The cache is on land owned by the City of Atlanta/Hartsfield
Airport, but is managed by the Ga. Forestry Commission. This tract
of land was formerly owned by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and
in the late 1950's and 1960's was used to aid in the development of
a nuclear propulsion system for aircraft under contract for the
U.S. Air Force. If you study the older
topo map of the area it is still labeled "US Air Force
Reservation".
The Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory (GNAL) included a test
reactor, a hot cell building, seepage basins, and a
cooling-off-area. The area was decommissioned by the end of 1971,
and little remains but building foundations. The city of Atlanta
purchased the land with the intent of someday building another
Hartsfield north of Atlanta.
The hot cell building area and cooling-off-area are still
restricted with fences and posted due to levels of Cobalt-60 and
Europium-152. To view the hot cell building turn right soon after
entering the Dawson Forest and park at the horse trailer lot.
You'll see building foundations all around you, but if you go to
the fence at N34° 21.057' / W84.08.614' you'll see the ominous
looking building.
The cache is nowhere near that area, so you should not require
decontamination from anything but the usual poison ivy, ticks, and
mosquitoes! You can learn more about the site and the ongoing
radiation monitoring activities at
this site.
Also a recent discussion forum with many photos at this
link.
Obligatory hazards include stampeeding horses, radiation
poisoning, West Nile Virus mosquitoes, Lyme Disease, Ticks, falling
off things that need not have climbed, snakes, drowning in shallow
water, etc. Keep these in mind as you hunt for the cache!
Note: Until 1/19/2002 the cache was on top of the concrete
blockhouse in the reactor building complex. You can view this
location on the wayto the cache.
Stop at N34° 21.942' W84° 10.037 reactor building complex is to
your left, with additional building foundations to the right. If
the scraggly pine tree is still at those coords there is a
radiation monitor (one of 10 in the Dawson Forest) hanging from it.
Don't disturb the monitor. The cache was relocated there from the
reactor building until the pulpwood harvesters got within 3 feet of
it with their heavy equipment.
The cache was moved to its third location a further 1.4 miles
down the road.
After you find the cache and exit the area take a left on the
gravel road (Shoal Creek Road) about 200 yards outside the main
gate. A three mile drive will bring you to a neat creek for the
kids to play in. your vehicle can handle a foot of water it's a fun
river to ford. If you continue on there is more to explore. The
area is full of trails for mountain bikes.
Caution:if you hunt this during hunting season be sure to
WEAR AN ORANGE VEST!!!
Cache was found vandalized (for the second time), and moved (for
the third time) to new coords. Thanks "drow" for doing this. Coords
have been updated and cache name updated to Version 1.4.