Caching in Savannah 1/20/2008

We left this morning about 8:30 to drive into Savannah for a morning of caching seeing as we figured it would be a little easier than trying to do it on a week day. We started out with a cache in Emmet Park and the Beacon Range Light in the park. It was erected in 1858 by the United States House Board. Its original function was to assist vessels navigating the Savannah River. The light is an ornamented cast iron shaft, originally painted a dark bronze green and it's about 25 to 30 feet high giving a red light. The light was turned off during WW2.
Then it was on to the cache The Echo Chamber which is a spot on the pier where you can stand and say something and it echoes. It is the strangest thing to stand there and whisper and hear it echo all around you.They say it has to do with the formation of bricks around you and the sound barriers from the water and the buildings. Great cache and WEIRD.
On to a multi cache also along the riverfront and we were able find it quickly as it was very cool and windy along the river. On the way back to the car we stopped and Mom grabbed a cup of coffee to warm her up.
Then on up to Bay St and a virtual cache in one of the small parks that had to do with busts of American heroes on a wrought iron fence around a fountain. We walked down to the next park and found another cache Pitchin a Tent where British General James Edward Oglethorpe pitched a tent on his first night in GA. A curved granite bench was erected in 1908 to mark the spot.
Then we did a puzzle cache that was put out by an engineer and it took us to several historic locations to gather information to find the next coords. This took us about an hour to do as the traffic picked up quite a bit.
Then on to the First Girl Scout Headquarters for a cache that had to do with a statue that was in the garden of the house. We finished off the day with 2 micro caches in small parks in the downtown area. We just can't tell you how many many historic things we saw today. Old houses and buildings, historic markers, old churches, cemeteries, an old five and dime store, parks and monuments. It would take you a month of Sundays to see it all and read all the markers in the historic section. We had a great time and got back about 1:30, had lunch and got ready to watch the NFL games. Hope you are all well and we love you all very much.

The pictures are 1-3 Colonial Park Cemetery, 4 A Historic House, 4-5 Historic Waterfront, 6 Riverboat, 7 Silver's 5 & 10c Store, 8 (on left) Steamship Fountain, 8 (on right) Old Harbor Light, 9 Cotton Exchange, 10 Echo Chamber.

The Colonial Park Cemetery was founded in 1750 and closed for burials in 1853. Many famous Revolutionary War heroes are buried here. General Lachlan McIntosh, Major General Nathanael Greene and Button Gwinnett are buried there. There are also many ordinary citizens there with over 700 that died in the Great Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1820 buried there. Even though there are only 600 burial markers still standing in the cemetery there are over 10,000 people buried in it.