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Grand Excursion LbNA #8939 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Jun 25, 2004
Location:
City:St. Paul
County:Ramsey
State:Minnesota
Boxes:1
Planted by:Deb Rocks
Found by: thumbodies
Last found:Oct 9, 2007
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFaF
Last edited:Jun 25, 2004
June, 2007, this box is missing. I will try to replace it and make note when done

Summer 2004, Grand Excursion brings together the communities of the upper Mississippi River for a once-in-a-lifetime celebration. The largest riverboat and steamboat flotilla in over a century will follow the 1854 Grand Excursion’s route up the Mississippi River, from the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

To commemorate this exciting event, the Grand Excursion Letterbox has been hidden on an “island” across the river from the location where the boats will land in St. Paul on July 3, 2004. In addition to all the exciting events for the Grand Excursion, there will also be Taste of Minnesota and 4th of July fireworks from this “island”. If you have the time, come for all these exciting events but I wouldn’t try to find the letterbox over the 4th of July weekend. It gets pretty crowded here. Most other times, especially week days, you’ll find this “island” relatively quiet. There are occasionally other popular events that take place; mostly on well publicized weekends.

Parking on the “island” is easy enough when there isn’t something big going on. I recommend that you park on the westerly part of the “island”. You can take Plato Blvd. west from Robert Street till it ends. Take a right where Plato ends, into the parking area for the “island”. If you’ve got time, you can take a ride on a riverboat or eat in a restaurant in one of the stationary riverboats docked at the riverfront side of the “island”.

Clues:

Find the giant rusty red “spider”. Start your quest from his western most leg. Take a reading of 250 degrees and head in this direction until you reach the large sandstone building that lies in this path.

Find the side of the building that faces the river. Walk through a “gateway” that takes you to “steps” leading down to the river. Right before you get to the steps, take a left and follow the concrete path along the river. Keep on the path with the rusty red diagonals.

Go past Padelford Landing and look for a large device used to keep boats stationary, on your left. Take a closer look. From the part that normally rests on the river bed, find a large cottonwood at approximately 190 degrees.

Head towards the tree and keep going right past it in the same direction. You should see a large electric light pole in your path. Keep going until you reach it.

From the light pole, take a reading of 140 degrees and find the closest cottonwood in your path, at this heading. As you head for this tree, you should pass a gated “street” that boats live on, on your right.

Once you’ve reached the tree, take about 3 paces behind it; between the tree and the water. You should find a fallen tree. You will find what you seek behind this fallen tree, towards the middle, under bark and leaves.

Please cover well when you leave. You may want to take the box a little bit away from where you are stamping. The park can be busy at times.

Last, but not least, look up the bluff from where you stand. You may see me with Jo and Tuck waving hello! We walk along this bluff almost every day.