Minnesota Spirit Quest - East Christiania Lutheran Cemetery
The cache is not located near a grave. If you find a fallen US flag, please stick it back in the ground. As always, please be respectful, and cache in, trash out. Also, please only search for cache during daylight hours.
The coordinates will bring you to the gravesite of Halvor Evenson. Halvor was a Private in the 2nd Minnesota Light Artillery during the Civil War. He served three years before dying here in Christiania at the age of 39.
To solve the final coordinates, you must answer this question :
What day was Halvor born? This equals AB
The final can be located at :
N 44 33.BA8 W 093 14.7BA
History of East Christiania Lutheran Cemetery
On July 18, 1854, a group of five Norwegian immigrants (Peter Sampson and his son Magnus from Vox, Ole Thoreson and Ole Olson from Hallingdal, and Johannes Jacobson from Vinje) found this hilly region on the edge of the Big Woods in Eureka Township, and decided to settle here because it reminded them of old homes in Norway. By July 1856, the settlement had boomed, with many Norwegian families coming from Muskego and Koshkonong, Wisconsin, and due to this, a congregation was organized. The first church was built on this site in 1867, and it stood here until 1893, when it was dismantled and rebuilt as part of the West Christiania Church (visible just down the street from the cemetery. Look for the smaller building connected to the church). During this time, a new and bigger church was built here, but that burned down in 1957, and never rebuilt. Only the cemetery remains, which still has burials to this day.
2nd Minnesota Light Artillery Reenactors
While you are at Halvor’s grave, you may wonder why it looks like it has just been placed, but he’s been dead for well over 100 years. Well, that’s because it just was. Starting in 2002, a group of Civil War reenactors decided to replace the headstones of the people that they were reenacting. As of 2009, they had replaced and/or added the markers for 24 men (including Halvor’s), along with five markers to be replaced, and 17 men that they cannot find.
Congratulations to PA - 20 on FTF!