MSPCGT:Ludington SP Multi-Cache

Michigan State Parks Centennial GeoTour (GT93)

UPDATE: 3/1/2024:

2019 was the 100^th Anniversary of Michigan State Parks and we're still celebrating!. Join the Michigan Geocaching Organization (MiGO), the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Geocaching.com for the first official GeoTour in Michigan.

This tour was originally scheduled to run for three years, kicking off on Friday of Memorial Weekend in 2019 and continue through May 31, 2022. The success of this awesome tour has not gone unnoticed. On February 2, 2022, The DNR announced the extension of the GeoTour through September 24, 2024! Join us in making a final push to complete this very popular and very successful GeoTour before the sun sets on it.

Each geocache is in one of Michigan's state parks. The geocaches are arranged by MiGO Region, with twenty-five geocaches per region. The Ticket to Celebrate 100 is available for download from the DNR's Geocaching page. It explains how to qualify for prizes in each of the four regions and for the GeoTour as a whole.

Day use areas of state parks are open from 8AM to 10PM. Geocaching is limited to those hours. Entry into Michigan's State Parks requires a Michigan Recreation Passport. See the Resources section below for more information.

The sun will set on the MSPCGT at midnight Tuesday, September 24, 2024. The MSPCGT will go off the air as a GeoTour and the caches will disappear from the map. There is a lot of construction going on in our State Parks in 2024. Some of the GeoTour caches will have to be pulled earlier. The remaining geocaches in the tour will be archived October 1, 2024. Players will have until December 31, 2024 to claim any prize they have earned. Hiders will be contacted to request removal of the geocaches they hid unless they have made arrangements with park managers and have their own permit in place to keep the geocache in play, with a new GC Code.

Due to planned park enhancements, the majority of the park will close Sept. 3, 2024 through July 1, 2025. The 2,000 acres of parkland and beautiful 3-mile stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline south of the Big Sable River, including the hiking trails and boardwalk, will remain open and accessible to the public via roadway parking along M-116. The planned park enchancements include paving the park's main road and Hamlin Lake day-use area parking lot, expanding parking at Lake Michigan and warming shelters and enhancing traffic and pedestrian flow at the park entrance.

This Geotour cache will be removed and archived by Septemter 1st, 2024

Now for some good news: MiGO and the DNR are busy working on a new project that will kick off in the Spring of 2025, code named MSPGT 2.0. Are you interested in helping? Keep your MiGO Membership up to date and stay tuned to the website.

Cache:

This cache was hidden as part of the Michigan State Parks Centennial GeoTour, presented by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Geocaching Organization. Record the codeword printed on the log book and on a label inside the cache container to the appropriate box on the Ticket to Celebrate 100 form. See the instructions on the form to claim prizes.

This is a four stage multi cache with a field puzzle. It will not be a difficult cache to find and a short walk is required. Please try not to follow any obvious paths to the final as A:They won't help and B:The park management has asked not to have new trails being established. The difficulty is for the puzzle and terrain ratings are for the final. Please be aware that the area of the final may be wet and/or have some poison ivy nearby depending on the time of year. The posted coordinates are for parking very near an object that you will need to examine to get the some of the final coordinates for this cache. The objects that contain the rest of the coordinates are nearby and their waypoints are given. At the request of the park staff, this cache has been constructed so that you can find the final coordinates without entering the very busy Lake Michigan beach area or park office area where some CCC built historic features are located including the beach house, park manager's house and workshop/office. You will be passing by them as you head to the posted coordinates and we hope you'll visit them if possible. This is a very busy park in the summer especially on weekends and parking gets very full so you may have to park some distance from the posted coordinates. All of the information required to solve this is within a short walk from the posted coordinates. Once you've solved the final coordinates be sure to look around for the remains of another historic feature nearby.

The final can be found at N 44° 02.ABC W 086° 29.DEF

At Kiosk #1 (posted coordinates):

• A = The 2nd digit of the number of bridges built by the CCC in Michigan.
• B = Number of structures spanning the river here plus number of swimming areas.

At Kiosk #2:

• C = Number of methods for controlling goose populations without using dogs or experimental techniques.
• D = Number of native species depicted minus 4.

At Kiosk #3:

• E = The 2nd digit of the year Charles Mears purchased the land here.
• F = The 1st digit of the number of men employed at the nearby shingle mill.

Checksum : A+B+C+D+E+F=29

There are a choice of FTF prizes provided: The Michigan State Parks Centennial edition Stamp & Go Guide or the serial numbered 90th Anniversary Collector's Edition of the Passport to Michigan State Parks and Recreation Areas.

Please replace the cache as you found it, being careful to conceal it.

More history can be found here if you have time by visiting the multicache Dead Man's Pulse GCYBDZ which is nearby. Be forewarned that this cache may require a 5 hour hike to complete but it will take you by other original CCC built features in the park (the trails and stone shelters) and to the NRHP listed 1867 lighthouse, a very popular feature in the park.

Thank you DanTMan&Co for creating, hiding and maintaining this MSPC GeoTour cache.

^{Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources}
Aerial photo of Ludington State Park and Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness

Ludington State Park:

As one of Michigan′s largest state parks at 5300 acres Ludington State Park receives over 800,000 visitors per year. With 373 campsites, a camp store, mini-cabins for rent, and miles of sandy beaches on two large lakes along with more than 20 miles of trails, it′s no wonder this has been a very popular park for some time. There really is something here for everyone.

Beaches on Lake Michigan and Hamlin Lake both feature large parking areas and beach house facilities. The large and historic arts and crafts style Lake Michigan beach house has a nature center and concession. At Hamlin Lake there are picnic pavilions and a boat launch with watercraft rental available. Fishing in the well-stocked lake is a popular activity. Nearby the Hamlin Lake beach is the Hamlin Dam that forms the lake from the Big Sable River. The river stretch between the dam and Lake Michigan is perfect for a lazy river float.

^{Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources}
Building the first road into the park

History:

This area had always been somewhat remotely reachable only on foot, horseback, or boat. In the 1850′s lumberman Charles Mears established a village with a dam and two sawmills near the site of the present Hamlin Lake dam. In 1867 a lighthouse was built by the federal government at the point on Lake Michigan along with a lifesaving station further south along the shore in 1877. After the village of Hamlin had been wiped out by repeated failures of the nearby dam leading to its abandonment in 1912 not much had changed here until in 1925 state parks head P.J. Hoffmaster along with congressman James C. McLaughlin came to the area with an eye toward determining its suitability for a new state park.

^{Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources}
Car traversing the one lane bridge into the park in 1925

Through the efforts of the local Izaak Walton League and others in 1926 the federal government agreed to deed over 900 acres of the lighthouse preserve for a park to the State of Michigan in return for a road being built to service the lighthouse. The League was also instrumental in raising money to purchase more land in the area to be turned over to the state for use as a park. Through the efforts of the League, the citizens of Ludington and Mason County and the State of Michigan, and some good old-fashioned horse trading the park had become 2991 acres by 1931-32 but was still undeveloped and still mostly inaccessible.

^{Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources}
CCC Men in the chow line at camp S-2, Ludington State Park

In 1933 during the depth of the Great Depression a relief program known as the Civilian Conservation Corps set up camp SP-2 in the park with the intention of making the area into a real state park. In the beginning, they lived in a tent city.

^{Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources}
CCC Formation in front of their "more modern" barracks

This was a large CCC camp and one of the few occupied for most of the duration of the CCC. The camp work was directed by the National Park Service and Michigan Department of Conservation but administered by the US Army so uniforms, musters, and some form of discipline were the order of the day.

^{Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources}
Ralph Herrick designed, CCC built beach house in the 1940s

Over the course of the next 8 years the men of the camp cleared downed timber, planted beach grass and reinforced the Big Sable River banks for erosion control, removed invasive plants, cleared hiking trails in the forests and dunes, built shelters and bridges on the trails, developed campground facilities, and built buildings including the one-of-a-kind Lake Michigan beach house and park manager′s quarters which still stand today. The CCC crew used salvaged bricks and timber sawn on site. They built it right into the dunes along the lakeshore.

^{Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources}
One of twelved log trail shelters built by the CCC crew. Three still remain.

^{Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources}
1935 Lake Michigan Beach House restoration

The remainder of the camp ground development here was ultimately finished in 1944, 1961, and 1969 with the campground store and Hamlin Lake beach house being completed in 1972. The park′s acreage continued to grow over the years, too. In 1971, 1200 acres along with 2 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline were added as a gift from the Sargent Sand mining company. Additional land was purchased over the next decades with the 57 acres around the lighthouse being added in 2002 bringing the park to its current size. In 2012-13 the now 77-year-old Lake Michigan beach house was fully restored and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Plans have already been approved to secure more of the dune areas currently outside the park as funds become available.

^{Map courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources}

Activities:

Hikers, bicyclists, snow shoers, cross country skiers and even canoeists and kayakers will find plenty of trail opportunities here. Hike out to the historic 1867 Big Sable Point lighthouse along the beach, a graveled road, or a trail from the campgrounds. Trails along the small lakes and lagoons along the shore of Hamlin Lake and then over the forested dune areas of the park will get you there too, if you′ve got the time. Need to get more remote? A very large dune area without any trails in the northern part of the park is there for you to explore. Paved bicycle trails along the Big Sable river make it easy to move between developed areas in the park. In the sand dune area south of the river you′ll find a trail with wooden steps and boardwalk along the top of a high dune and a series of trails made for hiking, skiing, or snowshoeing that go on for miles. If a canoe or kayak is more to your liking a marked canoe trail along the shore of Hamlin Lake is there for you to explore and you can even rent one at the Hamlin Lake beach house.

This park has a very active interpretive program for both the day users and campers. Nature talks, park history tours, night sky viewing, archery lessons and many other activities are held frequently throughout the year. In the winter there′s even a class that will have you make your own snowshoes to try out on the trail.

^{Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources}
Big Sable Point Lighthouse

If you are feeling particularly ambitious, take the two mile walk to the Big Sable Point Lighthouse. The lighthouse and keeper′s quarters were built in 1867. The facility is so far away from anything else that prior to 1949 there was no indoor plumbing or electricity. This lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. You can visit and climb to the top May 1^st through October 31^st.

Information:

For more information, reservations and a calendar of events, follow this link to Ludington State Park.

Special thanks to Pirate Sunflower for help with this geocache.

Special thanks to Are You Geocacher Enough? Road Rally for the Northern Lower regional prize.

Resources:

• State Parks Centennial GeoTour - Download the Ticket to Celebrate 100
• Michigan.gov/StateParks100
• Michigan DNR Recreation Passport
• When were Michigan state parks and recreation areas established?
• Michigan Geocaching Organization (MiGO)