Ohio Spirit Quest # 77 December 29, 1876 Traditional Cache

The Ohio Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of historic cemeteries built by Buckeye Pioneers. This series is inspired by and a continuation of the Indiana Spirit Quest caches created by Six Dog Team. In just over three years, the SPIRIT QUEST has grown to over 550 caches, with the hiding teams growing as well. The Ohio Spirit Quest has grown to over 60 in Ohio, with five current caching teams, three each with A Man and His Dog, one with a Couple and Their Dog... and one with A Woman and her Dog.
Over 1,000 cachers have logged over 20,000 finds. One cache machine found 111 ISQ caches in a single day (daylight hours only).

Come with us now for a virtual tour of this burial ground via this page, then go out and find the cache!

Chestnut Grove Cemetery
Ashtabula City, Ashtabula County, Ohio

OHIO SPIRIT QUEST #77

At 7:28 P.M. the night of December 29, 1876, nearly one hundred people died and more than sixty were injured when an iron truss bridge collapsed, and railroad cars plunged 75 feet into the gulf below. Rescue efforts were hampered that night by extremely cold and icy conditions and massive fires caused by coal stoves and kerosene lanterns. An obelisk-styled memorial marks the common grave where many of the dead were buried at Chestnut Grove Cemetery. This memorial is located at the top of the hill in the middle of the cemetery. “The bridge was owned by the Lake Shore and Michigan railroad, and was the joint creation of Charles Collins, Engineer, and Amasa Stone, Chief Architect and Designer. Collins did not approve of Stone’s bridge design calling it ‘too experimental.’ However, he reluctantly approved its construction due to pressure from the company and outside sources.” (Stephen D. Peet, The Ashtabula Disaster, Chicago: J. S. Goodman-Louis Lloyd and Co., 1877) Charles Collins, bridge engineer who had certified the structural integrity of the bridge, shot himself immediately after the inquiry, and is buried in the mausoleum approximately 200 feet west of the disaster memorial. A weeping ghost, thought to be Collins, is often seen near the memorial. Often sighted in this area are a young child and a gentleman who is presumed to be her father; these two wander the cemetery together. Architect, Amasa Stone, committed suicide two years later, but is not buried in this cemetery. Hymn Writer and Musician. Phillip and his wife Lucy died in a train wreck in Ashtabula, Ohio, when the bridge that the train was on collapsed. Their remains where placed in a grave marked by a cenotaph in the Ashtabula Cemetery in Ohio and the 2nd cenotaph in the Cemetery in Rome, Bradford County, Pennsylvania. Phillip and Lucy's home in Rome, Pennsylvania, was turned into the Phillip Paul Bliss Gospel Songwriter's Museum. Phillip Birth: Jul. 9, 1838 Clearfield County, USA Death:
Dec. 29, 1876
Ashtabula, Ashtabula County Ohio, USA


Phillip Paul Bliss


Monument that stands in memory of those who lost their lives
December 29-1876

The cache container is a regular sized Moops Container.
If you find a fallen US flag, please stick it back in the ground. As always, please be respectful, and cache in, trash out.