Elk River Power Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This cache is between hwy 10 and the Mississippi. In the summer you can park at the pull-in just east. In the winter you have to go to the park.
Elk River has long been a leader in energy. Across the highway you see the site of the first rural nuclear power plant in the United States. It went online in 1960 . Meant only as a demonstration site it was dismantled after several successful years of operation.
In the late 1980's, GRE's power plant was converted to burn refuse derived fuel. This innovative source of energy was one factor that helped Elk River receive the designation of "Energy City" by the Minnesota Environmental Initiative in October of 1997. As Energy City, Minnesota's energy industries will be demonstrating cutting edge renewable and energy efficient technologies in Elk River.
P.S A note from Kliener with some more interesting stuff:
"A couple of tidbits. That concrete thingy sticking out into the river, just downstream from GZ. That was the exchanger for the cooling water for all of these types of power generation at this plant. Before the Monti and the Becker plants were built this was maybe the furthest upstream that there was such a great amount of river water used to cool. So, that meant that in winter from this spot upstream the river would actually freeze over all of the way across. There were a lot of folks that used to fish this spot because it was the only open water in winter. The other thought I had was I remember when the plant used to belch out huge amounts of soot and smoke. There, across the highway from this spot was a pretty popular sliding hill in the winter. The folks at the plant were ok with everyone using it until someone got the idea of going up and down the hill with footprints and stomping out, in large letters, in the blackened snow. The words STOP POLLUTION. Those words stood right out in the clean white snow under the crust of blackened snow on the hill. And, that was the end of the friendly sliding hill. JK"
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
jvagre sevraqyl