Welcome to the Pioneer Graveyard
Resurrection! We want to share this wonderful hidden gem of
Carmel that hardly anyone (expect for the almost 80 geocachers that
found Pioneer Graveyard) knows about. Last June, the
graveyard looked like the above picture, taken by Rubber Ducky
while finding the Pioneer Graveyard Cache. For those that
haven't been Geocaching for long,
Pioneer Graveyard was a virtual cache located here. The
graveyard was sadly vandalized sometime in early April, 2004.
Rinky was the first spotted this damage on April 3rd. The
cache was made temporally unavailable (it is now archived) but some
others still found it. Thankfully, they have helped restore
some of the tombstones. We visited the graveyard and
uprighted some more of the stones., but there are still some that
are downed. If you see a downed tombstone, put it back in
where you think might be its original position if you want to, and
take a picture if you brought your camera. This is not
required for the cache, but it would be respectful to the people
that have been buried here. Do a good turn daily, but it is
OK if you can't find a tombstone that is in need of repair.
 Cache In -
Trash Out! 
Night caching  Dogs Allowed
 Available year-round 
Bicycles permitted on paths  Scenic View
Historic Site |
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When we visited the area on June 5th, we decided that the cache in
this area didn't have to be a virtual cache, so this cache is a
micro. Even if you have already found Pioneer Graveyard, this
is a brand new cache, so please come back!
This
19th century pioneer graveyard is officially known in the Hamilton
County records as West Cemetery (number 87) and was once part of
the John W. Becker farm. The historic Ambassador House used to be
located here. Now, the house is in Heritage park, home of our
Heritage Geocache. Be sure to park in the strip mall parking
lot, there is no other place to park. There is a nice, unmarked
trail leading more or less to the cache. The trailhead can be found
at N. 39* 55.672
W 086* 03.997. The parking lot is 3 tenths of a mile from
the cache.
Above
all, just enjoy the sights and have a good
time!