You may have an altitude problem, but if you are well coordinated you might make the catch.
Alternatively, this geocache could accidentally be discovered during the seventh inning stretch.
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This geocache locale shares views of the town ball field, the local cemetery, old Route 26, the Town Hall and Willet/Cincinnatus Area Senior Center, and the vacant spot that was once the legendary landmark Brown Beaver Inn. Excellent fishing can be found nearby on the Otselic River.
The Willet Ball Field grand stand, built in the early 1940’s, used salvaged lumber from the old icehouse at the former Reed Ice Cream Plant (where the Cincinnatus Town Park is now located) and hauled in by local farmer Alvin Doty Sr. Current Town Supervisor Sandy Doty says his father brought the lumber to Willet by tractor and wagon. “We’re very proud of our town,” Sandy says.
The town of Willet, nestled into 16,000 acres of narrow valleys, ridges and ravines, was named in honor of Revolutionary War hero Colonel Marinus Willet. This region was part of the Central New York Military Tract used to pay soldiers of the American Revolution, and of which the colonel drew lot no. 88 as payment for his service in the war.
The town hosted industries common of a rural county settlement in the early 1800’s including a gristmill, sawmill, carding-works, ashery, distillery, blacksmith shop, and public house (and this all by one man, Benjamin Wilson). Other early settlers built mills or cleared the land for crops and dairy. Toward the end of the 1800’s, industries grew to include a tin shop, wagon shop, and cheese factories, including the wonderfully named “Whaupaunaucau (sometimes spelled or spoken-'Whopperknocker') Butter and Cheese Factory.”
The Southern Tier Flood of 1935 visited this township, as it did many others, washing away seven bridges and many buildings. The Otselic River runs through Willet and today much of the town has been protected as Wetland Area, serving as a nesting ground for a wide variety of wildlife such as beavers. Birders can see ospreys fishing the river as they migrate through the region in May/June and September/October. Bald eagles have recently been spotted returning to the Otselic River Valley, and the careful observer can glimpse other rare birds as well.
- SC