The Geek Squad Gives Back: Vale Cemetery Event Cache

The Geek Squad Gives Back:

Vale Cemetery

Recently, the Geek Squad (Can’t Find Diddly, Eltee1, Geosliders, 1Irishgirl, & Whippintegra) visited Vale Cemetery to try and do CDParker1’s two aptly named Vale Cemetery: Match Game Caches!

While here we started talking to one of the volunteers here at the cemetery Mr. Bernard McEvoy about the history and the extent of Vale. While talking to him we ended up telling him why we were really in the area. (It’s really hard to tell someone you are “hiking” when you are wandering through a cemetery!) Talks ensued about all the notables buried in this enormous cemetery and he mentioned how in late 2006, a project was discussed to start mapping some of the notable graves in the area using GPS technology- which for us geocachers is right up our alley! The project never quite got its start though. Our conversation with him spurred us into further discussions amongst ourselves. A few of the GS members particularly enjoy visiting old cemeteries and seeing the history that can be found in them. This cemetery is no different.

Some of the many notables buried here include:

Evans, Charles F.: “Chick” was a pitcher for the Boston Braves, 1909-1910. The team placed 8th in the National League and his earned run average was 5.23

Ellis, John: A Scotsman that immigrated to the US in 1831. The Ellis family built Ellis Hospital.

Jackson, Jared: Fought in the Civil War and was a member of Co. N. 20th Regiment, “U.S. Colored Troops”

Parker, John N.: Local Erie Canal Superintendent and hotel operator who built Schenectady’s only “skyscraper”, the Parker Building, next to Proctors.

Steinmetz, Charles Proteus: Electrical engineer dubbed the “Wizard of Schenectady” worked at GE and was one of the top inventor/engineers of the 20th century.

Westinghouse, George Family Plot: Inventor of the thresher, he was a competitor of Thomas Edison and became famous for his work in the electrical and railroad industries.

The Geek Squad ended up discussing how this would be the perfect project- not just for us, but also for other Geocachers. Imagine how much time and effort could be saved if we made this an Event, for we have the necessary equipment, we just need to provide a little time and effort and Geocachers, as well as Geocaching in general, can end up really giving back to the community. When we discussed our idea with CDParker he wanted to take part in this Event as well!

Vale has 107 notable graves that can be found here. Armed with a list, a map, a camera and your GPS, we would like you to come out and help us give back. We want to start by mapping the 126 notable graves found here. In addition, we’d also like to take a picture of each of the notable gravesites so that it can be added to the www.findagravesite.com website to aid
other’s in their searches. We are requesting that participants please bring one item for a potluck lunch. The Event will start at 9:00AM and will last until 3:00PM Lunch will be at 12:30PM. If you are attending please mention what you plan on bringing in your note. We will be setting up in front of the caretakers cottage just off the State St. entrance in the grassy area near the sign kiosk.

There are also a few cache's in the cemetery to be found and we hope to set up some more in the area to allow new cache finds as well as introduce new people to caching. If you've been putting off CDParker1's or Tenebrus' puzzle Cemetery caches this is your chance to finally lay claim to them!

So please, help us Give Back to the community doing one of the things we enjoy most- finding things!

We hope that you will feel free to invite some of your friends to take part in this Event, whether they are new to Geocaching or old hands, invite them along to help with this worthwhile and hopefully VERY fun Event!

 Any questions please feel free to contact us.