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A Call to Arms Mystery Cache

Hidden : 7/31/2008
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

THE CACHE IS NOT AT THE COORDINATES!! YOU WILL NEED TO FIND THE TOMBSTONE LOCATED AT THE COORDINATES AND DO SOME SIMPLE MATH TO FIND THE CACHE A SHORT DISTANCE AWAY.

The coordinates above will take you to a most unusual tombstone in Sugg's Creek Cemetery. It marks the location of Jesse Manness' right arm. Laid to rest after Jesse lost it in a sawmill accident in 1913. To the right and about four graves over is the resting place of the remainder of Jesse, as well as Jesse's wife, Esther. To find the cache, a small camo'd thermos in the woods, you need to do the following simple calculations:

FINAL CACHE LOCATION:
N 35.29.2XX
W 079.50.0YY

XX = The last two digits of the year Jesse was born PLUS the last two digits of the year Esther passed away

YY = The number of years Jesse lived without his arm

(A Test To Tell If You Did the Math Right: the location of the ammo box should be roughly 225 to 230 feet from the tombstone!!)

The following is reprinted from Henry King's excellent book, "Tarheel Tombstones and the Tales They Tell" (Down Home Press, 1990):

Jesse Manness was 12 when he got his sleeve tangled in a sawmill and lost his arm. He never let the handicap bother him. He continued operating sawmills, became a storekeeper and and farmed 1,500 acres. He was a legendary figure in his small community, and his store on Secondary Road 1349 became a center of community life.

"Jesse put the first TV set known in these parts in that country store," his wife said, "People came from all over....They came at all hours, but especially at night. Jesse loved boxing and wrestling matches and he had them on the set all the time."

Although his arm was buried in 1913, he did not follow it into the grave for quite some time. In the interim, Manness sometimes stopped by the spot where his arm was buried, and each time he shook his head about an error in the marker.

"He pointed out the stone to me many times in our early years", said his wife Esther. "'Look'He'd say, 'They got the wrong arm carved on it. They marked the stone with the outline of a left arm, but it is my right arm that is buried there.' But he always said that he was going to let it go, and he did. He never raised a fuss about it."

As always, please remember to treat the graves of Jesse and all the others with the respect that they deserve!!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

'gjvkg gjb gjvfgrq gerrf (gel fnlvat GUNG gra gvzrf snfg!)

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)