Capital: Raleigh

Largest City: Charlotte

Size Rank:22nd

Population Rank:10th

Admission to Union: 12th

Find the other caches in the series HERE.

The Cache Across America Series: This is a series of caches that will take you on a caching tour of the entire United States. One cache is hidden in each of the 50 states. These caches each contain a numeric clue that will lead you to one final cache located in our nation's capitol upon completion of the series.

About this cache:The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is allegedly the first declaration of independence made in the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution. It was supposedly signed on May 20, 1775, at Charlotte, North Carolina, by a committee of citizens of Mecklenburg County, who declared independence from Great Britain after hearing of the battle of Lexington. If the story is true, the Mecklenburg Declaration preceded the United States Declaration of Independence by more than a year. The authenticity of the Mecklenburg Declaration has been disputed since it was first published in 1819, forty-four years after it was reputedly written.

There is no conclusive evidence to confirm the original document's existence, and no reference to it has been found in extant newspapers from 1775. The flag of North Carolina bears the date of the Mecklenburg Declaration: May 20, 1775.

Many professional historians have maintained that the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is an inaccurate rendering of an authentic document known as the Mecklenburg Resolves. The Mecklenburg Resolves were a set of radical resolutions passed on May 31, 1775, that fell short of an actual declaration of independence. Although published in newspapers in 1775, the text of the Mecklenburg Resolves was lost after the American Revolution and not rediscovered until 1838.

Historians believe that the Mecklenburg Declaration was written in 1800 in an attempt to recreate the Mecklenburg Resolves from memory. According to this theory, the author of the Mecklenburg Declaration mistakenly believed that the Resolves had been a declaration of independence, and so he recreated the Resolves with language borrowed from the United States Declaration of Independence. Defenders of the Mecklenburg Declaration have argued that both the Mecklenburg Declaration and the Mecklenburg Resolves are authentic. The early government of North Carolina, convinced that the Mecklenburg Declaration was genuine, maintained that North Carolinians were the first Americans to declare independence from Great Britain. As a result, both the seal and the flag of North Carolina bear the date of the declaration.

A holiday commemorating the Mecklenburg Declaration, "Meck Dec Day", is celebrated on May 20 in North Carolina, although it is no longer an official holiday and does not attract the attention that it once did.

We would like to thank Yuttington for his sacrifice in providing this location for the Cache Across America - North Carolina.

Logging Requirements: Enjoy this cache as you would any other. If you are searching this cache as a participant in the Cache Across America series, please post a photo of yourself or a member of your group with the cache in your online log. If you for some reason are unable to meet the photo requirement, please make alternate arrangements to verify your find with the individual cache owner. There is no photo requirement for non-challenge participants.

Individual verification of all 50 state finds will be required before logging the series final.

If participating in the series, please take note of the three digit code located inside this cache. Save this code in a secure place. When you have visited all 50 caches, and have collected all 50 codes, you are welcome to seek and find the final cache! Good luck!