The total walking distance is about a mile, and the hike is on
streets, paths, wooden walkways and steps, except that the cache is
hidden off the trail. The parks are in a residential area, but it
is not necessary to cross private property, look for the public
paths. You may park at N 34º 00.853' / W 84º 21.366'. The parks
close at dark.
These sites have historical significance from the Civil War and
before. Some of this history will be discovered on the cache hunt,
but you can get a head start from: Roswell
History There is also a public exhibit showing what this area
looked like in the 1860’s at N 34º 00.921' / W 84º 21.767'.
Location 1 - The coordinates are posted above.
You cannot take sides here, you will need help from both the North
and the South. Record the year that Roswell Manufacturing Company
was incorporated as INC and the year that the mill workers were
deported as DEP. A is the 2nd digit of DEP, B is the 3rd digit of
DEP, C is the 3rd digit of INC, and D is the 4th digit of INC minus
the 4th digit of DEP.
Location 2 - N 34º 00.ABA' / W 84º 21.CDD'
This is on public property. Record the years, months, and days in
the life of the founder as YY, M, and DD. E is the 1st digit of YY,
F is the only digit of M, and G is the 2nd digit of DD. If you have
trouble reading the days, please do not touch the stone, DD can be
derived by subtracting the dates above it.
Location 3 - N 34º 00.EFB' / W 84º 21.CFA'
See the logs for March 11 and March 12, 2007 or the note for March
12, 2007. Record the weight of the old waterwheel in pounds as WWWW
and the revolution speed in rpm as RR. H is the 1st digit of WWWW
and J is the 1st digit of RR. While you are here, move to your
right and see if you can locate the old waterwheel shaft and find
where it was originally mounted. It was moved a few feet in order
to serve a completely different purpose.
Location 4 - N 34º 00.AHG' / W 84º 21.GJD'
This is the cache location, but look up from the GPS along the way,
or you will miss some nice scenery and some impressive 19th century
engineering. Try to ignore the 20th century public works. You may
want to backtrack a bit at the wooden steps to explore the path the
water took to the waterwheel in the 1800’s, and to the
turbine-generator in the 1900’s.
Thanks to the Roswell Recreation and Parks Department for
allowing the placement of this Geocache.
Note 6/13/06 - I stopped by to check on the cache today and it
is still there, waiting for the next brave searcher. It looks like
the park entrance near location 2 is permanently closed. To reach
location 3, geocachers may either walk, or drive and park at
N34°00.829' W84°21.509'. The way to location 3 should be obvious
from there. The brick building below this parking area is the old
shop, one of the original structures of the Roswell Manufacturing
Company built before the Civil War. Also take a short detour and
check-out the new footbridge across Vickery Creek. If you leave
your car at the original parking area, you may take the trail up
the hill near the geocache to return to your car.
Note 3/12/07 - The original information sign at this location
has been missing for several months now. I hope the sign is
replaced soon, but in the meantime I will give geocachers a way to
get the location 4 numbers. The picture with my 3/12/07 post shows
the gate control on the water turbine near location 3. There are a
number of spokes on the wheel which is blacked out in the picture.
Call the number of spokes the number X. Now H = X-2 and J = X-5. If
you are using a PDA and don't have the picture, look to the left of
the generator for an iron hand wheel about 2 feet in diameter.