A QUEST FOR JUSTICE
The eleventh Geocache in the Taliaferro County Historical Society’s Movie Mania Geocache Series was created by John Allen and placed online Sunday evening 1/9/2011. This one was really a quest to find since it started snowing in Crawfordville shortly after being activated online. Of course the Flying Eagles from Woodville, GA were not to be denied the honor to be “First to Find”, despite the hazardous weather conditions, they did it again. Here is what they say in their log “We got up Monday morning and found out neither one of us had to go to work , but it was still pouring down snow , and we were a little scared to drive this far for a cache . Tuesday we had to go to work , but when we got home , the roads were already freezing back , so we were still kind of scared to make the trip . Now here it is Wednesday , we get home from work , the roads are already freezing back again . We checked the cache page and no one had log this cache yet. We couldn’t take it any longer, as all you Geocachers understand this feeling. We jumped in the truck and drove about 40 miles round trip at 20 miles per hour. When we got to the cache location. the refrozen ice on top of the snow had gotten real hard by this time . This is a hint that will last only as long as the snow does. As we got about three feet from the cache location , I quit worrying about my footing quite as much in all the excitement of finding a new cache. There is an imprint of a 200 pound, six foot, four inch man , right in front of where the cache is.”
This cache is another Taliaferro County Historical Society Movie Mania cache done by Mr Allen. He is consistently picking old historical churches to hide the treasures. The cache is located near the United Methodist Church in Sandy Cross. The church was built in 1891. While not in use today the building is still representative of the many small community churches in the countryside.
The cache represents the made for TV movie, “Quest for Justice” starring Jane Seymour. It is the story of Hazel Brannon Smith, a Southern newspaper editor and publisher who risked the loss of everything she loved by publishing her perspective of intergration with a steadfast adherence to her editorial duties in the face of great pressure and opposition from segregationists. Ms Smith was, the first American woman awarded the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. At the time she was the editor of the Lexington Advertiser, a Mississippi newspaper that addressed in print the racism in the South. For her activism, Hazel is initially put out of business then, she is asked to produce the alternative newspaper the Mississippi Free Press. Mrs. Hazel Brannon Smith first printed the Mississippi Free Press on her printing press in Lexington, Mississippi. The paper’s audience was primarily African American; however, the Mississippi Free Press claimed it was for all Americans who believed in, “freedom of speech, worship, movement, and freedom from intimidation”.
The Taliaferro County Historical Society has created Geocaches for each of the twelve Movies made in Taliaferro County. Coupling the history of the movie with historical sites in the County has been great fun for the Historical Society members. Now you can join the Movie Mania Quest. Get out and find a Geocache treasure! Each of the Geocaches in the Movie Mania series contains a movie poster key chain. Collect them all.