UPDATE: 3/1/2024:
2019 was the 100th Anniversary of Michigan State Parks and we're still celebrating!. Join the Michigan Geocaching Organization (MiGO), the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Geocaching.com for the first official GeoTour in Michigan.
This tour was originally scheduled to run for three years, kicking off on Friday of Memorial Weekend in 2019 and continue through May 31, 2022. The success of this awesome tour has not gone unnoticed. On February 2, 2022, The DNR announced the extension of the GeoTour through September 24, 2024! Join us in making a final push to complete this very popular and very successful GeoTour before the sun sets on it.
Each geocache is in one of Michigan's state parks. The geocaches are arranged by MiGO Region, with twenty-five geocaches per region. The Ticket to Celebrate 100 is available for download from the DNR's Geocaching page. It explains how to qualify for prizes in each of the four regions and for the GeoTour as a whole.
Day use areas of state parks are open from 8AM to 10PM. Geocaching is limited to those hours. Entry into Michigan's State Parks requires a Michigan Recreation Passport. See the Resources section below for more information.
The sun will set on the MSPCGT at midnight Tuesday, September 24, 2024. The MSPCGT will go off the air as a GeoTour and the caches will disappear from the map. There is a lot of construction going on in our State Parks in 2024. Some of the GeoTour caches will have to be pulled earlier. The remaining geocaches in the tour will be archived October 1, 2024. Players will have until December 31, 2024 to claim any prize they have earned. Hiders will be contacted to request removal of the geocaches they hid unless they have made arrangements with park managers and have their own permit in place to keep the geocache in play, with a new GC Code.
Now for some good news: MiGO and the DNR are busy working on a new project that will kick off in the Spring of 2025, code named MSPGT 2.0. Are you interested in helping? Keep your MiGO Membership up to date and stay tuned to the website.
Cache:
This cache was hidden as part of the Michigan State Parks Centennial GeoTour, presented by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Geocaching Organization. Record the codeword printed on the log book and on a label inside the cache container to the appropriate box on the Ticket to Celebrate 100 form. See the instructions on the form to claim prizes.
This is a traditional cache hidden at the posted coordinates. You are looking for a Regular size container. Please return everything as good or better than you found it.
Thank you
2_UP_Geologists
for creating, hiding and maintaining this MSPC GeoTour cache.
Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Cabin on the Bay built by the CCC
Wells State Park:
Wells State Park, on Green Bay, includes 678 acres, a three-mile sandy beach shoreline for swimming, large picnic area, a modern campground and rustic cabins. The park is open year round for winter recreation such as cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and ice fishing. 30 miles south of Escanaba, or 25 miles north of Menominee on M-35.
Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Baystone Lodge, built before the park opened and converted to the Superintendent's House
History:
This early history of what would become Wells State Park is from the National Archives, from the nomination of the park for a historic site.. Development of the park is described on the cache page for GC801RP:
In 1832 the first sawmill was constructed in Menominee County and by 1890 the lumber industry was booming. In 1898 Sam Crawford purchased fifty-three thousand acres of stump land along Green Bay. He built sawmills at the mouth of the Cedar River and began logging operations on the hemlock growing among the pine stumps. Five hundred acres of forest near the southern boundary ofhis tract was still virgin timber. Appreciating its beauty, he hoped one day it could be used by the public for recreation and he refused to log it.
John Walter Wells was part owner of the Bird-Wells Lumber Company in Wausaukee, Wisconsin. He moved to Menominee in 1875 where he started his own company, the J. W. Wells Lumber Company. Wells became very successful and was involved in a number of enterprises that contributed to the development of Menominee County.
Wells loved the virgin timberland owned by Crawford and purchased it with the intention of preserving it. Wells died in 1921, and in 1925 his children donated 335 acres of virgin timber featuring 2.5 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline on Green Bay to the state for the creation of a park named in their father's memory. Deed restrictions required that the Menominee Boy Scouts be allowed to continue using the park for a summer camp and that the land become a game preserve. An additional 131 acres adjacent to the Wells property, which had been purchased by the Menominee County Road Commission, was donated to the state in 1925. In conjunction with the Wells gift, park acreage totaled 466 acres. The beauty of the virgin timber and the rocky beach on Green Bay, as well as the site's location along a major trunk line from Chicago, made the area highly desirable for the development of a camping and recreation area.
J. W. Wells State Park first opened to the public in 1925 and initial development of the park began in 1927-1928. An old Boy Scout structure located at the north end of the property was tom down and replaced with a structure made from pulp logs found along the shore. An existing residence located at the southern end of the park was renovated for use as the park's headquarters/residence and one of its outbuildings was converted for use as the park's garage and workshop. A road was graded to a small camping area in the southern portion of the park. Trees were planted and stoves, toilets, a well, and play equipment were installed. A ten-and-one-half acre triangular piece of land at the center of the park that was still privately owned was purchased and the buildings on it were razed. In 1929 a log bathhouse was constructed in the southern region of the park and a well was sunk in the Boy Scout camp in the northern region.
Map courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Activities:
The park has six miles of hiking trails with three rustic trailside shelters for you to take a break during your hike. Paddling, fishing and swimming are also popular in warmer months. In the fall, hunting is available in the surrounding state forest land. Cross-country skiing is a winter draw, as is ice fishing. The lodge is available for rent and sleeps ten.
Information:
For more information, reservations and a calendar of events, follow this link to
Wells State Park.
Special thanks to
MIQuaks
for help with this geocache.
Special thanks to Cherry Capital Cachers for the Upper Peninsula regional prize.
Resources: