CJS - Conowingo Dam #2 Mystery Cache

This cache has been archived.

CAJO Ranger: This cache has run its course and has been removed. Thank you to everyone who has found this cache. Keep watch for the new Find Your Chesapeake Geotrail coming out in June.

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Hidden : 6/2/2011
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

The Captain John Smith Geotrail
Conowingo Dam #2


Come on a journey to remember and commemorate the history and travels of Captain John Smith! Over four hundred years ago, Englishman John Smith and a small crew set out in an open boat to explore the Chesapeake Bay. Between 1607 and 1609 Smith mapped and documented nearly 3,000 miles of the Bay and its rivers. Along the way he visited many thriving American Indians communities and gathered information about this “fruitful and delightsome land.” In December 2006 the U.S. Congress designated the routes of Smith’s explorations of the Chesapeake as a national historic trail—the first national water trail.
Are you ready to follow in the wake of Captain John Smith? Visit sites along the National Historic Trail and learn about the native cultures and the natural environment of the 17th-century Chesapeake through the Captain John Smith Chesapeake Geotrail. The Trail provides opportunities for you to experience the Bay through the routes and places associated with Smith’s explorations. Caches will be located in museums, refuges, parks, and towns in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware along the rivers and creeks that Smith and his crew explored four centuries ago.
The Captain John Smith (CJS) Geotrail launched June 4, 2011 with over 40 caches within Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. A trackable geo coin will be awarded to the first 400 geocachers, while supplies last, for locating at least 15 CJS caches. To be eligible for the coin, geocachers must download a passport from either the CJS Geotrail or Maryland Geocaching Society website. Geocachers must find and log at least 15 finds, record the code word from each cache on their passport and post a picture of themselve at each cache location. After discovering the 15 required caches, geocachers may have thier passports validated in person or via mail at the National Park Service, Chesapeake Bay Office located at 410 Severn Ave, Suite 314, Annapolis, MD 21403. Please refer to the passport for complete validation instructions.

Participating in the CJS geotrail is fun and we hope that many people join in. However, it is not a requirement for logging your find on this cache once you find the container.


This CJS hide is a simple puzzle. In your search for this cache, you will be able to grab CJS Conowingo #1. Due to the storms that hit our region, the original signs were destroyed. Thanks to Corfmania for developing an alternate puzzle for this CJS hide.

The published coordinates put you on a viewing platform above the fishing wharf at Conowingo Dam.
Here you will find a bench surrounded by (at times) 3 information signs. You have 2 methods to solve for the final coordinates. If the signs are posted use method 1. If the signs are missing, use method 2.

Method 1:
Use information on the the Conowingo Dam sign and other items in the vicinity to determine the location of the final.
Sum the following 3 numbers:
The year dam construction began.
The number of people in the construction labor force.
The number of large round brass vents in the ground on the viewing platform.
Subtract that sum ________ from 45267 to get the digits for ABCDE.

Sum the following 3 numbers:
The year dam construction ended.
The length (in feet) of the dam.
The number of long metal bars that form the seat of the bench here.
Subtract that sum ______ from 17279 to get the digits for JKLMN.
The final is located at N 39 AB.CDE W076 JK.LMN.

Method 2:
Sum the following 3 numbers:
The square of the number of horizontal bars in just one section of the railing/fence surrounding the viewing platform.
There are 2 sets of steps leading down to the water from here. Count the total number of steps in the top flight (excluding the landings).
The number of large round brass vents in the ground on the viewing platform multiplied by 582.
Subtract that sum _______ from 41741 to get the digits for ABCDE.
Sum the following 3 numbers:
Less than 20 feet downriver from the viewing platform you will see 4 letters fingered into the cement (a first name and last initial). Add the numerical equivalent of each of the 4 letters together (A=1, Z=26).
There are 2 sets of steps leading down to the water from here. Count the total number of steps in the bottom flight (excluding the landings).
The number of long metal bars that form the seat of the bench here multiplied by 190.
Subtract that sum (5176) from 15852 to get the digits for JKLMN.
The final is located at N 39 AB.CDE W076 JK.LMN


The Susquehanna River extends more than 400 miles and carries a tremendous amount of water into the Bay – a billion gallons a day! This amount of water, passing over the fall line, is a great opportunity for humans to harness the power of the water to create electricity. Operated by Exelon Power Corporation, the Conowingo Dam is one of the largest non-federal hydroelectric dams in the country. When it was completed in 1928, it was the second largest hydroelectric dam in the country, behind Niagara Falls. The water flow of the Susquehanna River provides the fuel for 11 turbine generators, producing 500 MW of electricity.

The fourteen mile long reservoir behind the dam offers plenty of improved access to recreational opportunities including bird watching, picnicking, and fishing. For the American shad, though, the dam was once a barrier to its migratory pattern of returning to the Susquehanna every spring for spawning. In the early 1990’s, Exelon completed a $12 million fish lift to carry shad and other fish above the dam.

Archaeology has shown that the Susquahannock Indians who lived along this river at the head of the Bay were relative newcomers, arriving in the late 1500’s. It is known from Captain John Smith’s writings that the Susquehannock, an Iroquoian-speaking people, were friendly with the Tockwogh, who spoke an Algonquian language. Perhaps the Susquahannocks settled here to be closer to profitable trade – marine shells from the Tockwogh (shells valued for making jewelry) in exchange for metal cutting tools from French fishermen in the Northeast. When Captain Smith met the Susquahannock Indians, they presented him with a cargo of presents – venison, bear skins, tobacco pipes, and weapons. Five of the leaders then stepped aboard the English vessel and accompanied the English up the Sassafras River to visit with the Tockwogh.

The principal leader’s town of Sasquesahanough, the southernmost of the six Susquahannock towns, has been located and explored archeologically. It had a triple palisade surrounding it, and a population of as many as 1,700 people. The site of Sasquesahanough is at Washington Boro near Millersville, Pennsylvania.

Thanks to Corfmania for helping with this hide and to the Maryland Geocaching Society for assisting with this project!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Univat gebhoyr jvgu gur zngu? Gel... Abegu337 Jrfg676

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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