Welcome to the Farewell to Finder’s Fest geo-art, brought to you by the Forest Minions! This series celebrates weird and unusual things throughout the Sunshine State. Please do not go to the posted locations. Rather, solve the challenging quiz found at the bottom of each page, for the final location. For the letterbox caches, please leave the stamp in the cache. They are not trade items. For the discerning traveler, we’ve included the GPS coordinates for these bizarre locations, when we were able to establish them.
Tallahassee’s Witch Grave – Location 30.4426, -84.2864
A century old legend surrounds a curious tomb in Tallahassee’s old City Cemetery, a massive obelisk for Elizabeth “Bessie” Budd-Graham, believed by some to be a witch. Bessie was only 23 when she died in 1889 leaving behind a husband and two small children. Historians are not sure why Bessie rated such a fancy burial place, or who paid for it, although there’s a traditional yarn about how she bewitched a wealthy man into marrying her and he wanted to commemorate her with the most elaborate stone in the cemetery.
The legend about Bessie being a witch is built around a number of odd things about her grave. To begin with, Bessie was born in October, the month of Halloween, and her grave is the only one in the cemetery that faces west, which some say is contrary to Christian burial customs. But it’s the strange epitaph quoting Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, “Lenore” that has stirred imaginations and caused folks to conjure up a dark meaning. Legend believers have translated a variety of “witch evidence” from the weird epitaph.
Here is the super duper, way challenging, really hard trivia question, which, if solved properly, will lead you to the final coordinates:
Question: What is the official name for a group of unicorns?
A: A chit load = N29° 29.533' W81° 49.827'
B: Oodles = N29° 29.523' W81° 49.827'
C: A blessing = N29° 29.513' W81° 49.827'