This cache is to pay tribute to the 504 citizens of Mecklenburg County who lost their lives in World War II. This is one of five Mecklenburg County war memorial caches. Ensure that you leave the cache having recorded the information you used to compute the coordinates. Veterans Cache is a sixth and final cache in the series and uses the information derived from the four of the five caches.
The World War II Memorial is located at the entrance of Evergreen Cemetery. You can park on the drive right at the memorial. Note particularly the plaque honoring the 5170 war dead that the Charlotte Quartermaster Depot processed after the war.
While hiding the cache I left my caching gear on a bench. When I returned there was an elderly man sitting on the bench looking through the pack. It turned out that he was a WWII veteran, having served in the Navy on troopships and LSTs in the Atlantic and Pacific. We spent about an hour chatting about his experiences during the war. He was part of the crew of an LST during the invasion of Okinawa and served in the Navy through Korea and Vietnam.
The listed coordinates will get you to the memorial, but not to the cache. To find the cache, which is in the nearby beautiful Evergreen Nature Preserve, you will have to solve the following:
N 35* 12.xxx'
W 80* 46.yyy'
A. Names beginning with N
B. Names beginning with W
xxx: (A x 62 + 2)
yyy: (B x 17 + 11)
checksum x+x+x+y+y+y=16
This will not be a quick find in that the visit to the memorial and trekking to the cache may take at least an hour if done leisurely. Take a morning or an afternoon and enjoy the memorial, the adjacent cemetery, and the many trails in the preserve.
Please enter the Greenwood Nature Preserve from the Norland Road. Note the listed parking and trailhead coordinates.
The cache is a 200-round 7.62 ammo container. It contains several unit insignia and patches, as well as officer brass and branch insignia. If you have had military service and have saved any insignia please feel free to add something to the cache. If you are a collector ensure that you leave something to replace the item you removed. Military-related items only Please.
Enjoy your time in the forest.