GCD4A3 Following the Gold Seekers
Type: Multi | Size: Regular | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: ColMorgan @ | Hide Date: 02/14/2003 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N40° 15.684 W103° 47.952 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
                   

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You can drive to the waypoints to find the coordinates of the cache. It is an easy walk to the cache. This a child friendly cache

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This is the first in a series of caches that I will be hiding that have a historic theme pertaining to the Plains of Northeastern Colorado. The Fort Morgan City Parks Dept. has graciously given permission to hide a cache in Riverside Park Nature Area. Finding the final cache will be a short historic tour of the area near and along the S. Platte River. You will have to visit the two way point before getting the location of the Cache.

Cache site
N40° 15.aaa / W103° 47.bbb

Step one goto
N40° 15.684 / W103° 47.952
You should find an historic marker which denotes the location of the military fort that was located on the Overland Trail. The trail was used between 1858-1868 to travel to the gold fields west of Denver. The trail followed the S. Platte River branching off the Oregon Trail at Julesburg. A stage station was located every 10-15 miles along the trail and every 75 miles was a home station. A fort was established at this location in 1864 when the Denver Cut-Off was built which took a direct Southwest route to Denver. The Fort was first called Camp Wardwell and later renamed Fort Morgan. There were one to six companies of soldiers garrisoning the fort during its existence. Troops from the fort were to protect the stage coaches with its mail, the telegraph line that followed the trail and the travelers. In July of 1865, 100 freight wagons a day was passing through Fort Morgan. The Fort was closed in May of 1868 because the Union Pacific RR had reached Cheyenne Wyoming and supplies could than be shipped to Denver from there.

On the historic marker there is a dedication date subtract 995 from the date to get the aaa coordinate.

Go to the second point
N40° 16.062 / W103° 48.068

This way point is the location of the Rainbow Bridge. The site is registered on the National Historic Registry. Technically called a Marsh Arch Bridge it represents the development from steel bridges to concrete and steel. The design was developed by James Marsh, an Iowa Engineer. This type of bridge was common in the midwest. But most of these bridges that they were one to three spans. This bridge is 1110 ft. long, 19 feet wide and has eleven spans. More arches than and other bridge of this type. It has survived two major floods in 1935 and 1965. By 1987 age and traffic had taken its toll and bridge was closed to traffic. In 1996 the City of Fort Morgan and Colorado Dept. of Transportation with a grant from the Colorado Historical Society renovated the bridge. The bridge is now a part of the Riverside Park and is used for pedestrian traffic but could be used for vehicles in emergencies.. To find the coordinates bbb subtract 1716 from the date on the bridge marker.

For more information on the bridge and the Old Fort Morgan visit the newly renovated and expanded Fort Morgan Museum. N 40° 15.139 / W103° 48.059

TO THE CACHE

There are established trails you can use to walk to the cache. You can take the trail starting at the bridge or go to the parking lot at N 40° 15.986 / W103° 47.778 both will get you to the cache. Start by taking the either the north or south trail from the parking lot. The nature area is the home to deer, beaver, wild turkey, Canada Geese, Ducks, other small furry beasts and the occasional Bald Eagle. The distance from the parking lot to the cache is .5 mile as the crow flies. This is a child friendly walk. For more information visit the Fort Morgan Museum at N40 15.135, W103 48.033 or 414 Main St. PLEASE RETURN CACHE TO ITS LOCATION AND HIDE IT AS YOU FIND IT. BEWARE OF WALKERS WHO MAY SEE YOU WITH THE CACHE.

" Happy Trails to You" Roy

Inventory:

06/27/2019 By geo202
Continuing our geotrip through NE and KS to Denver. A quick find. tftf.

06/17/2019 By SonofaLegend
So this one is a did not find for me today. I got off work and decided to try for a cache boy was this one a mistake XD. So long story short I’ll come back another day but don’t try for this one is dress clothes.

03/25/2019 By MathProfessor
Nice little multi hide. Contents are a little bit damp especially on this foggy day. Thanks for a little history and a little walk. TFTC

10/28/2018 By fearthefish
If you want to have a great time, spend a day caching with the lovable herndonrd (aka Captain Cuddles), as there is no other human on this planet that channels fun and joy like he does. When I told him that I wanted to go to Nebraska just so I could take a picture with a sign, he looked at me like I was crazy, which is no different than usual. After much whining and bribing, he agreed to join me provided that he could drive (Read: somebody has control issues). Apparently he was in a good mood because I didn't have to ride in the trunk this time.

But I digress.

This was one of stops on the way back, and it was a nice addition to the trip, since I love a good multi and enjoyed the chance to stretch my legs after all being confined in the car. As per the norm, I did my job and looked in all the wrong spots so that herndonrd could make the find and gloat accordingly. After signing the log and putting everything back in place we went back to the car and we were off to grab another one. Thanks for the fun hide and for your contribution to a great day of cachin' and road trippin'.

P. S. No animals (including humans, aliens, or PayMeCache) were harmed in the writing of this log.

10/28/2018 By herndonrd
This geocacher reported that the container is damaged.

10/21/2018 By Papa Matthias
Lots of fun and a nice hike. Beautiful day with friends.

10/21/2018 By JeepinMoreOns
TFTC! First multi cache! Container and contents were wet, might need some TLC.

09/11/2018 By Anders0n6
Finally after second attempt we found it. Walked right past it the first time. Great hide. TFTC. SL

07/21/2018 By Weatherman64
Out grabbing caches to fill in the Hidden Month's challenge with Penhead63. After one miscalculation, we made the grab. Cache is showing it's age, but is otherwise in good shape. TFTC!

07/21/2018 By penhead63
So happy to make this find, it fills in one of our month/year Hidden spots in the grid. With weatherman64 who originally did one of the math problems wrong!!! Lol yes, he’s an engineer. That took us to the police station. Figured out our error and then drove, parked and made the walk to GZ. Took a little looking but finally made the grab TFTC!

06/20/2018 By TTO2
We are on an 11-day family vacation trip and this was one of few caches my family would allow me to stop for

05/30/2018 By HikingSeal
That was a fun little tour of the town. I think stage two was my favorite. It's funny I've spent the past week complaining about the humidity in Cincinnati. Now that I'm back in 88° dry heat it's still hot. OK it's not as bad as the humidity back in Cincinnati. Thanks for the cache!

PS The last signature on the physical log is from January FYI. See attached picture

I’m road tripping from Salt Lake City, UT to GeoWoodstock in Cincinnati and back. Along the way I’m doing some serious county caching. To keep it interesting I have tried to pick higher favorite caches or at least non-traditionals along the route. Sometimes there just isn’t anything cool that’s not too far out of the way. Guardrail caches and LPCs may not be my favorites, but I am grateful for them to check off a county.

I like to write good logs especially for good caches. Now here’s my dilemma. I used to save all my finds then do all my logging after the trip. That often resulted in blasé logs simply because I don’t remember details after that many miles and caches. With the advent of phone caching, I’ve taken the time to write the cache onsite, right after finding the log. That resulted in much better logs but a lot scheduling problems. I can be a bit verbose. For this trip, I thought I’d try a new approach. I’ve written this template and will send it as soon as I make a find. I may add a word or two to it just to remind me of the cache. Those words were likely be dictated so please excuse interesting autocorrects and many "cash"s instead of "cache"s. Every night I will try to edit my logs to change them from this template to a real log for caches that need an update. In other words if this cache is a guardrail cache or LPC it’s probably not going to get updated. If this is a gadget cache or something else really cool, it will get updated....eventually.

When people send me a cut and paste log or a “TFTC” on a cache I’ve put a lot of effort into, it makes me kind of nuts. So I promise all you cache owners who have put effort into your caches, I will come back and put effort into my logs. I know many of you may not see the edit right away. If you are a paying member over at Project GC, you can set-up notifications for when someone edits a log or attach a photo.

If this is a challenge cache, I posted a note with my qualifications between 4/30 & 5/8/18. If this log is a found log, I’m qualified. If it’s a note, I’ve signed it but I still have some work to do.

Virtuals and Earthcaches I will send answers onsite through the message center.

Whether your cache was an LPC or an involved gadget cache or somewhere in between. I am grateful for it. It helped me check off a county and have some fun along the way. THANK YOU for the cache!


Logged from Cachly
UTAG Member
Podcacher Club Member

Photo

03/25/2018 By mhill4246
Found it
GCD4A3

01/13/2018 By geo.turtle.too
Found the first two in this series a while ago, and finally logged this one today! Took a nice stroll with a friend and her dog. Thanks for a nice adventure! (The container is starting to crack... because of the weather I am sure!) SL, TFTC!

Finding the Cache on a Winter Afternoon

11/25/2017 By okieye
Found it. No problems.

08/14/2017 By littlesoapboxgirl
TFTC! Our first multi-cache and we LOVED the history of Ft Morgan. Beautiful hike along a green trail. Coordinates were spot on and an easy find. Took 1 travel bug and 1 coin to move along in our cache journey.

08/12/2017 By ArkF
Thanks for the fine multi-cache. I always like a little extra to my finds besides just a container. Found both info plaques, though the bridge had a wedding just ending so I had to try to stay out of the way of their pictures. My GPS showed the final on the far side of the river from parking, but I guess it doesn't really know where the river is, because I "crossed" it on dry ground. Found the final in good condition, took a trackable.

08/03/2017 By thegirlsfromPA
We are on a road trip and took time to stop by and pick up the cache.  We started in Denver and will end up there again after 10 days of travel through Colorado, Wyoming, Montana,  North Dakota,  South Dakota and Nebraska. 

After a long day in the car, we needed a walk. That the previous finder, we didn't go the wrong way on the last part. Nice to find an oldie.

Thanks for the fun!

10/24/2016 By NanCycle
Last day of our six-day, six-state trip and heading for home. Stopped specifically for this cache because of its placed date being in February, 2003 Nice walk in the park to the final, but we should have brought our water bottles--pretty parched by the time we got back to the car. Thanks for hiding this cache and maintaining it all these years.

07/12/2016 By AirRaidFan
Working up to the Woodstock event. Love all the old gunslinger hist-o-virts. Tried a few last year but bad weather washed us out.. Better experience this year. TFTC!
Arf!
Louisville, KY

07/04/2016 By tbly
Nice one! Enjoyed the stroll from waypoint 2 to the final and back, though this humidity is a bit more than I am used to at the moment (desert living). Spotted a deer while on the loop back to where I parked. I would have photographed the massive amount of butterflies out enjoying the afternoon, but they are much too quick. Thanks for the multi and the history.

06/19/2016 By AbvAvg
We enjoyed the hunt today and learned some new information about Ft. Morgan. We thought this should be rated higher than a terrain 1. Impossible for someone in a wheelchair to get to the final cache location.

05/21/2016 By yampa58 & Geowife
We enjoyed seeing more scenic places in Ft. Morgan with this cache. We drove by on the highway many years but didn't know about these spots! ! TFTC!