The 44th in the Rest 'n Peace - Centre County series takes you to one of the more enigmatic cemeteries in Centre County, that may or may not be Painted Post. It is clearly marked in the A. Pomeroy 1874 Atlas of Centre County but no mention of it's affiliation is noted. Ground penetration radar, resistivity and flux gate magnetometry studies conducted in 2002 and 2013 in preparation for the widening of route 322 indicated that as many as 20 burials exist here, but no markers or metallic items were uncovered (all samplings were non-invasive).
When I walked the site, there was evidence of a rough wall on the Annabel lane side of the patch, with many large stones arranged in a faced line. There was also, oddly, two american flags of the type that would be placed on war veteran graves, even though no indication is present of where the 20 scoped gravesites would be. It's been speculated that this was a gravesite for the indigent, slaves, unknown travellers who fell ill... but we may never know for sure. All that can be certain is that 150 years ago as of the time of this caches publication, this cemetery was important enough to make it into the Atlas.
As with any cemetery cache, please be respectful of the area even if none of the individual gravesites or persons are known. The cache is placed in the back north corner of the plot, next to a very large tree, and I suggest walking around the plot to access the grounds and the cache. For you arborists, there are many specimens of honey locust on the western, southern and eastern approaches to the cache, and that means thorns!
