The coordinates posted will take you to Stage 1. Parking
coordinates are included as a separate waypoint.
The cache can be found at: N 41°
30.4B3 W 083° 05.AC8
This cache is placed in the County Home Cemetery. The cemetery
is located on what used to be the property of the County Home. The
County Home was also called the County Infirmary or the county poor
house. The residents of the County Home were referred to as
inmates. The building housed those who didn't have a home, were
indigent, or had a sickness as they called it back then.
They even took in those who were just traveling the roads, which
according to the records I acquired were almost always men. The men
had to stay in the fruit house while the women stayed in the house.
The men had to do the farm work, if able, to earn their keep. They
were kept separated from the women even at mealtime. Those who
could not afford a cemetery plot were buried here. This policy was
for the inmates as well as any other county residents (or others,
as you'll see as you read on).
Surrounding the cemetery is a complex of county buildings that
are currently in use. All this area was originally part of the Old
County Home property. Try to imagine the beautiful surroundings of
that time. If facing back toward the road: the 3 buildings directly
in front of you and to the slight right weren't there. This area
contained small outbuildings. The large building in the distant
right (Ottawa County Senior Resource Center) sits on the original
site of the old County Home. A massive barn once stood in the empty
area between that building and even farther building (Riverview
Health Care Campus). The old County Home was demolished in the
1960s. In the early 1970s, the county Board of Mental
Retardation/Developmental Disabilities built their school on the
property. This became known as Riverview School. When the County
Home was demolished, for some reason, they left the room that was
the morgue intact. When the school building was designed, the
morgue became the room in the southwest corner. The Senior Resource
Center took over the building in 2008 as the Board of MR/DD offices
moved to a new building. The morgue room is still being used, but
as offices and/or classrooms!
Burials here: Any records of burials kept prior to 1935
are missing and there are at least 20 burials for which there is no
name. Stones were apparently used up through 1951 and then the
practice was discontinued. This is with the exception of the
headstone and funeral marker from the 1980s. From 1937-1950, there
were no burials according to records and there are no stones that
would indicate deaths during this period, so apparently there were
no burials made here during that time. There are also 4 wooden
crosses marking burials here. We're assuming these are for burials
in the last 50 years. More records show that there were at least 17
burials here between 1954 and 1969. None of these have markers.
Stage 1/Illegible Marker: The true history of this
cemetery's formation is unknown. It appears that the first burial
is marked with a regular headstone. The coordinates for stage 1
will take you to this headstone. Unfortunately, the name isn't
legible however the person died July 16, 1885. Find the age at
death. The first digit of this number is the value of
A.
Stage 2/Like Markers:
The coordinates for Stage 2 take you an area of like
headstones.
There are 2 questions to be answered here.
Question 1: How many persons died in 1935? The answer
is the value of B.
Question 2: How many markers have no year of death
listed? The answer is the value of C.
While looking for your answers,
here's some interesting information:
Edwin Bowman drowned in the Sandusky
Bay on 05/12/1953. His is the only marker in this area that is
different from the others.
You will also see headstones for Fairport Fat, Leonard
Holdredge, and James Dewey
Conners. According to records, they were itinerant fruit
pickers and hoboes. On 08/31/1951, five dead bodies were found at
the local hoboes' camp in the Port Clinton area. The hoboes
referred to this area lovingly as the "jungle". It was found that
all 5 died from consumed quantities of paint solvent and wood
alcohol. Fairport Fat (Fairport, Ohio) and Leonard Aire Holdredge
(General Delivery, Chicago) were among the 5 dead. According to
newspaper clippings, James Connors was walking along the railroad
tracks (as he lived around the jungle), heard a cry for help,
investigated the situation, and then notified city police. However,
it was too late. It's ironic that James died of the same cause only
7 days later on 09/07/1951. All 3 of the bodies went unclaimed,
therefore, were buried here.
Stage 3/Final: Coordinates to the Final Stage are:
N 41° 30.4B3 W 083° 05.AC8.
The cache can be found here.
We hope that you enjoy this little bit of history, the scenery
and the hunt.
While in the area, you might want to check out GC28ZEC -
Bowerstock
Congratulations to BlackBrownDog on the FTF!!