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Full Cache Description:
This cache is on the furthest most part of my property, out by Buckley Road. You don't have to go past the pathway sign to find it. It's in a bit of a wooded area, but not much. This is a really easy find once you get yourself to the spot by foot or bike. This would be a great first cache for beginners since everything you need for info is detailed below, and you'll probably stumble across this without looking too hard! You shouldn't park a car on the side of the road to get there though, just park on a side street and walk over.
The container is a medium sized ammo box and contains a log and some goodies to trade. The cache is near my house so I'll always be adding fun new items! Feel free to take a nice new t-shirt if you happen to find one, but please don't forget to sign the log and check in on the app! If you're celebrating a first find, milestone find, or anything else please include it in the app notes and I'll post it here for all to see!
Don't let this cache being on private property deter you, this isn't like people's front yard caches. The cache is on the furthest back corner of my property and nearly touching Buckley Road, it's also covered by a thick wooded area as well for privacy. This is a fun cache and one of the only ammo can caches left in the area, currently the biggest cache for several miles around! I take great care of this geocache and hope that everyone will respect it. Happy caching!
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A Bit Of History:
William B. Weller was the original owner of this tract of land slightly prior to 1852. Weller was from Hastings England and settled here with his wife Mary E. Weller. This property was next door to a school where Buckley Road Baptist Church now stands (School No. 6 and eventually renamed Brown School). The Weller family also owned other properties in the area.
Terre Hill is a summit in the Woodard area of Clay, NY (northeast of the corner of Henry Clay Boulevard and Buckley Road). Terre Hill is technically a mountain and one of 1,679 named mountains in the Allegheny Plateau. The peak of Terre Hill is 492ft (150m) above sea level (you're currently standing at about 450ft above sea level. Terre Hill is the highest point in the town of Clay, 17th highest point in Onondaga County (it's actually tied with Chestnut Ridge which is where I grew up) and the 2,018th highest point in New York State.
"Terre" is french for Earth. The reason for the french name could be because of the French-Canadian Jesuits from Quebec who would travel into Central New York after Simon Le Moyne bartered with the Haudenosaunee people of the Iroquois Confederacy. Onondaga Lake is the central area of the six nations in the great law of peace which aligned the Iroquois Nation. Central New York was divided into tracts of land after the Revolutionary War called the Military Tract of Central New York roughly 600 acres each. Soldiers were given the option to settle in their tract (in lieu of payment) by 1799. This geocache is located north of tract #76 in Cicero Township (prior to the Town Of Clay, named after Henry Clay, this area was called West Cicero - "Cicero" being a Roman family name chosen by DeWitt Clinton).
If you're standing at the geocache right now you are just over 1/2 mile away from the peak elevation. There's currently an SBA cell tower erected at the peak and as you drive up the road you'll see it over the tree line marking the summit (Tower ID# NY00567-A with FCC# 1052312). The tower itself is 128ft tall and you can't see it from here in the summer due to all the trees, but in the winter if you look the heading is 301.33 degrees. Most people drive up this road having no idea that the peak exists and that it's the highest point for at least 10 miles around!
A little bit of personal history at Terre Hill: My great grandfather Charles Relyea grew up on a farm located at the northeast corner of Henry Clay Boulevard (what was then 7th North Street) and Buckley Road. His father, James Erwin Relyea, ran the farm which was owned by the Teska family. Later the Relyeas moved to Munnsville, NY in the town of Stockbridge, which is in Madison County. Charles Relyea's son, my grandfather Martin, later moved back to Clay, NY in September 1962 and became a councilman for the town (elected to two terms of four years). He was on the board that renamed 7th North Street to Henry Clay Boulevard (he recommended Henry Clay Street, but they wanted something a little more grand sounding). Marty's wife, Jean, also grew up in Munnsville and their childhood farms abutted one another. Jean's father, Edwin Cub Spaulding, was the sheriff of Madison County, and so too was his father Edwin before him. Cub Spaulding was also an avid, and successful, harness racing horse racer - his awards lined the walls of his Munnsville farmhouse den! After living in Clay, NY for some time Marty moved to Portsmouth, RI to work for Raytheon in 1979. Our family ties to Clay remain intact after my wife and I moved here in 2010 having lived at Chestnut Ridge, Liverpool my entire life! 13088 has always been my zip code!
Read the essay I wrote about Terre Hill and the surrounding area of Woodard, NY on my website, or buy a copy here!
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Additional Nearby Finds (Secret Caches):
As a thank you for reading my family history within this area I'd like to reward you with a prize! There are several hidden geodetic control points, or "benchmarks" at Terre Hill on the old Frank Teska property that you can find! They were control points placed in 1934 by the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey (CGS) and listed by the National Geodedic Survey (NGS) which includes a Triangulation Station Mark, and two Reference Marks set in concrete with the name and date stamped into bronze. The location of these markers can be found on the NGS Data Sheet page! Send me a message if you need any help with these benchmarks, they are a lot of fun to find, and historic! See the waypoints below for directions from the geocache.
If you're in love with finding unofficial spots there's one more closely related to this cache! Make your way to the North Syracuse Cemetery and see if you can find the William B. Weller gravestone! William Weller shares this monument with his wife Mary E. Weller. The stone is quite large and sits in the 16th row of section 2 at the far right in the North Syracuse Cemetery between S. Main Street and S. Bay Road (43°07'57.1"N 76°07'46.1"W).
Map to all the related geocaches, waypoints, benchmarks, and secret caches here!
Additional fun spots around here appear on the Waymarking.com site, which is more for icons such as unique buildings or items rather than smaller finds as we see here on this site.
Lastly, if you're into books in the wild go check out the two Little Free Libraries nearby! (4914 Look Kinney Circle and 7421 Liffey Lane.) Or find more at LittleFreeLibrary.org
You can read more about Terre Hill and my family ties in a paper I wrote for the Clay Historical Association and the Onondaga Historical Association at https://patrickrfblakley.com/TerreHill
If you're interested in more of my unique history projects you can check out BlakleyRoad.com where I have listed all known streets called Blakley/Blakely/Blakeley and I try to visit as many as possible. This began at Blakley Road in Genoa, NY which is named after my family. Check out the family history and cheer me on at BlakleyRoad.com
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Congratulations:
Kikirose on the very interesting/memorable FTF for this cache! SillyLaugh's first find! Signal50's first find after a long break, welcome back! Sonrisahermosa's mom's first find! SeawayShips.50megs's GF's first find! Spinone on the 249 consecutive days of finds! Kennyshank's first find! StarkIndustries2020 on the 100th find! BruceH42's first find! Richt492's first find! Keep the milestones coming everyone!