This area is game land- please wear safety orange if you are out here on any day other than Sunday, during the hunting seasons
This cache is placed on an abandoned stretch of the Durham & Northern Railroad that once connected Durham and Henderson NC. Funded by both of those towns, the corporation was formed in 1887 and the 41.4 mile line was finished by 1889. It became part of Seaboard Air Line's Raleigh Division during the 1890s, and was fully acquired by SAL in November 1901.
The line originated in Henderson at the connection with SAL’s Raleigh-Richmond mainline and terminated at Durham Union Station at O&C Junction, just north of the intersection of present-day Junction Road and Cheek Road in northern Durham. Once the line crossed the Norfolk Southern (formerly Southern Railway) at O&C Junction, it paralleled the Norfolk Southern south and then west into downtown Durham. CSX, the successor to SAL, still operates a small portion of this line in Durham to service local industries. The City of Durham demolished Durham Union Station in early September 1968.
Along the route between Henderson and Durham, the line goes through Creedmoor NC, to the old train station just east of Seaboard Street. Falls Lake currently cuts the line between Durham and Creedmoor; the roadbed from the lake into north-eastern Durham is now known as the Panther Creek Trail.