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Queeny Park Queens Rule! - Tomyris LbNA #22207

Owner:Fairy Princess Fiona
Plant date:May 14, 2006
Location:
City:St. Louis
County:St. Louis
State:Missouri
Boxes:1
Found by: beepbeep1234
Last found:Mar 27, 2022
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Last edited:Mar 17, 2019
The "Queeny Park Queens Rule!" Series - Tomyris.

This is the second in the series.

NOTICE: The Queens have returned from their winter's excursion at long last!
They are ready to receive visitors once again!


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Background:
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This series features a set of historic Queens.
I selected "Queens" as the theme, because, obviously, the very name of
the park just begged for that (even if Queeny is simply the
last name of the man that originally owned the land there)!

Anyway, Some of the Queens that I chose to honor may be familiar to
some of you; others may be unfamiliar to most.

That is because, in selecting the queens, I attempted
to satisfy a number of things.

First, I wanted the queens to be true rulers. That is, not only were
these women titular queens, they also had
power and responsibility of rulership during at least some
part of their tenure.

Second, I wanted to select a variety of queens from relatively recent history,
as well as some from distant to ancient times.

Third, I wanted these queens to be considered rather more
"historic" than "mythological."

Fourth, I wanted to try and repesent queens from various
continents and cultures.

This final criterion was particularly difficult to satisfy, since
our western culture offers us far more historical material to work with
in some areas, and very little in others.

In any case, these are all fabulous women who had fascinating
lives, and I hope you enjoy learning a bit about each of them!


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How this works:
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I have planted 7 Queen letterboxes, plus one final box.
Each of the 7 Queen boxes will stand on its own, so you can track down any one of them,
in any order, and stamp in for as many or as few of them as you choose.

However, this is also a series. So, for those of you that wish to collect
all 7, you have a further reward you can attain. I have also planted
a final letterbox, which may be viewed as the "crowning glory"
(um... pun intended ;-) of the series.
The final letterbox requires that you find all the others first, and once you
do that, the full instructions for the final one will become available to you.


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Featured Queen II - Tomyris
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This Queen lived during the 6th century BC.

Tomyris was a warrior Queen of the Massagetae,
a Scythian people, who lived in an area by the Araxes (or Aras) River near
what is now the northern tip of Iran.

Tomyris had a dramatic encounter with
Cyrus "the Great", who was a powerful Persian King in 600-530 BC.
He met his fate at the hands of this woman warrior Queen Tomyris.

This is what happened:

After conquering many nations including Lydia and Babylon,
Cyrus continued to be greedy for land.
He invaded Tomyris' land, and initially she offered to negotiate
a truce. He was advised not to "give in to a mere woman"
and the battle continued.

Tomyris' son was captured and before he died, according to the
ancient historian Herodotus, Tomyris warned Cyrus with these words:

"Now hear what I advise, and be sure I advise you for your good.
Restore my son to me and get you from the land unharmed, ....
Refuse, and I swear by the sun, the sovereign lord of the Massagetai,
bloodthirsty as you are,
I will give you your fill of blood."

Cyrus refused her advice and there was a bloody battle which he lost.
He was captured, and beheaded.

Some accounts say that, keeping good her word,
Tomyris literally made him drink his final fill of
blood by dunking his head in a pool of it after the beheading.


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Directions
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Drive into the area of Queeny Park that is accessed via Weidmann Road.
Drive along past the Children's play area, and past the Facilities building
on your right. The road opens into a parking area where you can park.

At the end of the parking lot you can see the tennis courts.
Take the paved walking path that is to your left. Right there, you should see
a sign that says "All pets must be kept on leash."
Go straight on this path (do not go down the right hand path, toward the
tennis courts). Down at the pond, follow the path to the right.
Keep on the path as it goes around the pond. When you see an option
to follow a path to the right (toward the tennis court) do not take it.
Staying on your path, you will eventually come to a little bridge.
Across the bridge, go left on the path into the woods.

Follow this path passing the dog park on the right. It will veer right and will come up to a gravel service road.
Stop on your path before it veers right. You should see a large
fenced in area on your right, and some park maintenance buildings beyond that
in the distance. Looking to your left, notice a concrete slab that appears
to be covered with gravel stones. On the right side of this pile, a smaller
piece of concrete juts out. Look under this smaller concrete slab for the
letterbox.


Please re-hide the letterbox behind the bricks that block its view.

Watch for people and be discreet - this can be surprisingly busy and may have maintenance
people running about.

This will probably take about 20-30 minutes to find, once you have parked,
and assuming you do not get lost. Also -- parts of this path will be
muddy if it has been rainy.




NOTES:

Bring your own ink or ink pad, and of course paper or a logbook to stamp into,
as well as a pen to log your name, date and where you are from.

This stamp measures 2.75 X 4 inches, so you make sure your paper
or logbook is big enough for this.
You may enjoy using red for this stamp.


Finally, Please be discrete when uncovering and re-hiding this letterbox, if you happen
to visit the site during one of its more crowded times.