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100% PURE EVIL
Back in the 1950s when the former town of Silver Creek was commissioned for expansion, it was decided to turn 8th Line into a 2 lane street and use it as a potential future regional highway to connect Georgetown and Acton. In addition to a regional highway (now Hwy 7 to the south), the plan was to eventually expand the town of Silver Creek by subdividing the land for future homes and also bring in sewage, hydro and phone service. At the time, 8th Line here was just an old unmaintained road that passed through the Scottsdale Farm property which was then owned by Stewart and Violet Bennett. The plans were drawn up and survey work began in the summer of 1958. On September 16, 1958 documents show that a crew of 4 surveyors were scheduled to work this portion of land here. They were signed in at the work trailer located within Silver Creek at the corner of 27th Sideroad and 7th Line (now known as Trafalgar Rd) at 7am and their supervisor indicated that they had left to start their work. Previous work logs indicated that they usually signed back in at the end of their work day at 4pm. By 5pm, the supervisor was making his rounds to lock up the work trailer and noticed that the men had not signed in at the end of their shift and the survey equipment was not at the trailer yet either. He proceeded to head down 27th Sideroad and over towards 8th Line where the men were scheduled that day to do their survey work. When he got there, the survey equipment was all set up still, but no one was to be seen. Looking around the area, he spotted the men's lunch boxes at the edge of the drop off, along with the survey book. He discovered their partially eaten sandwiches and some both half full and some knocked over cups of coffee and a canteen of water. Down the hillside from where it appears the 4 men were eating their lunch, was the work book. He scrambled down and retrieved it. There were several dozen entries in it for that day with the last one being at 11:54am. Nothing in the work book indicated anything unusual for that morning. The supervisor hurried back to the trailer and contacted the authorities as he knew something was not right. Together with the police, they went back to the survey point to look for clues. It was now well into the evening and dark. A full scale search would commence in the morning if the crew of 4 did not show up in the meantime. Morning arrived and word had gotten out about the disappearance of the 4 men. Along with both local and provincial police, fellow workers and also many of the area residents, a search began of the area. For the next 2 days they systematically searched the area within a 4km radius and some points beyond, but there was no sign of the 4 missing workers. Random searches of the area continued on and off for the next week, but everyone soon gave up hope. The 4 men simply vanished and were never heard from again. Police and newspaper reports show their names as Paul Edwards (age 47) of Hamilton, Udo Volkov (age 39) of Acton, Roger Ingram (age 35) of Hillsburgh and Eric Lapointe (age not specified) of Acton. Today they still remain in the Missing Persons files of the OPP. After the disappearance of the 4 men, work did not continue in the area and all plans for expansion were put on hold.
In September 1966 once again the authorities were called to the area. Local residents had reported the faint cries of what sounded like a child in trouble that could be heard in the still of the night on several occasions. Once again the police along with area residents combed the area to try and pinpoint where the cries were coming from. It didn't take long to narrow down the location of where the sounds were coming from as a number of local farmers had now also heard the cries and some said it was laughter and not crying, while yet others said it was voices. There were no reports of any missing children or persons. A long narrow shaft was discovered, possibly an old well or some kind of vent. Several of the people that day indicated that they could hear voices and murmurs from the shaft that they discovered. The shaft was large enough for a child to fall into, but for an adult it would be a very tight fit. The shaft was described as approximately 1 foot in diameter at its opening and descended deep into the ground. The searchers, now turned rescuers, called down into the shaft to the voices they heard, and other than some murmurs every so often, the sounds from below eventually stopped. A light was lowered on a rope, but nothing could be made out below. A camera with lights was also lowered and it was discovered that it seated itself on a ledge about 80 feet below. The shaft got wider the deeper it went and there appeared to be a small cavern or cave like opening just slightly below the ledge. The camera did catch a quick glimpse of what was thought to be some movement below, but other than that, there was however no sign of any child. No more sounds or voices were heard from within the shaft. Concerned, a young rookie for the OPP by the name George volunteered and suggested that he was narrow enough that he could be lowered into the shaft, since whoever was down below might be in some serious trouble. He put on a climbing harness and was lowered into the shaft. He had a light and a radio with him so he could report his finding to the rescuers above. From the ledge he crept into the cavern opening. He reported that the cave went deeper and there was nothing unusual. He said he was going to search further along into the cave, while still being in his harness and attached to the rope that lowered him. Several moments later from the radio came "Oh my gosh. There's...oh...Get me out! Quick!" Then the tension on the rope disappeared. The radio went dead. The horror could be heard in George's voice which rose through the shaft along with a foul smell, so bad that one of the rescuers passed out from the stench and needed oxygen. Rumbling and loud crashing could be heard from below. The rope was pulled up and the end of it was torn apart and frayed. Streams of dust came rising up through the shaft. Immediately they scrambled to lower down the camera again and call down below. Dust was still in the air within the shaft. This time however, the camera stopped after only 50 feet or so and didn't go any further. The lower part of the shaft had collapsed. Heavy drilling equipment was called in and the next day they tried to drill into the shaft and also in the surrounding area, but they did not have a drill that would go down 80 feet or anywhere even close to that. Whatever happened to George below and what he discovered would forever remain a mystery. George's apparent death was simply identified as an unfortunate accident during a rescue mission where he became trapped and buried when the area around him collapsed. It was ordered that the shaft be sealed by filling it up with concrete along with the other holes that were dug. Other than an obituary for George Caceras indicating that he died in the line of duty, nothing about the incident made it to print in any of the papers.
Rupert Liven, a life-long resident of what is now the town of Halton Hills, is in his late 80s and now living at the Mountainview Residence family care facility. He first sparked my interest in the above cases several years ago when I would visit the local senior's center to help out. I always looked forward to chatting with Rupert on a Tuesday evening. I would tell him about my many geocaching adventures and hikes along the Bruce Trail and what cool places and things I came across. Equally, I enjoyed listening to all of Rupert's stories about how he worked at Scottsdale Farm and the many things he experienced in life. His favourite place to go which he told many what seemed like hundreds of times, was Snow Falls, which just happens to be down the street from where this latest geocache is hidden. Snow Falls went under the road and although small, it was a pretty sight so close to home and a place I liked to visit myself. I had accidently discovered Snow Falls (although I didn't know it's name at the time) once while driving through some out of the way roads perhaps 10 years ago. I remember stopping here and watching a turtle on the side of the road. However, since I was new to the area, I did not remember where this waterfall was and although I tried, I could never find this waterfall again. It wasn't until geocaching when I was heading to find a cache that I once again drove by this waterfall and discovered it once again, but this time I knew had no problem ever finding it again and know the area well. Now even though I knew where the waterfall was and would visit it often, I was intrigued when Rupert told me that there 2 Snow Falls here. 2 waterfalls like one above the other or one further down stream a bit I asked. No, that wasn't the case, but instead he told me that the 2nd waterfall was very close by, but you couldn't see it simply by driving or walking by. It was hidden as he put it. He knew I liked puzzles and games and he told me to go stand at the end of 8th Line and open my ears. I didn't always think he was 100% with it with his age and all, but I was intrigued and drove out there and did exactly what he said. I listened closely and sure enough I heard something and I followed the sound of water to the edge of the road and a few steps into the tree line and what do I see. Sure enough Rupert was right and here was a 2nd waterfall, nicely hidden away from passersby. All these times I drove by here as do hundreds of people, and I find this neat spot where not many know about. I learned a lot of neat things about Halton Hills from Rupert over the past couple years and I never ever again doubted what he said especially since every time he told me about something around town, it sure enough was accurate. One of the adventures I told Rupert about my series of 6 Letterboxes along the Bruce Trail off of 8th Line and how I hid one in the remains of a car that I found off the trail in the middle of the woods. I told him I thought it was strange and wondered how a car got to be here. Rupert knew exactly the car I was referring to. He leaned forward from his chair and grabbed my arm...a bit too tight I might add, and told me of how 2 bodies, one of a man and the other of a woman were found here in their car. He stared straight into my eyes and said, "It was their bodies! They had no heads! There were NO heads! Something Evil took place here!" Wow, I was so stunned I didn't even notice that his grip on my arm was getting tighter and was beginning to cut off my circulation. Sure enough when looking up the old newspaper archives at the library, a small one paragraph tidbit of news mentioned the discovering of a couple found in their car in the woods. It did not mention that they were headless though, but I have no reason to doubt Rupert. The remains of the car is still there today as is my cache (GCR6QC).
Sometime earlier this year I was telling Rupert about my Cavernous cache not far away. I told him I found an old Lime Kiln, some other things I found interesting along the way and most of all, the ladder going down the escarpment and if you walk a short ways along the side of the escarpment there was a small cave with a tight fit to get in. I said the walls inside the cave looked really neat. Guess what Rupert did? Ya, he grabbed my arm again and held it tight. Oh great, now what I thought. I was beginning to get real freaked out. Rupert inhaled deeply and looked straight into my eyes (I hate when he does that) and said, "They found George's head here." I had no clue who George was, but I figured it was one of the 2 decapitated people that was found in the car in the woods that Rupert had told me about quite awhile ago. Eventually I realized he wasn't talking about the couple found in the car and was talking about someone else. "Why do you think the quarry stopped operating here?" he said. "Did you have a look at the cave walls?" Well ya I did. "Didn't you notice something unnatural about the walls...something is not right there. Wall are not like that," he exclaimed. Ok I got my arm free from his clutches and got a bit distracted while trying to get my circulation back. But yes he was right, I did think the wall of the cave looked somewhat odd. I remember looking at the wall while I was in the cave. The cave wall looked just a bit too perfect in my opinion. Rupert started up again, but I held my arm back so he couldn't grab it this time, "There was Pure Evil at work here! They found some caves here and then all of a sudden one day they closed a perfectly good quarry without a word to anyone. They blasted and sealed the caves shut. Be careful!" Ok, but I still didn't know who this George's head guy was. This is when he told me the story of Officer Caceras and how he bravely went down into a hole in the ground to rescue a child many decades ago. "He disappeared too. That's his head. They never found the rest of him," he exclaimed. I saw him reaching for my arm. I wish he wouldn't be so grabby. I pulled back again. What do you mean he too disappeared, I had to ask. Who else disappeared? Of course I had to ask. That's when Rupert told me about the 4 surveyors that disappeared 50 years ago to this day (today...when I placed the cache in roughly the same location where they presumably disappeared). Oh crap, he got a hold of my arm again. The stuff he shares with me is just so interesting. It's worth it my arm turning a bit red. So after all this time, no one has ever heard of or seen any trace of these surveyors. I did find it very strange some of the things that went on over the years and wondered if there were any other strange and mysterious occurrences. But unless I mentioned something that clicked a light bulb on in Rupert's head, I mostly heard about the wonderful experiences in his life. I knew when I would click on one of those light bulbs as he would always grab my arm, but those were few and far between. I went on vacation for a month this summer and when I came back I went to do my usual visit to Rupert, but upon arriving the care worker told me that Rupert had passed away on July 14, 2008. My heart dropped and a tear flowed from my eye. I sat down where I used to sit when I visited Rupert. As I was hunched over collecting my thoughts, another elderly man walked by and whispered into my ear "100% Pure Evil. Stay away from the pond!" Pond? What Pond? Who was that? I saw the man turn the corner and I jumped up, tripped and fell flat on my face. I picked myself up, looked around the corner and down the hall of rooms, I did not see the man anymore, nor do I know which room he went into. I lost a good friend in Rupert and I miss him greatly. But from what all the things he told me, I was able to do enough research over the past couple months to put this cache together. I did wonder if these mysterious occurrences and disappearances that Rupert told me about were connected in some way. Other than the general area and a couple of similarities, there was no documented evidence that ever connected these incidences. Although it still does bother me what was whispered into my ear by a stranger just a couple months ago and hence the name for this cache. Please be careful and I don't suggest trying this cache alone or at night.
Research done from information and documents obtained from the following sources:
Ministry of Transportation
Halton Region archives
Halton Hills Public Library
Ontario Provincial Police
Rupert Liven (1921-2008), area resident, friend and former part-time worker at Scottsdale Farm
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