History of the First Town:

In 1750, the first town in Mecklenburg County was founded by Scottish-Irish pioneers.  That town?  The modern day Mint Hill, which was then known as the Clear Creek community, was truly the first venture into this area by the early settlers.  It wasn’t until 1768 that Charlotte Town, as it was originally called, got its charter and was designated the county seat, which went against the wishes of the settlers who lived in the eastern part of the county.  The Scots-Irish of Rocky River and the Germans of Buffalo Creek accepted the unwelcome outcome for the time being. But by the 1790s, they succeeded in convincing the North Carolina legislature to separate their communities into a new county.  It was named after the speaker of the house at the time, Stephen Cabarrus.  The Scots-Irish and the Germans finally compromised and created a new town in 1796 they named Concord.  The early leaders of Clear Creek, Captain Adam Alexander, John Ford, and John Query, signed the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence on May 20, 1775, and later took up arms against the British Crown.  So what happened to this budding town that has been around since before Charlotte was even a thought?

Way back in 1910, with a population of approximately 194 people, Mint Hill gave up it's charter over a road dispute.  The town didn't want Mecklenburg County to build a main road through town (the road is modern day Highway 51) and chose to give up their charter to prevent this from happening.  This, of course, halted most of the visible growth that Mint Hill was likely going to have in the 1920's while the economy was booming. 

During these years, the town hummed along quietly. The success of two country stores, operated by John M. McEwen and R.J. McEwen & Sons, caused the town center to shift from Fairview Road to Lawyers Road, its present location.  People looked to the country stores for all their needs, even in death. R. J. McEwen & Sons sold caskets to families and then added embalming as a service around 1918. The funeral home in Mint Hill, founded by Carl J. McEwen in 1926, grew to be one of the biggest operations of its kind in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area and even provided air service for a while.  The McEwen family eventually replaced the old store with a new one with ample space for an expanded hardware store and furniture store, plus a men’s store, pharmacy, dinner theater, and other businesses. The McEwen-Thompson Dress Shop, located in what is now a restaurant visible from this cache's final location, offered top-of-the-line clothes for savvy shoppers.  John McEwen and his wife Scottie ran their country store, which housed a contract post office, until they sold it in the late 1970s. It was located on the corner of Lawyers and Matthews-Mint Hill Roads. In 1982, they donated over five acres of land for a town hall (now the Mint Hill Police Station which is also visible from the final location).

The Mullis family opened a restaurant on the corner of Fairview and Matthews-Mint Hill Road, which is now behind the gas station, in 1936 and ran it for over 80 years. Geneva’s Flowers on Matthews- Mint Hill Road used to provide floral arrangements for funerals and other occasions. Various beauty and barber shops sprang up around town. In the 1960s a bank opened in downtown across from the local creamery, and although the bank brand has changed, it's still the same location.  Between 1910 and 1971, community life in Mint Hill revolved around Philiadelphia Presbyterian Church, Bain Academy, and various civic organizations. Basketball became a popular sport, with Bain High School teams (boys and girls) winning championships from time to time.  Before a branch library was established in Mint Hill in 1958, a bookmobile from the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, delivered books to residents on a regular basis.

Several local families, who owned horses, showed them off at special events. Men of the community, along with a few women, joined U.S. military units and served their country during World War I, World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War.  The Earp-Williams Post #4958 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars provided services to returning soldiers and became something of a social center via community events such as fish fries and barbecues.

The Mint Hill Volunteer Fire Department was organized in 1954. Other organizations such as the Mint Hill Historical Society also took root.  These locations are still around today, and are a long walk or short drive from the final location.

  The previous recession from the county charter lasted 61 years, until March 11th 1971, when the citizens pushed for and finally recieved their new charter and became icorporated.  The county built the road and the town continued it's upward trend, with a population around 7,000 people n 1980.  Today the town houses an estimated 27,000 people, and continues to expand.  With new government officials likely to come into office, the expansion is not going to stop either. 

Since the town was not in the county charter, the earliest publicly available overhead image we have is from Google Earth in 1993 (shown above).  The growth of the town is visible from these pictures taken from the same angle from 1993 - 2019.  Notice how much the downtown area has expanded just since 2007.

Cache Information:

This should be an easy puzzle to "solve" and I've attached the coordinates checker as well.  All of the information you need to "solve" this is above.  If you need a nudge on this one, feel free to message me, I'm around my phone quite a bit and will try and respond within a couple of minutes.  Please read through our town history as I don't believe enough of us truly know where this great little area has come from.  For the final, be extremely stealthy and careful with the cache, the container is hidden beneath the right side as you're sitting down.  Enjoy the location and post pictures from the beautiful and historical area as well!