History:
In 1682, a deed of sale between the Askawanes tribe and William Teller was created. Previously purchasing Croton Point in 1645, Teller began buying parcels of land all around this area from native tribes. Not much is written on this, however Teller attended court at one point in time to discuss a slave burial ground somewhere within Oscawana lands, and the William Teller Estate was handed down through family after his death in the late 1600s.
At some point during the 1880s-90s, the land and buildings of William Teller were sold to Frenchman Guillaume Reusen. Reusen was an acclaimed racehorse breeder and used Teller's former estate as a country retreat from New York City to continue his passion. Reusen designed the grounds to accommodate this project, later terming his land as "Long View Villa", and the structural remains that you see are all from this era. After Reusen’s death in 1915, the property passed to his nephew, Stanislaus DeRidder. Oscawana was annexed by Croton in 1933 and this estate is believed to have been abandoned after DeRidder’s widow died in 1948. Today, the property is part of Oscawana County Park in the town of Cortlandt, which is accessible to the public.
Now on to the cache:
I wanted to create a Wherigo-style cache, so here it is, in a mystery form.
The coordinates listed above take you to the parking area for Oscawana. Saddle up your ponies across the street at the White/Blue trail blazes to begin your adventure through time. There is more to do at the Reusen country retreat. To rebuild the empire you must complete the tasks below utilizing the appropriate waypoints and obtain coordinates for Reusen's final stash.
N41* 1A.BCD
W073* 5E.FGH
To solve for A, take a walk around The Racetrack. Along the outer edge will be structural remains of the boundaries we need to repair. How many metal posts are in this piece?
To solve for B, go into The Carriage House. Carriages were stored on the main level, and horses were docked in the basement stalls. At any given time, noting the amount of basement-level stalls, how many horses could fit in this building at once? Note: the area through the basement's inner doorway counts as 1 stall. Error Check: Farm House minus Guest House
To solve for C, you need to do a maintenance check at The Old Pump House. This is the system that regulates water flow throughout the estate for sinks and stalls, and after many years of use, it seems the pipes have fallen into disrepair. Locate the big pipes, and make a note of how many are present, so that replacements can be fashioned. Let's also add 1 more, for good measure.
To solve for D, you need to visit The Guest House. Over time, this building has been socked a real whammie by all the inappropriate guests that have stayed here. Don't you hate when that happens? With the building left in ruins, only a few supports remain attached to the foundation. The number of vertical supports is what you are looking for here. Take a note of this so that we know how many can still be used during the reconstruction process.
To solve for E, go to The Tower. Not much remains here, except the support slots that ascended the structure one level at a time. We'd like to build it back up again. To figure out a height, let's utilize what still remains. If we use the existing support slots to recreate what used to be here, and then add on 3 additional levels above that, how many stories will The Tower be?
To solve for F, visit The Artist's Shack. It seems that street artists have taken their craft to a new level, completely covering this building. It looks like they tried to get in, but failed to do so. I wonder why? Figure it out by counting the # of entrances to this building, and adding 1 more for our new construction.
To solve for G, visit The Farm House. Who knew the Led Zeppelin song was actually true back here in Oscawana? Because we know Reusen would definitely be a guy who'd jam out to classic rock, let's continue building to the sky from what remains, one step at a time. Count the number of remaining raised steps and add 1 more.
To solve for H, visit The Storage Shed. Here you will notice a deep drop into the ground where hay bails and supplies were stored for the estate. Notice the hooks that were used as a pulley system, and a variety of circular portals that allowed for ventilation of the stock down below. Due to disrepair, some portals have crumbled, although based on your conclusions as a building designer, how many should there be?
These tasks can be completed in any order. The final is unconventionally hidden, yet it is winter-accessible (I snowshoed through all the stages when setting this up). Special thanks to geobernd, whose caches here inspired this one, and Larra Three for showing me a really awesome final location. If coordinates are fuzzy at the final, please use the hint. Good luck, and have fun!
You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com.
