*** Please place the cache WELL back in its hiding place when
finished and put the disguise covering back. Thank You***
This cache is located at a reproduction of the tomb of
Christ.
In addition to the tomb there is a replica of a carpenter shop
such as Joseph might have worked in and a small wedding chapel as
well as a few displays of rocks such a might be found in the Holy
Land.
All this is nestled on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere in
the city of Covington, KY overlooking I-75.
You can see the Carpenter Shop from the Interstate but you can't
get there from there. If you go to 16th and Holman streets, there
are signs from there to the Garden.
I have cleared the placement of this cache with the property
caretaker, but I did not tell him the specific location.
This cache has been started as a theme cache, Christian stuff,
but if you do not have anything fitting the theme, please feel free
to take what you want and leave what you can.
Tours can be arranged by appointment by calling 859-491-1777.
Garden is open till 9:00am till dusk. Under 14 should be
accompanied by an adult per posted regulations.
Historical information updated 3-8-03
Rev. Morris Coers, then pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in
Covington, went to the Holy Land in 1938 and came back home with a
vision of recreating the area for people who could not afford to
travel.
His dream was finally realized in 1958 after he collected over
$150K in donations. The replica of the Garden Tomb itself took
$40K.
In the original garden there were over 5000 plants from Israel.
The carpenter shop had some tools donated by David Ben-Jurion, the
first Prime Minister of Israel. Inside the Carpenter Shop is a
mural painted by local artist Leroy Coates.
The Egyptian flag was donated by Gamal Abdul Nasser, former
President of Egypt.
The statue of Jesus behind the tomb was carved in Rome and
donated in memory of Catherine Smarr. The Cross just "appeared" one
night and local legend was that it was placed by an angel. Later it
was revealed that three men had placed it there under cover of
darkness. At this writing, one of those men, who wishes to remain
annonymous, is still around to tell the tale.
Just after it opened in 1958 there was a very hard winter and
the hillside started to slide out from under the structures.
Rev. Coers despaired of losing this beautiful shrine as the best
opinions at the time said that the landslides would continue. One
evening while Rev. Coers was visiting the shrine, he met a large,
heavey-set stranger, dressed in farmer's clothing (very out of
place). The man said he worked for the railroad building tracks and
tunnels and such and that he would give Rev. Coers very specific
instructions for shoring up the hillside so the garden would be
saved. Rev. Coers raised the needed money and followed the
directions exactly.
The next winter, everyone watched with great curiosity and the
land never shifted an inch! No one knows who the man was, and he
was never seen again after that one night when he met with Rev.
Coers. Could he have been an angel?
There were also reports of Marian apparitions at the Garden in
the sixties.
This is a beautiful Christian shrine with a rich history. It is
well worth the trip! Oh, and by the way, there's a cache there
too.