The Mystery of the French Gold Mystery Cache
Roaming Raccoons: bye bye
The Mystery of the French Gold
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This is cache ten out of ten in a series along Chautauqua Creek Gorge. The coordinates above are not the final cache coordinates. Complete the puzzle from obtaining clues from other caches along the creek. Also on the first cache of the series, "Under the Ledge" (GC1VAFV) have attached the cheat sheets for all 10 caches. Print them out to use if needed.
N 42 1A.BC8
W 079 3D.EF3
For many years passed along from generation to generation a story was told.
It begins when this region was claimed by the country of France. With continuing advancement of British colonist from the east, the French attempted to establish a chain of military forts and outposts linked together along strategic geographical locations from Montreal in New France (Canada) over a thousand miles to Louisiana (Gulf of Mexico). On this all water navigational route, there were two short land portages. One around the great falls of Niagara, and the other was the shortest course between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River. This eight mile primitive trail once used by Indians ran between a small harbor at the mouth of Chautauqua Creek (Lake Erie at Barcelona, NY), up and over a steep hill to the northern end of Chautauqua Lake (Mayville, NY). During this time of disputed land claims and impending war this path was widened to support their military route, and a small post was built at the top of the ridge overlooking the activity in the great lake and the harbor down below.
Our old story takes place at some point during this time. It goes that several French soldiers carrying a military payroll of gold coins were supposedly ambushed somewhere along this portage trail. Forced to take refuge into the great gorge nearby they hid the gold. They later climbed out and reached the safety of the post a short distance away, but for whatever reason they never returned for or were unable to find their treasure, where it remains hidden to this day.
In the spring of 1754 hundreds of French Soldiers with their Indian allies came to Barcelona. They carried their guns and canoes and dragged their canons up the portage trail over the divide and into Lake Chautauqua where they made their journey south. Here they attacked a recently created British stockade at Three Rivers (Pittsburgh, PA) and quickly sent the much smaller British force in retreat. The British were headed for reinforcements in the Virginia Colony, but found themselves being surrounded. Here they hastily constructed a crude defense out of necessity and prepared for the inevitable.
So in a lonely meadow, in the middle of nowhere, on a then insignificant piece of ground (now a National Battlefield and Fort Necessity National Park, PA) a small group of desperate soldiers and their wounded would make a stand. In this hopeless situation, heavily outnumbered, running out of ammunition and taking losses their young commander from Virginia was forced to make a decision. He chose to live to fight another day. This was the only time George Washington would ever surrender.
These were the first shots fired in what we refer to as “The French and Indian War”. The British Army with the help of the colonist in a few short years defeated the French and drove them from North America. And now, with no need to protect them from the French Army the colonist soon organized and began a revolution to remove British Imperialism and form the country as we know it today.
Most people think that the story of the lost French gold was just that, a story, a tall tale, made up to create a greater mystery to the area.
Or was it?
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Tb npebff perrx, ng tebhaq yriry pbirerq jvgu yrnirf.