10:00am till 1:00pm on Saturday October 15th 2016
What a better Halloween Geocaching idea then a CITO in a Cemetery! But sorry this is not your typical scary cemetery; this one is much more interesting than that.
We will be planting 1,000 donated tulip bulbs in the Marine Hospital & Quarantine Station Cemetery in St George, Staten Island. Each bulb represents one of the 1,000 remains fragments found in this cemetery.
There will be a Geocaching tent with, gloves and water provided. If you have your own gloves and gardening shovel, trowel please bring it.
Walking from the Ferry or use the near indoor parking lot.
- Gloves, Shovels and Water will be provided if you cannot bring your own
- Door Prizes and Raffles
- NYCgeocaching Mega Pathtag for all attendees
- New Caches published nearby
The Marine Hospital & Quarantine Station Cemetery 1799- 1858, was totally abandoned and forgotten. Before Ellis Island, Immigrates that where too sick to enter the USA and also too sick to retune home where put into Quarantine on Staten Island. Mass Graves where dug for the thousands of hopeful citizens that did not make it. The Quarantine Station was burned down by rioter in a protest to move the sick patients away from the neighborhood, these riots lead to the immigration operations being moved to island in the harbor, Hoffman Island, Swinburne Island and the famous Ellis Island.
During the recent construction of a new Court House, the location of this forgotten cemetery pits were found. Carefully collected and documentsed, the remaining remains filled only two coffins. After construction was complete there was a funeral with full honors, bagpipes and all, and the two coffins where reburied under a solitary (temporary) headstone. (Still collected funds for the permanent one) a large part of land was set aside and is now listed as the Quarantine Cemetery.
The Geocachers of NY have been asked to come and help plant these memorial bulb before the winter; each bulb representing one of the remains in the coffins. I included an link on top from more info on the cemetery’s history.
