Welcome to the active Oak Lawn cemetery, located just South of the town of Ossian and home of the “Big Gun”.
Lieutenant-Colonel Swaim was a carriage manufacturer in New Jersey before he bought a farm near Ossian in 1857. He was en-gaged in its cultivation and improvement when the Civil war aroused him. He raised Company A from Ossian, Murray and Bluffton volunteers, and when the Thirty-fourth was organized he was elected its captain. In February, 1862, he was promoted to be major of the regiment and June 15th, a year before his death, was advanced to the lieutenant-colonelcy. He was leading the regiment at Champion Hills, May 16, 1863 when he received his death wound. He died from its effects on the l7th of the following month, while aboard a steamboat bound for the North. His remains were buried at Ossian cemetery, and at the head of his grave stands a beautiful monument erected to his memory by the officers of his regiment. On the 30th of June, succeeding Colonel Swaim's death two weeks before, his fellow officers had gathered to pass resolutions expressive of their sense of loss on his death.
This cemetery also has some interesting new and old stones.
7/13/23 UPDATE:
When the geocache was published, GC.com provided a benchmark site so geocachers could find and log benchmarks. In February of 2023, HQ archived the BM site. All the logs, uploaded pictures and corrected coordinates were removed from GC.com.
This geocache originally started by geocachers physically locating benchmark
LA0798, then seekers obtained the 'real' coordinates for this BM to accurately project a waypoint for stage 2. Below is an updated and simplified version for finding this geocache.
TO FIND THE GEOCACHE:
Go to the posted coordinates. (the actual location of LA0798)
Project a waypoint from the posted coordinates. The distance is 797.4 feet at a bearing of 109.56 degrees. This will put you at stage two.
At stage two, find the stock car and stand with your back towards the door of the #73 car. Now you should be looking west and seeing the names of four children on a stone in front of you. Count the number of letters in the second name from the top.
Take the number of letters in the second name and multiply it by 6. That sum = "XX". Take the number of letters in the second name and multiply them by 24.5, that sum = "YY".
The geocache is at 40 5X.X17 85 09.YY7
The geocache is just big enough for a shadow coin.
NIGHT CACHING IS NOT PERMITTED AND ILLEGAL IN THIS CEMETERY.
THIS IS A GENUINE OFFICIAL INDIANA SPIRIT QUEST GEOCACHE