GCJ7A1 Douglas #19 SpringHouse
Type: Mystery | Size: Micro | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Jim Reeb @ | Hide Date: 04/14/2004 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N39° 20.846 W104° 41.912 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 19

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This is number nineteen in a series of historical points within Douglas County Colorado.

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This geocache is quite close to the Russellville geocache.

During the late 1860's and the early 1870's, before the coming of the railroad, A. Jacobs & Company ran a tri-weekly stage via Russellville, superintended by Dug Ayers. They provided fierce competition for the Santa Fe Stage Line. As the Iron Horse lapped up the miles from the Missouri River, the stagecoach era passed into history, an endearing and exciting chapter in pioneer annals.

By the late 1890's, William Green Russell's original camp, also had passed into history. Nothing was left but some old foundations of cabins rotting away, and the remnants of a house that had been built and kept as a hotel and stage station. Today, near this old hotel site, where in the mind's eye you can visualize the waiting stagecoach, stands a spring house. Its waters cool the milk, meats, produce, and numerous "beverages" just as it did so many years ago. A beautiful apple tree spreads its protective branches over the spring house proclaiming the untiring efforts of those first pioneers who came to Russellville and made it their home.

The Spring house was built in 1862 and the apple tree is possibly the oldest in Douglas county.

There are two attached pictures. One of an unknown date and one quite recent. Use the above coordinates to get you within 100 feet of the cache location and then use the recent photo to position yourself at the location from which the photo was taken. The cache is within five feet of that location. This is along a road so there is no need to go on private property. Parking could be tricky.

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Thanks Geocaching Colorado for the Geocache of the Month Award, as the second series to win!

Additional Waypoints

02/02/2019 By peace love pi
Out working on the 360º Challenge with lasouthpaw. We had cached near here recently and remembered the coordinates and hints being accurate and we found this to be true today - thanks for that! TFTC! Excellent puzzle cache. This gets a favorite.

02/02/2019 By lasouthpaw
Yes, it was here that I saw the sneaky llamas that looked like elk. Peace love pi went one way and I went the other... I was the one who got lucky and made the find.

Peace love pi and I headed out this morning to grab some rays for the 360 degree challenge. This is where the real fun began, as we hit selected caches on two power trails around Castle Rock. The snow is melting just enough to make the road muddy in spots. We were lucky that it wasn't too bad, but my car will get a bath tomorrow! Both of us are recovering from being sick and there was a lot of snow on the ground, so I am really shocked we found as much as we did. We only found a couple entombed in ice and I managed to confuse some llamas for elk, and of course we had a great time! Sorry for the cut and paste logs, but we found a lot in a short amount of time and I didn't take notes. Signed logs as pi paw or paw pi, I can't remember. Thank you for the good coordinates, good hints, and the smiley! Find #3174.

08/03/2018 By FJ8
Awesome

08/03/2018 By OurBradyBunch8
Love this kind of history cache
GCJ7A1

07/21/2018 By irid3sc3nt
Found with both halves of EasternGirls. It's too bad it was all on private property, including the nearby sign on the rock which I could only read part of with binoculars. Still, I liked the history lesson and I'm glad the property owners haven't torn it down. There were three alpacas chewing on the tree and looking super cute. Fav!

07/21/2018 By EasternGirls
Out with Irid3sc3nt and the other half of EasternGirls today. This one was another great Jim Reed history lesson. We loved the nearby plaque that was fenced off as well. Irid3sc3nt searched her car for her sons binoculars so we could read it. I wish the gate was open so we could have got close to it. The llamas nearby were fun to watch. Because of the heat I have been unable to go caching like I wanted to. What is a girl to do when she needs 27 more caches to get the souvenir? Call her caching buddy, and say let's go! Most we found need maintenance. It seems one cacher just shoved in a plastic bag and log with their name on it no matter if there was a log in it or not. We got done 27 caches in 1 hour and 45 minutes which was awesome. TFTC
Llamas by the Springhouse

05/30/2018 By herndonrd
Out working off the CO's Douglas Cty series. TFTC!

04/19/2018 By Mrs_HiDude
What a great day to be out caching with HiDude_98 and CuteLilFuzzyMonkey. Our cache mobile was huge and was like being in a bus, which was great for rome inside, but getting in and out was a challenge and tiring, especially with the wind blowing those big Yukon doors like it was. We had a great time in the area going for so many great caches. TFTC. SL.

Mrs_HiDude

04/19/2018 By HiDude_98
We came out early for Mensa Mindgames and had a day to get out caching with CuteLilFuzzyMonkey. It was so very windy today. Day started off quite cold but by the end we were quite warm. Just perfect weather really for caching. TFTC. SL.

04/19/2018 By CuteLilFuzzyMonkey
Glad we ended up doing this last minute. Every time we get together we knock it out of the park. Sweet day of caching! Thanks TFTC!

02/28/2018 By gampa&gamma
Nice morning for caching, so we went after a few caches near Russellville Road that we haven't found yet. Wandered around until the photo matched up and soon had the container in hand. Thanks for keeping this older cache alive.

11/28/2017 By Rohatx
Quite entertaining and a very picturesque site! Fav!