Boilermaker Cache

[+S Keillan]

I haven't been active on the forums in a while, generally returning from a caching malaise that had me mostly inactive for a few months. Anyway, my first post in a while brings some sad news. The Boilermaker Cache, the second oldest geocache in the state of Indiana, has been regretably archived.

 

Given that its hiding spot was demolished some time last October, there's no way that a replacement cache could be put back into place, and no true nearby spots either. (It's open farmland for some distance.) I could have put out another cache several kilometres away, but it just wouldn't have been the same. The only thing that would have been preserved was the waypoint (GCB8).

 

I've fixed up the cache page into something of a memorial to the historic cache. Feel free to visit and leave any memories or thoughts on the cache.

[+Bjorn74]

Nothing says Northern Indiana like a lonely corner in the middle of fields stretching as far as you can see. The winds were strong when we found this after seeing A Prarie Home Companion last year at Purdue. We enjoyed it quite a bit, as it was one of those unexpected gems on a cold overcast weekend.

 

Sorry for your loss.

[+Car54]

Nice job on the cache page! I remember going after this cache and as we kept driving, I looked around at all the corn fields, thinking "no way could a cache be in here". Then we saw the tree. It was also one of our granddaughter's first caches and she had great fun looking through it and making her trade. We're sorry to see it go, but I think you made the right decision.

 

Mrs. Car54

[+CYBret]

It seems like Boilermaker was on my PQ forever. It was the oldest cache within my closest 500, so every week there it was at the top of the list on Plucker. I kept telling myself, "Someday I'm going to go get it." I finally nabbed it in the fall of 2005 on a trip north to get my 600th. It wasn't quite what I had envisioned, but it was still pretty cool.

 

I've recommended Boilermaker to several people over the years telling them, "you gotta do this one." It's a shame to see it go. There was a lot of history there.

 

Bret

 

P.S. Thanks for the fun logs on my caches this week, SK and Car54. I've had a lot of comments from people who have read them.

[+S Keillan]

It seems that the Boilermaker Cache has risen from the dead. Deermark came up last weekend and performed some feat of arcane magicks and resurrected the cache from oblivion. As a result, I'm letting him adopt the cache as it's his opus at this point.

[+RPW]

Let's see. A bison tube in the midst of no-where being maintained by a person 100+ miles away. Sounds like a winner of a cache.

 

Now I'm all in favor of keeping up tradition but there are times when things should simply be let go. That old football team full of memories moving off to a new city (Baltimore Colts, anyone?) The old grade school being made into a community center. The family Christmas holiday once held at Grandma and Grandpa's but now hosted by sister Sally. If it wasn't for change then we would never see the new. If it wasn't for the old moving on then we would never have the new becoming old and venerated.

 

If was anyone beside Deermark doing the maintaining then I could see this rapidly falling apart. But at least we know that he'll keep on top of the email logs and will occassionally get up here to change out the paper log or replace the tube when it goes missing. But still ... I think that the Boilermaker cache should have be left to rest in peace. It was a good cache in a nice old tree. Now it is just a tube on the ground.

[+CYBret]

I'm sorry, but I've got to agree. Why not start a new cache and call it "In Memory of Boilermaker?" That way you could honor the memory of this legendary cache without breaking the tradition of what this cache was when it was placed.

 

it's like replacing an A.P.E. cache with a bison tube. The cache itself was an icon...let it be an icon.

 

Bret

[+S Keillan]

I've hesitated to say anything before, but now that RPW and CYBret have chimed in, but I too am in total agreement. I could have kept ownership of the cache, but I have washed my hands of it. My analogy would be like the Old Man on the Mountain, the one that's on the New Hampshire State Quarter. Despite their best efforts to keep it in place, it ultimately collapsed to rubble, and while the state could spend globs of money to erect a replica, it just wouldn't be the same.

 

In any case, I can understand his reasoning. It's hard to let go of something that has that much history to it. I simply feel that it should be confined to history rather than have this undead impostor.

[+Deermark]

I will always welcome opinions on my caches. Being the history buff that I am I just could let this one go. Bison tube was definitely the wrong description. It is still a micro but a much larger container. It beats a Walmart special. I tried to honor the cache with a different type hide. Don't knock it until you do it. Luckily I will not have to drive the 200+ miles to check on it. Indigo's GEO911 is working once again. I have a cacher in the area that will maintain it for me. She wishes to remain unknown so I will keep it that way. Sorry for those I offended but many thanks to those that have e-mailed me with congratulations. Such is the way of life.

 

Deermark

[+SixDogTeam]

I will always welcome opinions on my caches. Being the history buff that I am I just could let this one go. Bison tube was definitely the wrong description. It is still a micro but a much larger container. It beats a Walmart special. I tried to honor the cache with a different type hide. Don't knock it until you do it. Luckily I will not have to drive the 200+ miles to check on it. Indigo's GEO911 is working once again. I have a cacher in the area that will maintain it for me. She wishes to remain unknown so I will keep it that way. Sorry for those I offended but many thanks to those that have e-mailed me with congratulations. Such is the way of life.

 

Deermark

 

No good turn goes unpunished, Mark....

[+Deermark]

Thanks Dog.

 

Deermark

[+RPW]

Yesterday, en route to a Super Bowl party (go Colts!) I stopped by the revived cache. As would be expected from Deermark, the cache is well done -- a wide bison tube plus a special "extra" as a bonus. Never-the-less to me it simply isn't the same cache.

 

I fondly remember way back when Kelly and I first found the cache almost three years ago. As we drove towards the cache we could see it from 1/2 mile away -- our anticipation mounted as we got ever closer. (see

 

my picture or the web page for idea of how isolated that one tree was from the rest of the indiana corn/soy fields. I also fondly remember the race that my wife's and my twin travel bugs had from San Diego back to the Boilermaker cache. It was back and forth for a while on which TB was crossing the country the quickest. Hers got close but then was re-routed down south. My TB got kidnapped by an anti-Purdue zealot but eventually did make it to the cache only to disappear again into never-never-land.

 

Ah memories! And certainly history -- we should never forget it. I would have preferred, like CyBret mentioned, a new cache memorializing the old Boilermaker cache instead this reincarnation of a log-only cache on yet another Indiana country road. But I suppose I should have come up with that idea several months ago when Kelly and I were out unsuccessfully hunting for a replacement spot for the Boilermaker cache. Anyway it 'taint my cache and so I'll just accept it for what it has become.

 

-- Rick

Edited February 6, 2007 by RPW

[+Deermark]

Love you Rick.

 

Deermark

[+Car54]

I agree with the candy heart from Illi NOISE.

 

Mrs. Car54

[Rupert2]

I say do it! Mark is a very easy guy to talk to/work with.

 

I also bet that he would not be too disappointed to give up maintaing a cache 200 miles aways either.

[+RPW]

I say do it! Mark is a very easy guy to talk to/work with.

 

I also bet that he would not be too disappointed to give up maintaing a cache 200 miles aways either.

 

In a private email with Deermark, I have offered to put out a memorial cache near that location if he ever decides to give up the Boilermaker cache. I do not wish to pressure him in doing so. He has good reasons for keeping the BM cache active. I do not agree with the reasons but I do respect them. As in any good democracy we have "agreed to disagree."

 

I have had my say in this matter and will now drop out of the topic unless something really interesting comes up.