"Milling" Around Town Mystery Cache

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Ninja Reviewer: The cache appears to be in need of owner attention. I'm temporarily disabling the cache page to give the owner an opportunity to check on the cache, and take whatever action is necessary. Please resolve this situation in a timely manner (i.e., within 30 days) to prevent the cache from being archived for non-responsiveness. If additional time is needed, please post a note of explanation on the cache page (not email).

-Ninja Reviewer
Geocaching volunteer reviewer

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Hidden : 8/6/2008
Difficulty:
2.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

This is my very first cache placement (and a puzzle at that!) so please bear with me! This puzzle cache will take you on a nice little tour of an interesting little town. There is parking at or near each stage, and it is recommended that you drive and park for each stage due to some active railroad tracks in the area that you will need to cross during the tour (hence the difficulty rating). Permission to place this cache was granted by the Graniteville Fire Chief.

The coordinates above will take you to the beginning of your tour (Stage 1). For stages 1-5, you will find answers at specific locations along the tour to complete the coordinates for the following stages and the final cache. For the final stage (6), you will be looking for a cylindrical container about 6 inches long. Please BYOP.

Stage 1: Headquarters
Graniteville dates back to 1845 when William Gregg, an ardent advocate of industrialization in the antebellum South, founded the successful Graniteville Company, the South's first large scale cotton mill, in Horse Creek Valley. His mill town included 90 homes, several boarding houses, six stores, two churches, and a school for the mill workers and their families. As you can see, railroads run up and down and all through the area, which was an essential part of Gregg's industrial dream. The town became known as Graniteville because most of the original buildings were constructed of blue granite from local quarries. Gregg argued that economic domination by the North was best met by Southern industrialization. He gained sufficient support for his own efforts, but was unable to bring about any general change in the agrarian southern economy. Until 1996, Graniteville was the home office and central location of this collection of textile plants in South Carolina and Georgia known as The Graniteville Company. The building in front of you was the main headquarters for the original mill. In 1996, the company was bought out by Avondale Mills, a company which was one of the largest denim manufacturers in the United States. Avondale closed or sold off all of its plants in the area in 2006, unable to recover financially from a train accident in 2005.

***To the left of the building, you will see a tall monument acknowledging William Gregg as founder of the Graniteville Company.
If A= the number of letters in the other person's name on the Gregg monument plus one,
then STAGE 2= N33°34.1A4 W081°48.49A

Stage 2: Horse Power
Horse Creek Valley was the great industrial center of Aiken County with its many textile mills and its two great finishing plants which ranked with the world's best. They are situated on Horse Creek, a twelve mile long creek, which was so called merely because it was frequented by horses during the time Native Americans inhabited the area. Gregg constructed the Graniteville Canal in 1846, using the flow from Horse Creek and Bridge Creek to power his factories.
Here you can see part of Horse Creek, which, in the old days, with its many mill ponds, furnished much of the power for the mills.

***If B=the number of sidewalk blocks along the bridge railing divided by three,
then STAGE 3= N33°34.058 W081°48.4B7

Stage 3: Back to Basics
An integral part of the Graniteville mill town was school, the first one being The Graniteville Academy (located at 103 Canal St., in case you'd like to add it to your tour). Believing that every child should be educated, Gregg made attendance compulsory. He paid the teachers' salaries, bought books, and even paid the families money equal to what the child would be earning in the mill. He provided student transportation to and from school on the same wagon that hauled the cloth to his mill. Before you is Leavelle McCampbell Middle School. Named for a former president of the Graniteville Manufacturing Company, Leavelle McCampbell School housed both the elementary and high school grades during the 1920s. Today, Leavelle McCampbell has been consolidated, integrated, reorganized, and its beautiful old granite and brick building renovated. It serves students in the middle grades of 6th, 7th, and 8th.

***If C= the number of small windows above the front doors of the school minus A,
then STAGE 4= N33°34.C12 W081°48.325

Stage 4: Religion in Revival
In 1847, Gregg offered free building sites to religious groups as long as they agreed to use good architects. Two churches were completed by 1849, a Baptist church and a Methodist church, however the Baptist church burned a few years later. Designed by Charleston architect J.B. White, St. John's Methodist Church was built with the Early Gothic Revival style as an imitation of Westminster Abbey (note the windows). You are standng in front of what is considered to be the oldest church in a Southern Mill Community. As you pass through along Gregg Street, take a look at some of the remaining original mill houses, as well.

***If D= the number of all the red steps on the front side of the church buildings divided by three,
then STAGE 5= N33°33.765 W081°48.D66

Stage 5:Tragedy Strikes
On January 6th, 2005, at around 2:45 in the morning, a Norfolk Southern freight train unexpectedly veered from the main rail line onto a side rail where three locomotives were parked. A violent impact derailed cars into a mangled heap, ripping open a chlorine tank and releasing more than 60 tons of the chemical into the night air. Within minutes, the poisonous green cloud enveloped the town of Graniteville and the surrounding area and poisoned everything in its path. Nine people died, hundreds were injured, and thousands were forced from their homes, some for as long as a month. The people of the town erected a monument in rememberance of those who were affected by the deadliest chemical spill ever to hit U.S. rails, here in the tiny Deep South town of Graniteville, S.C.

***Using the monument,
If E= the chapter number plus the verse number of the quote from the book of John divided by four, and If F= the number of derailed train cars minus ten,
then FINAL STAGE 6 = N33°33.EFC W081°DA.DEB

Good luck!!

Oringinal contents include: a log, a tiger eraser, a FTF prize of $5, some cotton, some pretend blue granite :), a toy train, a metal cross keyring, an Aiken County Public Schools pin, and a Civil War bill.

Info for this cache retrieved from:
http://www.aiken.k12.sc.us/schools/lmms/histofsch.html
http://www.aiken.k12.sc.us/schools/byrdel/history.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graniteville,_South_Carolina
http://src1.cas.sc.edu/dept2/iss/SCNames/index.php?
action=showPage&book=1&volume=7&page=12
http://www.pe.com/digitalextra/metro/trains/graniteville.html

Congrats to tombstone1 for being FTF!!!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Purpx fhz: N+O+P+Q+R+S= gjragl-frira Svany pnpur: Unir n frng naq nqzver gur ybiryl terrarel nyy nebhaq lbh.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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