GEOCACHING POTPOURRI--

MOHAWK DAM; An impoundment without any water

The top photo shows the downstream side of Mowhak Dam near Nellie in Coshocton County Ohio.  Invisible on the far right of the photo, the Walhonding River flows through the dam toward it's confluence with the Tuscarawas River in Coshocton where it forms the Muskingham River which, itself, joins the Ohio River at Marietta.

The dam is inert until flood conditions arise then, its gates are mostly closed restricting the Walhonding's flow and holding the water to help alleviate damaging downstream flooding.  The dam was built in the 1930s and joined 13 others in the Muskingham Watershed Conservancy District; all sharing the mission of flood control.

It's record year of flood control occurred in 2005 when it held back water to the depth of 80 feet behind the dam structure until area flood conditions improved.

The lower photo (above) shows the dry side of the dam as it usually appears when flood conditions do not exist.  For miles upstream the land is cultivated normally.

I once drove through the impoundment area after there had been considerable flooding .  By then, the water was gone but the land looked like a moonscape.  Everywhere, as far as you could see trees, crops, fences, township roads, etc., were covered with the drab gray color of dried mud; residue from the just ended flood awaiting the cleansing of the next rainfall.

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I got reacquainted with Mohawk during a recent geocaching outing in Coshocton County.  Speaking of confluences, on another recent cache outing Sue and I experienced a point of confluence where lines of latitude and longitude appear only as whole integers--with all zeroes to the right of the degrees indicated.

This occurs only 866 times in the US, 11 of them in Ohio.  (Remember to click on the smaller image to see a larger view.)

In this case the specific location was in a field west of the truck stop at the intersection of I-71 and Ohio 83 near Lodi.  The debris on the glass surface of our GPS unit was chaff from the brier field we negotiated to get to this very precisely defined location.

You may note the numerics N XX.XXX, W 082 XX.XXX in the little photo.  That is the decimal equivalent of degrees, minutes and seconds; the common notation of latitude and longitude used in geocaching.

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A popular place for geocache locations is around cemeteries--where cachers are respectful of the local rules and avoid any disrespect whatsoever to grave sites.  In fact, I often find myself repairing the medallions and flags that are askew on veteran's markers.

It also is interesting to simply pause and reflect on the older grave markers.  This one pictured, for example, marks the grave of Samuel Ziegler who died April 15, 1843 at the age of 82 years, 2 m(onths) and 7 days which means, of course, he was born in February 1761.

That was 28 years before George Washington became president.

In the lower photo, taken on a more recent geocaching outing in a cemetery on Middletown Rd., south of Crestline, this person died in 1845, some 167 years ago.  His stone commemorates his passing at an unknown age.

Then, a tree near his grave site germinated, grew to its massive size--and died as well.  Today only its stump remains yet still seeming to embrace its neighboring tombstone, while yet still another of life's cycles appears in the form of newly germinated plants in the foreground.