Thanks for the input guys. I have seen several caches that have been archived then unarchived so I knew it was possible, and when a reviewer archives a cache because of no action from the CO they state it can be unarchived. That's always assuming, of course. that in the meantime no new cache has been created that comes within the minimum radius of the original.
Anyway, the caches in question had the containers removed when they were archived, so I have just adopted the two live caches and will see how that goes before attempting to create one from scratch. As for supplies, is there any place in town that carries useful items? I'd like to know where to get some of those nice painted camo lock&lock containers.