Freedom Falls

Printer Version   Spy on this Cache

Picture clues below!

Hidden On: 28 Mar 2004
Waypoint (Landmark): N012BE
Open Cache:  Non-commercial use only
Cache type:  Normal
Cache size:   Normal

Difficulty:  (easy)
Terrain:  (moderate)

Misc:

Comments:

This cache area is a local favorite. The Rockland
Iron Furnace is here. This furnace, built in 1832 by Andrew McCaslin, is one of
the best preserved stacks in Western Pennsylvania. It is situated about 100
yards below one of the most beautiful waterfalls that you will ever see. The
millrace and wheel pit are almost still intact.



An old newspaper account tells that Andrew McCaslin loaded a
barge with pig iron from the furnace and started for Pittsburgh with his wife
and several other persons. A few miles downstream the barge overturned in some
rapids, and McCaslin and his wife were drowned. Later the furnace was operated
by Rockwell, Dempsey and Week, William Speer and E. W. and H. M. Davis. The
Davis brothers operated the plant until it was blown out in 1854.



Go explore the furnace, and swim under the falls! The area is
pretty popular, so please use caution, and don't let any muggles find out where
the cache is hidden. You may want to skip straight to the spoiler, because in
this deep, heavily wooded valley, you will get terrible satellite reception. I
could only get a 40 ft accuracy when I took my coordinates.



This is a good Cache-in Trash-out candidate. If you can
bring a garbage bag, and remove some beer bottles, it would be appreciated.

Cache is in a black ammo box. Take your picture if
you wish, and sign the logbook! Thanks for visiting!

Clues:    decode

• Spoiler 
  Gurer ner gjb ynetr ybtf nybat gur cngu< arkg gb n gnyy fghzc> Ybbx nobhg % srrg qbja uvyy sebz gur fbhgurea raq bs gur " ybtf> Pnpur vf uvqqra haqre fznyy ebpx bireunat

Pictures:

 Photo 1

I don't what "emjoying" is but I know Quest Master was doing it. Thanks for hiding another great cache for us to find on epic adventure kayaking the Allegheny. We met some cachers, CITO'd a bunch and took some nice pictures. I guess we were totally oblivious to the furnace because I did not see it.
QM cleaned up the cache for you. I traded nothing. Thanks again, Ian!

I came up this way with D@nim@l to kayak the Allegheny from Kennerdell to Emlenton and we did some geocaching too. We picked off some of the ones along the river including "Pioneers Petroglyph" on Saturday and went out Sunday to do this one plus a few others including "Porterfield Iron Furnace" which ended up being the grand finale.

There were some folks camped out below the falls enjoying a little freedom and we ran into another cacher as were were trying to determine the best place to park. It was a short hike down into this pretty spot which reminds me of the swimming hole and waterfall at the final stage of my "Liston School Road" geocache. We got distracted emjoying the scenery and taking pictures so it took us awhile before we got around to the business of finding the cache. The other cacher informed us that he had already found it by then so it was a simple matter to look back from whence he came to figure out where it was hidden. We cleaned it out a bit and signed in.

Thanks again, Ian, for hiding some really great caches up this way so that we could enjoy a few choice spots that we otherwise could not have found.

Johnny

[Modified 2008-08-12 10:32:06]

Out grabbing a couple of caches with Nessie247 and Evil Benchmark Hater.

This was one of two caches I had on the list for the day. We parked on the road and headed down to the furnace to take pictures and climb it. There were a few teenage muggles in the area so we just spent a bit longer playing at the furnace while waiting for them to leave. Eventually they took off so we headed over to the falls.

I was still taking pictures when I realized that Nessie was gone. I spotted her sitting off by herself and figured that she had already found the cache. EBH and I headed over to where she was to find it ourselves. We signed the log and headed back down to the falls to play around a bit more and take a few more pictures.

Finally we headed up to the top of the falls to relax for bit longer before heading off to Umbrella Rock. This is a spectacular spot that I may never have found without geocaching. This hide gets a well-earned spot on my favorites list.

No Trade - TFTC - Great Hide.

- Rev Mike

The pics of the grass and ferns are really nice, but once the popup, I can't make heads or tails of the story on the cache page.