Travel the Border

Along the Border

The primary mission of this travel bug is to travel the land border of the United States in a clockwise direction (ex. if in Texas, traveling west. If North Dakota, traveling east) and collecting a postcard at each destination. When placing the Travel Bug from cache to cache, keep it near the border/in border towns. If you need to take a detour from the border (like to navigate around a lake or remain on roads, etc.) make sure to notate that in the log! For each destination, notate something interesting and/or unique about the town you are in. Take a picture! 

The goal is to travel the border of the United States clockwise and eventually make its way back home to Douglas, Arizona and collect a postcard from each location.

Breakdown / travel bug instruction:

• Traveling clockwise along/near the border of the U.S., locate a cache that you can place the bug at.
• Get a small postcard from the town you are placing the cache. Sign and place inside box.
• Place bug into (or next to) cache in a border town (coastal town).
• Learn and log an interesting or unique fact about the town.
• Take and post a picture!
• (Make sure you select on the site/app that you placed the travel bug at the cache!)

Origin

This trackable began it's journey in Douglas, Arizona. Douglas is a small smelter town in southern Arizona. It was founded as an American smelter town, to treat the copper ores of nearby Bisbee, Arizona. This travel bug likes the small town of Douglas but wants to make its rounds around the United States border for a little adventure. The first postcard placed in here was from the Hotel Gadsden. 

About the Hotel Gadsden in Douglas, Arizona

This grand hotel was named after the historically significant Gadsden Purchase. The purchase of 30,000 square miles from Mexico in 1853 for 10 million dollars was negotiated by John Gadsden the American Ambassador to Mexico. The land was purchased to ensure territorial rights for a practical southern railroad route to the pacific coast.

The Gadsden Hotel was designed by famed architect Henry Trost. Trost dominated the architectural scene in the southwest and designed hundreds of buildings in El Paso, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Tucson and San Angelo including the University of Texas El Paso. He was from the Chicago School of Architecture and specialized in designing what he referred to as “arid America”.

The hotel opened for business in November 1907. Imagine Arizona before it was a state and at a time when Wyatt Earp, Geronimo and Pancho Villa rode rough shod over the west. The hotel provided gracious hospitality to the growing business brought in by nearby mines and the settling of the territory. The hotel soon became a meeting place for cattlemen, ranchers, miners and businessmen.

On February 7, 1929, fire ripped through the hotel leaving nothing but the marble staircase. Like much of Arizona’s old west figures and culture, it was just too tough to die. The hotel was immediately rebuilt but on a grander scale with no expense spared.

Not many hotels of the day could boast about having an electric lift to reach one of its 4 floors. Travelers were amazed at the modern accommodations. The lift, still in use, is one of the oldest manually operated elevators west of the Mississippi. The hotel was one of the first to feature individual bathrooms in all 160 air cooled rooms. The hotel still has the original 1929 telephone switchboard; reportedly the first of its kind to be used in Arizona. Plans are under way to create a hotel museum highlighting the many historical and cultural aspects of the hotel.

An authentic Tiffany stained glass mural runs a full 42 feet on one mezzanine wall, one of the few western scenes created by Tiffany & Co. A gorgeous stained glass skylight brings in the golden Arizona light and illuminates the impressive lobby. The grand staircase is white Italian marble as are the massive columns in the center of the lobby, which are covered in 14k gold leaf valued at $20,000 in 1929.

Throughout the 20th century, the Gadsden was a happening place. Hollywood discovered the Grande dame and many movies, TV shows and videos were filmed in the hotel and in Douglas. By the 1980’s the hotel was showing her age, until successful North Dakota grain farmer and aviator, Hartman Brekhus and his wife purchased the hotel in 1988. Mr. Brekhus and his wife, Doris, had fallen in love with the hotel during annual winter visits to Douglas. Mr. Brekhus recently celebrated his 90th birthday and still maintains ownership of the hotel.