Indiana Spirit Quest #538 See the USA Traditional Cache

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The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of historic cemeteries and historic sites built by Hoosier Pioneers. In just over two years, the quest has grown to five hundred caches hidden in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan and Ontario and the hiders have grown to THIRTY cacher teams, most of which are comprised of Dogs and their Humans. Over 1,000 cacher teams have logged over 20,500 finds. .

Photos by jcurtis55

This quest will take you to the St. Joseph and Holy Cross Cemetery in south-central Indianapolis. The Holy Cross section of the cemetery was founded by a parish of Irish immigrants in 1861. It was known then as the St. John's cemetery. A group of German Catholics started the St. Joseph cemetery nearby. Over time the cemeteries grew together and today form a truly huge cemetery. There are literally hundreds of veterans in this cemetery and several other famous personalities as well.

This is a gated cemetery with set hours, so so you will only be able to access the cache during the hours the cemetery is open. The gates open at 8:00AM. The gates are closed at 5:00PM from October to March and at 7:00 from April to September.

There are entrances to the cemetery off Meridian Street and Pleasant Run Parkway.

Chevrolet Brothers

Arthur, Louis and Gaston Chevrolet are buried alongside each other in graves marked with unassuming markers. Actually, Arthur is in an unmarked grave, likely due to the fact he committed suicide. The lives of all three Chevrolet brothers were filled with highs and lows. Louis founded Chevrolet Motor Company with William Durant, who had been forced out of General Motors. However, Louis was only interested in building large expensive cars while Durant felt cheaper massed produced cars were the way to go. Louis sold his interest in the company to Durant. Durant kept the Chevrolet name and went on to make the company so successful he later retook control of General Motors. Louis had success designing race cars, but would never achieve success as a businessman. Gaston won the 1920 Indy 500, only to lose his life in a racing accident 6 months later. Arthur raced in the 500 on two occasions and Louis raced in the very first Indy 500 in 1911.

Veterans Galore

Frank Stolz represents the hundreds of veterans interred in this cemetery. Frank was a member of the 83rd Indiana Infantry during the Civil War. He earned a Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Vicksburg on May 22nd, 1863. His citation simply stated, 'Gallantry in the charge of the "volunteer storming party."' The 83rd went on to participate in the battles of Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Savannah and on into the Carolinas. The 83rd lost 56 men to combat but 220 to disease.

Baseball Anyone?

There are also a few professional baseball players buried here. The most notable being Chuck Klein. Klein led the National League in homes runs 4 times, RBI's twice, and is the last player to lead the league in both home runs and stolen bases. He was the National League MVP in 1932, and won the triple crown in 1933. A great defensive player, he still holds the record for assists by an outfielder in a season with 44. He was voted to the baseball Hall of Fame in 1980./P>

Indiana Baseball Legend

Keeping with the baseball theme, we move to Owen 'Donie' Bush. While Bush is not in the hall of fame, he was an exceptional shortstop and lead-off hitter for the Detroit Tigers. He was a teammate of Ty Cobb. He was a perennial leader in base on balls, and he set a mark of 52 stolen bases in 1908 that stood as the record until 1992. He also prevented Babe Ruth from pitching a no hitter by getting the only hit off the Babe in a game against the Red Sox. Later he managed the Indianapolis Indians. The Indians original stadium was then renamed Bush Stadium./P>

From the Famous to the Infamous

And now for a change of pace, we move from the famous to the infamous. Harry Pierpont was a member of the John Dillinger gang. Dillinger had helped Pierpont escape from the Michigan City Indiana prison. Later, Pierpont would repay the favor by breaking Dillinger out of a Lima Ohio jail. During the breakout Pierpont fatally shot the local sheriff. The gang then went on a vicious crime spree before being captured in Arizona. Harry was extradited to Ohio and after a trial he was found quilty. Wounded seriously in an attempted prison break the state brought Pierpont back to good enough health to electrocute him in the Ohio electric chair.

FIND LOGS ON THIS CACHE THAT INDICATE NIGHT CACHING WILL BE DELETED WITHOUT NOTICE!!

The cache container is a medium-sized lock-n-lock. Enclosed is a log and some starting swag. You MUST sign the log to claim a Smilie. If you cache at night, or don't sign the log, or reveal the additional hint in your log, or don't fulfill any additional requirements, your find log will be deleted without notice...If you think these terms to be unfair, don't bother to hunt this cache. The cache is not located near a grave... If you find a fallen US flag, please stick it back in the ground. As always, please be respectful of our pioneer dead and cache in, trash out.

None genuine without this official SixDogTeam seal. Photographs taken by Lead Dog, (C) 2006 by RikSu Outfitters, unless otherwise noted.

"Indiana Spirit Quest" is brought to you by the following fellows of GEOISQ*: SixDogTeam (Earthdog Patrick, Lead Dog, Wheel Dog) Kodiak Kid, THE SHADOW, Team Shydog, Rupert2, ~Mystery Dog~, Team Tigger International, bbSurveyors, Dover Duo, Los Xile, Prairie Partners, WilliamsFamGC, Bean Blossom Gang, Team Itchy & Scratchy, Wishbone 86, krisNjoe, Mel Gibson, Bikinibottomfeeders, Awsome Ev, 501 Gang, Lord Elwood, Doobies, Che K., Indgeodog, jcurtis55, et al. If you are interested in spreading the Quest to your neck of the woods AND WOULD LIKE TO JOIN US, email SixDogTeam.

*Grand Exalted Order of the Indiana Spirit Quest

** THIS IS A GENUINE INDIANA SPIRIT QUEST CACHE-- ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES**

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Happy Hunting!!