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 cache was placed with special permission
from the National Park Service. Please respect all park rules and
no night caching! The final for this CJS hide is only available
during the business hours of the Visitor Center. The center is open
from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. daily for the spring through fall
seasons. Please refer to: Great Falls National Park
for current hours of operation.
Park Fees $3.00 individual Pass. Good for three consecutive days
for individuals coming into the park on foot, horseback, or
bicycle.
$5.00 Vehicle Pass. Good for three consecutive days for one
vehicle, including motorcycles.
$20.00 Annual Pass. Good for one year from the date of purchase in
Great Falls Park and C&O Canal National Historical Park in
Maryland.
Operating Hours and Seasons: Great Falls Park is open daily from 7
a.m. until dark. The Visitor Center and bookstore are open from 10
a.m. until 5 p.m. daily for the spring through fall seasons. Great
Falls Park is closed on December 25th.
The posted coordinates to this multi-cache will lead you to
overlook #3 in beautiful Great Falls National Park. These
coordinates will take you to a plaque to get the North
Coordinates:
N38 AB.CDE
A. Travelers from the Tropics
B. Life under the Surface
C. From Tranquil to Treacherous
D. Oh Chute
E. How’d the sand get here?
To get the West Coordinates turn around and you will see a Water
Mark Pole:
W077 FG.HIJ
F. First number of all the dates.
G. Bottom Sign-Last Number
H. First Sign-Last Number in Second Date
I. Last Sign-Third Number
J. Bottom Sign-Last Number
Only 15 miles from Washington, D.C., the 800-acre Great Falls Park
contains the rapids that John Smith viewed on June 25, 1608. Smith
and his crew spent four weeks exploring the Potomac, encountering
numerous Indians tribes, some hostile, some friendly; Smith
reported meeting a hunting party “well loaden with flesh of
bears, deer, and other beasts, whereof we had part." Having
portaged their small boat overland from Little Falls in search of a
silver mine, the spectacular views at Great Falls were probably
small consolation. Unwilling to proceed further, Smith nailed a
brass cross to a tree and turned back with his crew.
Nearly 200 years later, George Washington sought to overcome the
obstacle of the falls by pushing for the construction of the
Patowmack Canal. He wanted to connect the fertile Ohio River Valley
with the natural transportation routes of the Potomac River and the
Bay itself. In the end, however, the upper Potomac’s natural
flood and drought cycles proved insurmountable, and the Canal
company went bankrupt. In the 20th century, however, the Fall
provided amusement rather than frustration. An amusement park was
opened in 1906, and carousels were running until
1972.
Thanks to Marmon and
Twister69 for helping with this hide and to the Maryland
Geocaching Society for assisting with this
project!