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Peace Crane LbNA #2437

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Sep 11, 2002
Location:
City:Atlanta
County:Fulton
State:Georgia
Boxes:1
Found by: phynstar
Last found:Jul 12, 2003
Status:F
Last edited:Sep 11, 2002
As of May 28th, 2004 the Peace Crane has Gone Missing.

We have a duplicate stamp, and will replace it ASAP.



An Urban Letterbox
Atlanta, GA Fulton County

A Japanese legend holds that if a person who is ill makes a thousand paper cranes, the gods will grant the person's wish to be well again. "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes", tells the moving story of a young girl's brave struggle against leukemia, the "atom-bomb disease," which she developed when she was twelve, just ten years after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Now there is a statue of Sadako in Hiroshima Peace Park. She is standing on the Mountain of Paradise, holding a golden crane in out-stretched hands. Every year, on Peace Day, children hang garlands of paper cranes under the statue. Their wish is engraved at its base:


This is our cry,
this is our prayer:
Peace in the world.

This letterbox was placed one year after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Our cry and prayer is the same.

To find the Peace Crane Letterbox, start at the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr.

Walk northwest along the Freedom Walk. If you are a first-time visitor to Atlanta, you'll visit a fascinating historic area and the acknowledged spiritual center of the nonviolent Civil Rights movement.

On your left, notice the AFD #6 building.

Here you can cross the streets and visit Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change and the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. Dr. King's tomb, with its inscription "Free At Last", sits amidst the waters of a tranquil reflecting pool. Note the year of Dr. King's birth, and the street address of the old, original church.

Return to AFD #6, and take note of the year it was built.

Walking north, cross the street, and head up the boulevard. After less than a quarter mile, with Dr. King's out-stretched hand on your left, turn to your right to find a walking and cycling path. After a short way down the path, you will see a large radio tower in the distance. Continue the path that heads in the tower's direction. Notice the multi-language peace mosaic as you pass under the two bridges.

Continuing on past MM 3, go under the concrete cover, and over a bridge. Stop on the bridge, and admire the Atlanta skyline. To your right the road leads to a center that you might want to visit after finding the letterbox. Turning around, marvel at the sea of kudzu--the plant that ate the South.

Continue on. Leaving the bridge you will soon come to two right turn-offs. Take the second, the concrete one. Follow it to the street. Look both ways, and cross over the street and stand between the two low granite pillars. Ahead of you is a gnarly old elm tree. Follow the path to the tree.

Standing under the board, your back to the tree, add the address of the Ebenezer Baptist Church to the year AFD #6 was built. Subtract the year Martin Luther King Jr. was born from this number. Finally, subtract 67. You now have the compass direction for the final clue. 72 paces in this direction is a tall tree with a wide, irregular base. You'll find the letterbox in the hollowed-out trunk of this tree, under a pile of rocks.

While not right out in the open, this box is in an area popular with walkers and bicyclists. Please be discreet when retrieving the box and put it back and cover it well with the rocks.