“INDIANA SPIRIT QUEST”
The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of historic cemeteries and historic sites built by Hoosier Pioneers. In eight years, the quest has grown to over seven hundred caches hidden in Indiana; Ohio; Michigan; Ontario, Canada and other areas and the hiders have grown to over forty cacher teams.
(Photos by Team Itchy & Scratchy)
INDIANA SPIRIT QUEST #709
"Shod in the Line of Duty"
Located on a winding country road a bit northeast of Metamora in Franklin County is McKendrie Cemetery. It is the final resting place of several Colonial era soldiers including Revolutionary War veteran, William Wiggins. Wiggins enlisted early in the war and served 6 months in Captain Lott's Company in Colonel Penrose's Pennsylvania Regiment. Later he was placed in a leather factory in Philadelphia to make shoes for the soldiers.
You see, to make the long marches through all kinds of terrain and weather, the soldiers needed adequate shoes—lots of adequate shoes, each made by hand. Wiggin's job was not an easy one. Colonial cobblers did not have the use of a leather splitting machine, that wouldn't be invented until 1840. Instead, to get the leather to the needed thickness, they had to scrape the rawhide over a wooden beam.
Once the shoe was made, the outside was dressed with a mixture of soot, lard, bear grease and beeswax. Wiggins may not have been on the front line, but his "troop transportation" duty was certainly vital to the war effort.
The neighboring golden retriever sounds fierce, but is really friendly once he greets you.
HandiCaching.com rating: H13122
As usual, the cache is hidden away from graves, no ISQ searching after dusk and remember cache in – trash out. Have fun and please leave the cache exactly as found.
"Indiana Spirit Quest" is brought to you by the following fellows of GEOISQ*: SixDogTeam (Earthdog Patrick, Lead Dog, Wheel Dog), Kodiak Kid, THE SHADOW, Team Shydog, Rupert2, Torry, ~Mystery Dog~, Team Tigger International, bbSurveyors, DoverDuo, -{Los}-Xile, Prairiepartners, WilliamsFamGC, Bean Blossom Gang, Team Itchy & Scratchy, Wishbone86, krisNjoe, Bikinibottomfeeders, Awsome Ev, Lord Elwood, 501_Gang, donsdi, Joypa, dougsmiley, doobies, Che K, Indgeodog, jcurtis55, nursenine, S Keillan, CAR 54, Cowboy, Team Lost in the Woods, ICQ Cache Crew, ClayC, Infarmfamily, Jenischmeni and a host of others.
*Grand Exalted Order of the Indiana Spirit Quest
xxxxx