soon broke in and finally torched the mansion in 1959.-by J. H. Ward




Geocache Identification Permit Approval Number: RMSF2015080401
Permit Expires on: 8/04/2018

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Ba gbc bs fgbar jnyy va na nern jurer gur pbapergr gbc vf oebxra. Vg vf ghpxrq haqre gur pbapergr gbc pbirerq ol n cvrpr bs pbapergr.

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)