Take a few moments. Get off Rt. 30 and step out of the car. Just as a cache rests on a low ridge of rocky, wooded land between the two creeks which join to begin the Sandusky River, so does this little park rest on a piece of ground between old Rt. 30 and new Rt. 30 (due to open by 2005), just three miles north of Galion, Ohio. Many drive right by and never notice. Locals have driven by for decades, but in 1997 a local family donated Lowe-Volk Park to the county. A couple of years later, a nature center and parking lot were added, and people began to notice. It would be a shame for you to miss it.

Lowe-Volk Park was Robespierre's Treasure, as well as the treasure of Crawford County beginning in 1997. It’s not a box of trading items; the cache was added in the fall of 2003. There are two catch-and-release fishing ponds; one at the picnic area and one in the tall weeds behind the nature center. The river runs east to west here, through wooded, rocky cliffs where Delaware Indians once camped.

Today is Tour Day. A fraction of Team Cache-Me-If-You-Can, down from Akron, Ohio, is beginning its day at Robespierre's Treasure. The black dog will be along for the early part of the day. He loves this park; he knows it thoroughly in all weather and usually swims in a pool by the footbridge during cache activities. The location will not be revealed here, but Bug NV and FroggieT had the cache in-hand while encouraging Butterfly3 to "keep looking."

For over 150 years, the Ohio country was hotly contested. Several Indian tribes were involved, even Moravian missionaries and their converts. The French claimed it, the English pursued it and the Ohio Company (George Washington and other investors) ached to settle it. Later, a young United States fought for it. By 1782, the French had been vanquished; the Indians were pushed west in Ohio to this Sandusky River area. The British still owned Fort Detroit, and they now aided the Indians against the Americans. The year was marked by a massacre of peaceful natives at the Moravian mission and retaliations.

Col. William Crawford had fought most of his life, and when the Revolutionary War ended he thought to rest. Soon, however, he moved to the western effort. On June 6, 1782, Crawford's volunteer army held back the combined Indian and British force, and that spot is marked by a small monument on Rt. 19 five miles west of Galion and is part of a multi-cache, THE BIG PICTURE. The next day, and, some say, within the boundaries of Lowe-Volk Park and near Robespierre's Treasure, Crawford was captured by the Indians and removed to Tymochtee village in Wyandot County and where he was burned at the stake near Goat6500's Battle Island cache, where you can see Crawford’s other monument. . Just a few hundred feet northeast of Robespierre's Treasure is a very worn monument marking his capture. According to markers in Upper Sandusky (near 2045fan’s cache This Is Your Mission…, Wyandot Indians lasted in Ohio until 1843. Primarily mentioned in the capture of Col. Crawford are Delaware and Mingo tribes.

A few years later, pioneers came to settle. A hundred years after Crawford’s capture, the name of the area now Leesville, Waverly sandstone would be quarried out for over 30 years until the quarry flooded in 1908. The quarry and the local "blue hole" are on private property. The Volk family planted thousands of trees, beginning in the 1940's. When Rt. 598 was completed, "fill" was needed for bridging the Sandusky River, and the front pond resulted. From then until 1997, this park was pasture. The river flowed through private property and was treated decently. The terrain is rugged along the river, difficult for the casual person to access.

Now the park provides good trails, though hilly. It is a nature center, and requires visitors to stay on the paths. The park is host to special events like owl watches with good result. Those who attempt to CITO Lowe-Volk Park usually come out with empty sacks. That's okay; keep trying.

From past visitors:

September 20, 2003 by SerenityNow (1786 found)
Very cute little park. The cache is very clever. Looked for a few minutes before we found it. Nice nature center too! Took two decision dice. Left our signature block, a rubber duckie, and the Hyper-Spinn TB Thanks for the hunt, Tom & Anna Mary

October 20, 2003 by Bantam Yooper (62 found)
Yet another wonderful Robespierre cache ... to all cachers out there: Try to find all of Robespierre's caches ... they're awesome! Stopped by here today for a quick cache. This is a beautiful hike. I'll certainly be returning. Cache is cleverly hidden, as we would expect, and is in a gorgeous spot. There were a lot of hikers on this 75-degree day, so I had a tough time signing the log. Got it done, though. I took a couple coins, and left the Traveling Dodger Fan Travel Bug. I think he wants to head to Chicago, so help him on his way! Thanks for the fun!
Bantam Yooper

November 11, 2003 by Bjorn74 (438 found)
Great spot. I was in Crestline to pick up some eBay stuff. I figured I could get the closest cache and I sure am glad I did. What a fabulous hike to break up three hours of driving in the cold mist. I took some pictures that I'm posting. They aren't from the cache location, but further down the trail. This has to be an incredible place when the leaves are in color.
TNLN: But I did CITO! I took a bag from the Map Station and went looking for trash on my way. This is one of the cleanest places I've been! Somehow, I found a single grape soda can a few hundred feet past the cache. I stuck it in my bag and didn't find anything else. But, the Nature Center was closed for Armistice Day, so I had to leave the bagged can on the doorstep. No trash cans to be found? Hmmm.