The Forest
Conway Robinson State Forest is open from 7am to 7pm - No Night Caching! A permit is not required for hiking, walking, or seeking this cache. However certain activities, such as biking or horse riding, may require one.
The Cache
Waypoints leading to the cache are easily accessible from the forest trails. At each waypoint you will find information that will lead to the next. There are no tricks or limericks in the clues. You just locate the clue and move on to the next. The geocache at the last hide contains some themed swag and the scout's instructions for approaching the meeting location.
Caution: In the vicinity of the meeting location (between the observation point and the meeting itself) there are round holes covered by leaves and pine needles that you can step in. They could have been made by scouts and their horses. But they are more likely post holes that should have been filled in.
The History
My great-great grandfather, David Patterson, served in the 1st West Virginia Infantry which was the first military unit to be organized following President Lincoln's call for troops in 1861. I inherited his war journal in which he told the story of a special mission in Conway-Robinson Forest during the summer of 1862. He wrote:
"Our regiment was assigned to General James B. Ricketts’ 2nd Division in General McDowell’s Corps. We were marching north from New Market, Virginia to Warrenton on the 27th of August when we were ordered to Thoroughfare Gap, west of Haymarket, to block General James Longstreet's approach from the west. We camped near Haymarket and early that evening, a messenger arrived and reported that a group of Confederate officers planned to meet the following morning on the Warrenton Turnpike east of Haymarket. The Company D commander asked for two volunteers to cross the forest north of the turnpike and, using clues that a Union scout hidden, attempt to spy on the meeting. My cousin Will Atkinson and I volunteered, thinking we would miss at least two days of camp chores by going on the mission, never once considering what would happen to us if we were captured.
The Hike
We dressed in farm clothes and crossed the fields east of Haymarket and entered the northwest side of the forest. At first light the forest was beautiful. But we had to stay alert for Rebel scouts as well as bear, foxes, buzzards and snakes. As we worked our way south and east, we came to a place full of thistles where an army had trampled the forest. We crossed the field and continued south. We had been warned that there were lots of fallen trees and, if the winds were up, to watch for falling trees. There was a path that joined from the east forming a triangle at the intersection. Near that location there was a tall tree to our left that marked the location of the first clue. We found the clue between the toes of that tree.
On of the way to the next intersection we saw an old tree to our left that reminded me of the William Wallace Tower. We stopped there and using our scout trainin', we looked for something that was not exactly natural. Will found the second clue, but knot where we expected.
With the second clue in hand, we came to another triangular trail intersection and could hear men and horses at a marshalling point. We were dangerously close to the enemy and quickly turned east toward our next waypoint. We were close enough to Warrenton Turnpike to hear the enemy wagons. We followed the much-used trail but stayed out of sight. The last clue was along that path.
Using the final clue, we found the scout's cache north of the trail. The scout left an old newspaper article with pictures of the Confederate officers and final instructions for finding the meeting area. We returned to the path and continued eastward. We crossed a crudely made footbridge and then found the large tree on the south side of the trail that the scout had described.
We left the trail there and moved quietly through the forest heading southeast by east. We came to a stone that had been placed by a relative of Johan Fernström. From there we could see opening in the trees that allowed us to view the Warrenton Turnpike. So we decided to hunker down behind that gravestone to wait for the meeting.
The activity on the highway increased around noon and, not long after, three Confederate generals and their staffs arrived. We recognized them from the old newspaper clipping. Will and I had never seen even one General this close up. And we could tell by the way they was talkin' that something big was up. Our position was close enough to hear them discuss plans to form lines of battle near a place they called Henry House Hill in readiness to confront our Union army under General Pope. After the meeting ended, we searched the area then returned to the cache and decided to leave everything except our knives and matches in the ammo box.
When we returned to our camp near Haymarket, we learned that the regiment had been engaged and fallen back from Thoroughfare Gap. I heard later that we missed a pretty important battle. Our mission report confirmed alerts from other scouts that a the Rebs was forming east of Haymarket.
Our regiment was preparing to march toward a place called Bull Run. Our company commander, Captain MacDonald, told us they were headed for a minor skirmish. We were ordered to rest-up, police the camp and then head west on our own. He said they would meet us in Winchester toward the end of the week. The engagement was more than a skirmish and our company did not arrive in Winchester. We never returned to the cache in the forest but later found a book by Private C. J. Rawling that told us about the battle that we missed."
