2019-03-08: A Packed Geocaching Roadtrip Returning from Minnesota to Texas: Day 2 in MN, SD, NE, and KS

Hey everyone! I'm glad you made it back to check in on our progress. If you're just joining us, I had a fly in / fly out business trip and turned it into a week long geocaching roadtrip! I recruited my friend and fellow geocacher CuteLittleFuzzyMonkey (CLFM) to go along for the ride. He also did the cache planning and route navigating for the trip.

To catch up to where we are now:

Day 1: Texas to Minnesota in TX & OK

Day 2: Texas to Minnesota in OK, KS, & MO

Day 3: Texas to Minnesota in NE, IA, & MN

Day 1: Minnesota to Texas still in MN

So today we started out in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Checking out of the hotel at sunrise, our first stop was the parking lot to grab a simple LPC (GC62YJN).

Driving southbound, we stopped in Willmar, MN for our next cache to claim a find in Kandiyohi County. It was the Point Lake Travel Bug Hotel geocache (GCXZ87). This was one cache that I'm glad we're here in the winter with sub-freezing temperatures. While the geocache was hidden among the trees on the bank of the lake, the lake itself was frozen over with ice and snow! Being a Floridian / Texan, this was finally an opportunity to "walk on water." We took turns walking out onto the frozen lake and taking a photo.

Next up was a quick park & grab geocache (GC7AEPM) in Clara City, MN to claim a find in Chippewa County.

Then there was the Tri-State tri-corner virtual geocache (GC8809). Even though this monument sits on the corner of Minnesota, South Dakota, and Iowa, technically the coordinates are in South Dakota. This was my second tri-state cache in already this year! This one was much colder. Stepping out from the warm GeoJeep, I didn't feel like putting my heavy jacket back on. There was also a traditional cache placed there as well (GC41H35). So it was a 2fer location!

Our next geocache and another virtual (GCFBF1) was along US-18 on the eastside of Canton, SD. There are three roadside historical markers concerning this area. The one the cache focuses on was about the Norwegian immigrants and skiing. Since I don't want to give away the answers, I'll tell you what one of the other historical markers says: The Hiawatha Asylum For Insane Indians.

"Receiving Congressional appropriations in 1899, the Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians was the second federal mental hospital and the first dedicated to American Indians. The first patient arrived in 1902, and through 1934, more than 370 patients –ages two to eighty, from fifty tribes nationwide – lived here. Patients did domestic and agricultural work onsite, were occasionally shown to paying visitors, and underwent treatment with methods later deemed outdated and dehumanizing. From 1929 to 1933, federal inspectors found intolerable conditions, inadequate staffing, several sane patients kept by force, and numerous other abuses. In 1933, John Collier, the newly appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs, ordered the asylum closed. G. J. Moen, with the Canton Chamber of Commerce, filed an injunction to keep the asylum open, but it was overturned in federal court. Many patients were discharged and those who still needed care were sent to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Washington, D.C. The major buildings used by the asylum have since been demolished. The Hiawatha Asylum cemetery, where at least 121 patients were buried in unmarked graves, is located between the 4th and 5th fairways of the Hiawatha Golf Club. In 1998, the cemetery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Making our way down to Lincoln, Nebraska, our next two virtual geocaches (GCC963, GCB88C) were located at the Wyuka Cemetery. One cache was to recognize Albert Gordon MacRae (1921 – 1986) was an American actor, singer and radio / television host, who appeared in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma!

The other virtual was for an infamous 1950's serial killer. Inspiring the films "The Sadist" (1963), "Badlands" (1973), "Kalifornia" (1993), "Natural Born Killers" (1994), and "Starkweather" (2004). "A Case Study of Two Savages," a 1962 episode of the TV series Naked City, was also inspired by the Starkweather killings. More recently a "Criminal Minds" episode portrayed a newlywed killing spree very similar to the crimes of 19 year old Starkweather and his 14 year old girlfriend Fugate.

Also in Lincoln, NE was another virtual cache at the Lincoln Children's Zoo (GCGJQ1). The cache is highlights the Dakota Age Sandstone which is said to be 130 million years old.

South of Lincoln out in very rural Odell, NE is our next virtual geocache called "Oketo Cut Off" (GC8CCE). I'll give you much of the description from the historical marker without giving away the answers for the cache. During the 1860's, stagecoaches passed near here along the Oketo Cutoff. The cutoff diverged from the Ft Leavenworth to Ft Kearney Military Road northeast of Marysville, Kansas angled northwest to cross the Big Blue River near Oketo, KS and passed through the Otoe Indian Reservation just south of Odell. The cutoff rejoined the main trail between Steele City and Dillar, NE.

The stagecoach company owner, who had the government contract to carry mail and passengers from the Missouri River to California, ordered the cutoff laid out producing a shorter, better road and bypassing Marysville after the town refused to improve the Military Road. Although his coaches used the Oketo cutoff, freighters and other travelers continued to follow the Military Road which had been popular since the 1840's. After only a few months he abandoned the cutoff.

This metal sculpture was there along with the historical marker to recognize this historical trail. Kinda hard to see as it was already dark by the time we arrived.

Well it's late and it's dark out. However even if we wanted to call it a day and stop geocaching, we're out in the middle of nowhere and there's no hotel to be found anyway! So we keep going and have now dropped down into Kansas.

Just north of Concordia, KS, is our next target at the "Kansas POW Camp" virtual cache (GC4CAF). During World War II, 300,000 German Prisoners of War were interred in the United States. Three larger camps were located in Kansas, near Salina (Camp Phillips), at Fort Riley, and just outside Concordia, Kansas. Construction of Camp Concordia began in February, 1943 and the POW camp was turned over to the US Army on May 1, 1943. At its peak Camp Concordia had 4,027 Prisoners, over 800 soldiers and 179 civilian Employees.

Camp Concordia had 304 buildings including a 177 bed hospital, fire department, warehouses, cold storage, and officers club, and barracks, mess halls & administrative buildings for both the German POWs and American soldiers. All of the prisoners at Camp Concordia were members of the German Army. Most were captured in Africa, and the first POWs came from Rommel's Afrika Korps. Only the enlisted POWs worked, most of them on farms, but some worked on the railroad or in the ice plant.

Camp Concordia officially closed on November 8, 1945. Many of the buildings were torn down and others were moved. Some are still serving as homes in Concordia. The only structures remaining at the original location are Guard Post 20, a ware house, some stone walls, the officers club, a few foundations, and the tower which once supported a 100,000 gallon water tank. A two story stone guard tower has been reconstructed and pictured below.

There was one more virtual geocache we got that night before calling it quits. It was for the "Boston Corbett Dugout" (GCFF36). Along this rural Kansas road you will find a small monument which has been erected as a historical marker near the location of a Dugout once owned by Boston Corbett. Boston Corbett was an Army Sergeant who was with a detachment of soldiers searching for John Wilkes Booth. When they caught up with Booth, Corbett was credited and later discharged from the Army for the shot that killed Booth. It seems that Corbett made a spectacular shot through a crack in some barn siding, however Corbett was discharged for failing to follow orders in the shooting.

After being discharged, Corbett homesteaded in Kansas and made this dugout his home for awhile. The eccentric man had a run in with the local sheriff (after showing some local children the business end of his pistol) and through some sympathetic friends he landed a job at the state capital. After an incident where he displayed his 38 at the capital he was sent to the state insane asylum, which he quickly escaped from. He made his way to a friends house and was last seen jumping a train. There is no record of what happened to him after that.

Now getting to and from this last geocache was an adventure of its own! This rural Kansas farmland dirt road was now slushy mud with the melting snow. We were in 4x4 mode for several miles slipping and sliding. It was pitch black with no lights anywhere in site on the horizon. We had limited cell phone service and running low on gas. All we could see was the path before us from the headlights. I was doing my best to stay down the center of the road cause I wasn't sure if under the clean snow on the sides was a ditch. I knew that for the most part, my tires were spinning faster than we were moving! Traction was coming and going at best. I just knew that as long as I was moving forward, I did NOT want to ease off the gas.

After about 20-30 minutes at a slow pace, we finally made it out to a paved road. Now we can finally stop worrying about get stranded out in the middle of nowhere! We made our way to US-24 and followed it to Clay Center, KS. There we finally found a gas station and was able to take a look at the Jeep. I thought it would be covered in mud more than it was. I guess being the wet slushed snow blew off the last 15 or miles.

Still no hotel worth staying at, we continued east over to Manhattan, Kansas. There we were able to find a decent place to finally call it a day about 11 PM, a LONGGGGGG DAY!

Come back tomorrow and see how far we get. Do we make it back home to Texas or not? What other sights to we bring to you? You'll just have to wait and see.

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2017-04-17: Judge Roy Bean, an Old Fort, Cemeteries, and the Pecos River

Well our weekend is over and we drove back home along the Texas / Mexico border. Before leaving Eagle Pass, we drove around town checking out some of the historical spots.

Our first stop was down along the border at Fort Duncan. A temporary post called Camp Eagle Pass was established at the start of the Mexican War in 1846 by Captain Sidney Burbank with Companies A, B, and F of the First United States Infantry. In November 1849, the post was renamed Fort Duncan, honoring Col James Duncan, a hero of the Mexican War. The fort consisted of a storehouse, two magazines, four officers quarters, a stone hospital, in addition to quarters for enlisted men. (The red brick building above was the hospital.)

The fort served as a frontier outpost near the trail of California emigrants; a base of operations against hostile Lipan Apache Indians. In 1851 it became the headquarters of the First Infantry. By 1856 the garrison included units of mounted rifles and first artillery. Abandoned in May 1859, the post was re-garrisoned by Robert E. Lee in March 1860 because of border assaults by Juan N. Cortina, desperado of the area. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the fort was again abandoned only to be occupied later as "Rio Grande Station", by Confederate forces.

In 1861, Fort Duncan was re-garrisoned by the 9th Infantry and headquarters company of 41st Infantry under Col William R. Shafter. Seminole-Negro Scouts, organized here on August 16, 1870, played a large part in ridding Western Texas of Indians. After 1883, the post declined in importance; known as Camp Eagle Pass.

Fort Duncan played a part in aviation history when the first military cross-country flight, from Fort McIntosh in Laredo, landed here in 1911. Its use as a training camp continued during World War I. Mexican border troubles in 1916 again brought reoccupation.

By 1932 the Army abandoned the post. In 1938, the fort property was purchased by the city of Eagle Pass, for use as a Park and Recreation area. The infantry barracks were leased by the Local Council of Boy Scouts.

In 1939 the barracks became the Fort Duncan Country Club and remained as such except during World War II when it was also an officers club for the Eagle Pass Army Air Force Advanced Flying School.

After walking around the fort, we drove north a few blocks to the downtown area looking for the post office. We didn't need the post office, but I had read about an interesting spot on the Find-A-Grave website. This spot, at Rio Grande and Monroe in Eagle Pass, is approximately the site of the first city cemetery here. For some reason, after the 1880's the cemetery was abandoned. It was later developed on and paved over, effectively destroying it. During the construction of a post office nearby in the 1950's, a tombstone was discovered, as well as several graves.

We never did find it though. I wasn't thinking that the current Google search for post office was a different post office from the 1950's. It wasn't until I looked the website again and re-reading the description that we were a few blocks away. Maybe next time passing through we'll find it.

From there we drove over to Shelby Park along the Rio Grande River. The park is mostly used by those leaving their cars on the Texas side and walking across the International Bridge into Piedras Negras. There were also about a half dozen border patrol agents getting ready to launch two airboats for patrol. The photo below looks over into Mexico and the bridge would be located off frame to the left.

Well now it was time to finally hit the road and put some miles behind us. We still had almost five hours of driving with 10 Geocaches and some sites to see along the way. Driving north along US-277 we found three quick caches: one at a cemetery (GC4N23X) and two roadside caches (GC29WHF and  GC35ZC8), before arriving in Del Rio for lunch.

Westbound on US-90, our next cache was the Ye Olde 4-Wheeler (GC36XP2) which brought me to stop and capture a photo of this old west wagon before it completely fell apart.

Next was another cemetery cache (GC3B4NE) in Comstock. In 1882 and 1883, the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railroad built track through Val Verde County and the town was established as a station and named for John B Comstock, a railroad dispatcher. The graves date back to 1883, but there were three that really caught my attention. No stories behind them. It's just the emotion and photo opportunity they gave me. Like this first one of Lucy Denmead who couldn't escape death in 1902, or did she?

Next cache (GC5N4E2) was at the rest area where US-90 crosses the Pecos River. I once passed through here 10 years ago while I used to drive an 18-wheeler, long before this rest area was built. Back then I had to park on the shoulder. The only thing I do remember was the remains of the old highway which ran down towards the river to the original bridge built in 1923 and destroyed by floodwaters in 1954. The current Pecos High Bridge is 1310 feet long and 273 feet above the water, and is the highest highway bridge in Texas.

At this southern end of the Pecos River it empties into the Rio Grande just a half mile down.

Just down the road was another cache (GC2NZHP) and another bridge. These two bridges cross Eagles Nest Creek Canyon just north of the Rio Grande River.

In nearby Langtry was our next cache (GCK9CH) and someplace I've wanted to stop for a long time, the "Law West of the Pecos." In 1882 the lawlessness was so bad that the railroad asked for help from the Texas Rangers. The closest legal authority was in Fort Stockton over 100 miles away. With the blessing of the Rangers and the railroad a proprietor of a store housed in a tent in Vinagaroon was appointed as the first Justice of the Peace in Pecos County (now Val Verde County) August 2, 1882.

Roy Bean never one to stand on ceremony tried his first case the week before the appointment. In 1883 the judge moved his business and his court to Langtry, Texas. There he built the Jersey Lilly Saloon, Court Room and Pool Hall. Some legends cite Bean as being a "hanging" judge, but there is no record that he ever sentenced a man to be hanged. The only law book the Judge ever owned was the 1879 Revised Statues of Texas. Occasionally he actually used it.

The "Judge" had great admiration and fascination for the famous English actress Lillie Langtry. She was internationally know as the "The Jersey Lily so he named his establishment after her. A sign painter commissioned (for food and drink) to letter the sign misspelled "Lily".

One of the most colorful stories about the Judge is true. He successfully promoted the Maher - Fitzsimmons prize fight in February 1896. It was staged in defiance of U.S. and Mexico law on a sand bar in the middle of the Rio Grande River.

A couple more quick caches along the way home and that was the end of another adventurous weekend of exploring the history of the Old West Texas. Thanks again for stopping by and following along in our adventures. Until next time, happy trails.