Let's Go Swimming Multi-Cache
Reviewer Hilts: Since I haven't heard from the owner I'm archiving the cache.
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The above coordinates are not the location of the final cache. The first coordinates will take you to a statue where you must answer 4 simple questions that will lead you to container--this is a simple multi cache and final container is close. Log and pencil only--but bring a pencil anyway, just in case. Room for very small trade items. Lincoln inside for FTF!!
The Old Aqueduct Club
Fort Wayne Magazine, July 2006
The first part of this cache takes you to a statue erected in 1927 by members of a Fort Wayne group called the Old Aqueduct Club. This club was formed in 1912 by several citizens who as boys played and swam in the aqueduct that had served the main channel of the Wabash and Erie canal across the St. Mary’s River and had not been used since the 1870’s. The members had to have lived on the west side of Fort Wayne before the end of the canal days and to have gone swimming in the canal. Each year a dinner meeting was held, and by the 1930;s there were as many as 500 members. By 1955, there were only 11 members left who attended the Club’s 43rd annual dinner, so the Club soon passed out of existence.
The little park where this statue stands is called Orff Park in honor of the great water-powered mill that was operated in this location by the Orff family. The mill had several names throughout its history: Edsall Mill, the Empire and commonly “the old stone mill” when the machinery was operated by the canal. The mill was built by Samuel Edsall in 1843 and powered by steam in its final years.
The aqueduct celebrated by the CLUB was designed by chief engineer Jesse Lynch Williams and was built by Henry Lotz—the only mayor of Fort Wayne ever to be deposed by City council because he seldom acted like a mayor in 1843. St. Mary’s River Aqueduct No. 1 was built in 1835 and rebuilt in 1871. It carried the canal across the river until 1882. At the west end, just past the aqueduct, was a large basin where the canal boats could turn around and this basin was where the boys often played. In 1881, the Nickel Plate Railroad purchased the canal right-of-way, including the aqueduct, and erected the steel bridge for the trains that you can still see today just north of the aqueduct’s location. The aqueduct soon collapsed and was removed in 1883 but you can still see portions of the old aqueduct from the Rivergreenway.
Also, while in area, be sure to walk across the Carole Lombard Memorial Bridge for best view of the steel bridge and aqueduct. Carole Lombard’s childhood home was Fort Wayne, Indiana at 704 Rockhill , now a bed and breakfast visible from the statue and it leads you in to the beautiful homes of Fort Wayne’s historic west-end.
So much for the history, now for the questions: Answers can be obtained from plaque or from story above.
Consider a change to the above coordinates to actually find the cache:
N41 04 ABC W085 09 DEF
#1----There is a quote on the statue “Youth comes but once in a lifetime”
ABC is now 694--You must subtract the number of letters in the author's last name of the above quote to get your north coordinates.
#2-- D EQUALS--last digit of year aqueduct club organized.
#3 E EQUALS—Number of past presidents minus 4
#4 F EQUALS—Number of words directly under the statue
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Uvtu jngref
Treasures
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