B08: Discovering Wellington Mystery Cache

This cache has been placed as part of the British Columbia Geocaching Association

When you log your find, please click the VOTE button on the bottom of the cache page to cast your vote.

Wellington is a north Nanaimo neighborhood which was once the town of Wellington British Columbia.  Prior to 1869, Wellington was a small village of homesteads with one saloon and connected to Nanaimo by a rough trail. In 1869 Robert Dunsmuir discovered coal on the roots of a fallen tree while visiting Diver Lake. As a miner, Dunsmuir investigated the coal stream and quickly realized the coal was of good quality and of a large quantity.  He soon setup a company and staked a land claim covering most of what is today the Wellington District. By 1890 the town of Wellington had swelled to over 5,000 residents with a school, opera house and many buildings.

The Dunsmuirs were industrialists and they mined the seam as fast as they could. By 1898 the seam was no longer profitable, and the mine was closed. As a mining town the closure of the mine was devastating. To add to the town's misery, James Dunsmuir ordered the company buildings to be dismantled and moved to Ladysmith, British Columbia. Further, in 1899, a great fire destroyed most of the town's remaining key buildings.

At the end of WWII Nanaimo was booming and Wellington quickly became a bedroom community to people working in Nanaimo and the mid Island region.  In the 1960s the Wellington Improvement District amalgamated with the City of Nanaimo.  Today, only a small portion of the former Wellington town site remains to be commonly referred to as Wellington and a few businesses and organizations have kept alive the Wellington name.

The posted coordinates are not the location of the final cache, but are one of the waypoints that must be visited to collect the information needed to find the cache.  The waypoints are not intended to provide you with a thorough tour of Wellington, but are hoped to offer a sampling of views and start you off on further discovery.

(N) 49 12.645 (W) 124 01.776- At this location is a plaque remembering three of the Vanderneuk family.  The four digits of the year of the earliest date are ABCD

(N) 49 12.447 (W) 124 01.077- There is a 6 digit number engraved on this structure that are EFGHIJ

(N) 49 11.666 (W) 123 59.543 - The letters of the family name of this house are KLMNO

 
(N) 49 12.536 (W) 124 01.279 - The year this plaque was produced is PQRS

 
(N) 49 12.752 (W) 124 01.526 - The five digits that correspond to 90 are TUVWX

The cache can be found by making sense of the information you collected after assembling them in the following order. Please note that the final cache is only assessable during the hours posted below. Please be sure to replace the cache exactly as you found it.

Hours the final cache is accessible

IN: Vancouver Island Central and North.