Welcome to the Farewell to Finder’s Fest geo-art, brought to you by the Forest Minions! This series celebrates weird and unusual things throughout the Sunshine State. Please do not go to the posted locations. Rather, solve the challenging quiz found at the bottom of each page, for the final location. For the letterbox caches, please leave the stamp in the cache. They are not trade items. For the discerning traveler, we’ve included the GPS coordinates for these bizarre locations, when we were able to establish them.
The Forgotten Gateway – Location 30.7716, -81.9759
The town of Boulogne sits at the Florida-Georgia line in Nassau County where three major highways cross the St. Mary’s River on a narrow concrete bridge. This is where U.S. highways 1, 301, and 23, all funnel into Florida on the same strip of asphalt. Prior to 1960, long before Interstates 75 and 95, almost all southbound northerners entered Florida through Boulogne. It was also the escape route for northbound Floridians who were trying to get away from all the tourists.
Boulogne was where tourists got their first glimpse of the Sunshine State which must have been a bit disappointing since the “postcard Florida” with palm trees and beaches was still farther South. Boulogne looked different back then with billboards, souvenir stands and motels lining both sides of the highway trying to hook incoming and outgoing tourists.
Here is the super duper, way challenging, really hard trivia question, which, if solved properly, will lead you to the final coordinates:
Question: The entire surface of your skin is replaced every months, meaning we have X number of skins, in an average lifetime:
A: 42 = N29° 28.320' W81° 50.819'
B: 80 bazillion = N29° 28.310' W81° 50.819'
C: 1,000 = N29° 28.300' W81° 50.819'