Grant park, home to the Lincoln memorial:
Proudly referred to as Chicago's "front yard," Grant Park is among
the city's loveliest and most prominent parks. The site of three
world-class museums -- the Art Institute, the Field Museum of
Natural History, and the Shedd Aquarium -- the park includes the
museum campus, a 1995 transformation of paved areas into beautiful
greenspace. Grant Park's centerpiece is the Clarence Buckingham
Memorial Fountain, built in 1927 to provide a monumental focal
point while protecting the park's breathtaking lakefront views.
Grant Park's beginnings date to 1835, when foresighted citizens,
fearing commercial lake front development, lobbied to protect the
open space. As a result, the park's original area east of Michigan
Avenue was designated "public ground forever to remain vacant of
buildings." Officially named Lake Park in 1847, the site soon
suffered from lake front erosion. The Illinois Central Railroad
agreed to build a breakwater to protect the area in exchange for
permission for an offshore train trestle. After the Great Fire of
1871, the area between the shore and trestle became a dump site for
piles of charred rubble, the first of many landfill additions.
In 1901, the city transferred the park to the South Park
Commission, which named it for Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), 18th
President of the United States. Renowned architect Daniel H.
Burnham envisioned Grant Park as a formal landscape with museums
and civic buildings. However, construction was stalled by lawsuits
launched by mail-order magnate Aaron Montgomery Ward, who sought to
protect the park's open character. Finally, in 1911, the Illinois
Supreme Court ruled in Ward's favor. New landfill at the park's
southern border allowed construction of the Field Museum to begin,
and the park evolved slowly. In 1934, the South Park Commission was
consolidated into the Chicago Park District, which completed
improvements using federal relief funds.
How to Find this cache:
From the Lincoln memorial in Grant park you need to travel three
hundred fifty nine feet at two hundred seventeen degrees true
north.
You will be hunting for a small rectangular Lock-n-Lock
container which has been painted to look like the concrete in the
area. There is room for small travelers and small trade items.
