Indiana Spirit Quest #648: Ringo's Start Letterbox Hybrid

The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of historic cemeteries and historic sites built by Hoosier Pioneers. In almost four years, the quest has grown to over six hundred caches hidden in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Ontario, and the hiders have grown to over forty cacher teams, most of which are comprised of Dogs and their Humans. Over 1,000 cacher teams have logged over 50,000 finds.

One of the Wild West's more notorious cowboys, Johnny Ringo, got his start in Indiana - specifically the town then known as Washington (now called Greens Fork) in Wayne County, Indiana. Born on May 3, 1850, John Peters Ringo was the first son of Martin and Mary Peters Ringo.

Johnny Ringo was certainly a surly and bad-tempered young man, but perhaps rightfully so. When he was just 14, Johnny and his family joined up with a wagon train headed to California. During the 5-month trip Johnny reportedly witnessed a man being murdered, had his foot severely injured when a wagon wheel ran over it, survived an Indian attack on the family wagon and ultimately helped bury his father along the trail after Martin Ringo stepped out of the wagon with a gun and was instantly killed when the firearm accidently went off.

The legend of Johnny Ringo the outlaw is likely the stuff of western fiction and due as much to his nasty temperament along with his personal and business associations with the Clanton Gang, Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp as it is to his actual deeds. Despite his fame, there are no records that he was ever in a classic gunfight. However, while at a bar, he did shoot an unarmed man for refusing to join him in a drink of whiskey.

Johnny eventually ended up in the newly founded town of Tombstone, Arizona where his brushes with the law continued. While he was not present at the Gunfight at the OK Corral, those killed that day were his friends and it weighed heavily on him. On July 8, 1882 Johnny Ringo left Tombstone for the last time. Over the next few days he was seen in Galeyville drinking heavily before heading out again on July 11th.

On July 14, 1882, Johnny Ringo's body was found at the crotch of a large tree that still stands in Arizona's West Turkey Creek Canyon. He was buried on the site. Over the years there have been many rumors about his death and/or murder. Mysteriously he was found with a single gun shot to the head; his boots were off and strips of an undershirt had been wrapped around his feet. His pistol, one chamber empty, was clenched in his fist; one of his cartridge belts was on upside down and there was a small nick on his scalp where part of his hair was missing! His death is believed to have been a suicide.

Upon her death, Mary Ringo, Johnny's mother was buried alongside other members of her family in the Old Centerville Cemetery in Center Township, Wayne County, Centerville, Indiana.

The cache is located a short distance from a couple of Ringo family tombstones. While looking for a hiding spot for this cache, we discovered a hand carved rubber stamp on the ground and realized that there was possibly a letterbox in the area. After more searching we found a container that was broken, totally moldy and waterlogged and had a different hand carved rubber stamp in it.

We checked all the Letterboxing web sites and contacted a Letterboxing friend who determined that the letterbox was no longer active and had been abandoned. We decided to keep it available for letterboxers and also bring geocachers to this interesting cemetery. We cleaned up the stamp, put out a new container and added a logbook and some swag.***The letter box stamp is not a trading item, it is only for stamping, so please DO NOT TAKE IT!***.

*Grand Exalted Order of the Indiana Spirit Quest

** THIS IS A GENUINE INDIANA SPIRIT QUEST CACHE** xxxxx