This cache is not at the listed coordinates due to sacred Indian burial ground. Read the description below to calculate the Final Cache Location.
This geocache is part of the West Bend GeoTour:
Twenty geocaches have been hidden throughout our historic city that highlight the best of West Bend in any season!
To earn a geocoin, teams must pick up a West Bend GeoTour Passport from the Chamber of Commerce (preferred method) or download a passport. Collect 25 points as detailed in the passport. See complete details at visitwestbend.com/geocaching-2.
Remember to record the password from this cache in your GeoTour Passport!
GeoTour Stop #14: Lizard Mound and Sandy Knoll Park
Lizard Mound County Park consists of 28 examples of Effigy Mounds, built by prehistoric Native Americans. They are the best preserved and diversified mounds in Wisconsin with impressive height and careful construction of each mound.
The park was established in 1950 and is named for its most impressive Indian mound shaped like a gigantic lizard. Native Americans known as the Effigy Mound Builders lived in Wisconsin and bordering states between B.C. 700 and A.D. 1200. These Indians built mounds shaped like mammals, reptiles, birds and other creatures both real and mythical. They also constructed conical, oval and linear mounds. The custom of building effigy burial mounds died out about 800 years ago; it was a custom unique to this general area. Unfortunately, very little else is known about the Mound Indians.
The earliest data concerning the mounds in the area of Lizard Mound County Park was in the form of a sketch map resulting from field investigations made by Professor Julius L. Torney of Milwaukee in 1883. In his sketch of the mound group, Professor Torney illustrated a total of 47 Indian mounds. Archeological explorations were conducted in 1960. Exploration of some of the effigy mounds has revealed that the dead were sometimes placed in pits and the effigy mounds were built over the pits. Artifacts such as clay pots, projectile points, pipes, bone harpoons and beads were sometimes placed with the dead. It has been speculated that the shapes of the mounds had a religious or clan significance, but no one really knows for sure.
Lizard Mound County Park is free to the public to view the effigy mounds. The trail is short and well worth the hike. Stay on the trail and respect the mounds.
The Geocache:
Caches are not allowed in Lizard Mound park, therefore this cache is NOT at the listed coordinates. Answer questions to find the final container, hidden in Sandy Knoll County Park, located a couple miles away. The answers to the puzzle can be found on the "Earth Sky Water" sign near the Lizard Mound Interpretive Center.
Final Coordinates:
N 43º 27. A B C
W088º 08. D B C
A = # Water Spirit Shapes minus # Bird Shapes in Sky
B = # Bear Shapes in Earth plus # Natural Realms
C = # Bear Shapes in Earth
D = # Natural Realms
Park in Sandy Knoll Park for the Final and take one of many trails that will lead you to the final location.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
2018 UPDATE! Sandy Knoll Park now charges a $5 daily fee. DURING THE WEEKEND of the CACHE BASH (Aug 10&11), you can get a FREE pass by entering the code cachebash18 at the following site: www.washcoparks.com/c/sk/