The William G. Mather will take us to the northern coast of our state and nation, Cleveland, Ohio, where Cache Owner JoesBar has chained a cache. To something.
Darkening skies over October cornfields trace our trail north. We see ever-larger industrial agriculture absorbing small farmers, as livestock and small fields struggle to produce enough cash, and manufacturing beckons with steady paychecks.
Reaching the Ohio turnpike, we close in on Port Cleveland. Miles of prime lakefront have given rise to epic museums, stadiums, parks and other community spaces.
Our geotrail leads past the Cleveland Browns football stadium, where strategic movements of offense and defense rival the campaigns of generals and foot soldiers on this land in centuries past. Tacklers charge, mimicking the bayonet-driven conquests of those conflicts.
Fine-tuned tournaments define passionate seasons of wins and losses. Injuries pile up, and the wounded, from teenagers to middle-agers, are retired from the battle lines. Every year the draft pulls in new recruits, while folks back home follow with baited breath. The generations of violence brought to this soil slowly metamorphose into contests on the field.
International competitions bring the youngest and best from every nation, vicarious troops for millions of ordinary people. Oblivious to their escape from the ingestion of world wars, humanity lives out another 60 years of their lives.
Our GPS lands for our introduction to Mr. Mather. Upon inheriting an iron-mining company from his father, he operated it for another 50 years, providing steel for countless railroads and two world wars. After work, he kicked back in his $2 million home and gardens.
The 600-foot-long Mather freighter carried bulk cargo all over the Great Lakes, connecting mines with steel manufacturing plants. As fortunes were made, hundreds of jobs rose and fell, striking miners were quashed by the army, and blast furnace leakages spilled into rivers.
The hint suggests that we look for the chain, and we do see quite a bit of chain.
Oh, that chain.
On the way home, a haunting valedictory.
OH Love Of Geocaching 