CJS - Susquehanna State Park #2 Traditional Geocache

This cache has been archived.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 : 6/9/2011
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

The Captain John Smith Geotrail
Susquehanna State Park #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.
You are seeking a traditional hide, stocked with a variety of American themed items (Thanks to Wizard & Suzanne). They also included a 1st and 2nd TF prize. An American Bald Eagle and led flash light. Walk across Stafford bridge to the trail entrance on the right. The cache is located at the end of the Fisherman’s Trail (towards the Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway Trail - LSHG) along the Susquehanna River hidden at the crossroads of two downed trees. Parking is available at: N 39° 37.362 W 076° 09.854 or for a longer hike N 39° 36.763 W 076° 08.929.


The Susquahanna River valley, in 1608 when Captain John Smith explored it, was populated by the Susquahannock Indians whose principal town was Sasquesahanough, located near present-day Millersville, Pennsylvania. Captain Smith heard about them from the Tockwogh Indians on the Sassafras River and, with the help of two Tockwogh interpreters, arranged a meeting. On August 6, 1608, the English and approximately 60 Susquahannock men met on the north side of Garrett Island not far upriver. Garrett Island may have served long ago as a kind of neutral meeting ground. It lies just south of Smith’s Falls, where navigation for the Discovery Barge was still possible. The island has a 100-foot-high summit of basaltic rock, providing a good lookout point up and down the river.

They brought presents with them to give to Captain Smith – bear skins, venison, tobacco pipes three foot in length, baskets, shields, bows, and arrows. In his journal, Captain Smith described the Susquahannock as “giant-like people” and was so impressed that he included a very large drawing of one of these men on his 1612 map. He described the man this way, “The picture of the greatest of them is signified in the map, the calf of whose leg was three quarters of a yard about and all the rest of his limbs so answerable to that proportion that he seemed the goodliest man that ever we beheld. His hair, the one side was long, the other shore close with a ridge over his crown like a coxcomb. His arrows were five quarters long [45 inches], headed with flints or splinters of stones in form like a heart, an inch broad and an inch and a half or more long. These he wore in a wolf’s skin at his back for his quiver, his bow in the one hand and his club in the other as is described."

Archeological excavations at the Washington Boro site in Millersville, PA, shows that the average height of a Susquahannock man was 5 feet 11 inches, not tall by today’s standards, but tall enough compared to the average height of an Englishman at 5 feet 4 inches.

Located along the Susquehanna River valley with its heavy forest cover and rocky terrain, Susquehanna State Park offers a wide variety of outdoor recreational opportunities as well as points of historical significance. The park is home to some of the most popular mountain biking trails in Maryland and contains a family friendly campground with traditional campsites and cabins. The facility offers a boat launch, fishing, flat water canoeing, hiking trails, historic interpretation, pet-friendly trails, picnicking, pavilions, playground, mountain bike and equestrian riding trails, bow hunting area and archery range.

Thanks to Wizard & Suzanne and Ranger Thompson for helping with this hide and to the Maryland Geocaching Society for assisting with this project!

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