Indiana Spirit Quest #42:Heaven's Half Acre Traditional Cache

The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of small, rural, historic cemeteries built by Hoosier Pioneers in central Indiana. You can map out a route and get a bunch of ‘em in one trip and at the same time learn a little about our history.

Welcome to Halfacre-Long cemetery in Paw Paw township in Wabash County, Indiana. There are Civil War vets buried here and stones dating back to the 1850's. One such stone here is inscribed thusly:

PEACE TO HER ASHES UNTILL (sic) THE RESURRECTION MOURNE (sic) WHEN THE (?) ANGEL OF GOD SHALL SHOW THE WAY HOME.

The hog industry seems to be flooded with media attention about large corporate operations, but in Indiana the hog business remains dominated by family operations. The number of farms with hogs has been declining rapidly in Indiana, much like the rest of the country. Indiana farms with hogs dropped from 11,200 two years ago to 8,500 this year. This nearly 25 percent reduction is similar to the national decline.

While the remaining farms raising hogs are much larger, the predominate model remains one which is owned and managed by farm families. In the last Census of Indiana Agriculture as an example, 97.7 percent of gross hog receipts were sold by individual family farms, by partnerships (generally family partnerships), or by family corporations. Thus only 2.3 percent of sales were by farms which were non-family corporations.

More recent data from USDA shows that 54 percent of Indiana's hogs currently are on farms with about 200 sows or less. In almost all cases these are family sized operations. Many of the farms larger than 200 sows are also family owned and managed, but the data is not detailed enough to give a clear view of how many. In many of these cases farms have grown to accommodate family members such as sons or daughters who wish to enter the family business. In these cases family members provide ownership, management, and most of the labor. An example is a 1,000 sow operation that supports a farm couple, their four sons, and each of their families. Economic advantages are gained by farming together in one unit rather than each of the family members operating separately. In other large family farms, the family provides ownership and management, but much of the labor is provided by non-family members.

In 1996, Indiana producers sold 6.6 million head of hogs with a value of $830 million which was about 16 percent of the value of all farm products produced in the state. While the number of non-family corporations raising hogs is growing, it appears that the vast majority of income generated from hogs still accrues to Indiana farm families.

The cache container is a small spice jar. UPDATE MAY 2005: Thanks to Trickworm for replacing broken container: It is now a micro--m&m minies tube.UPDATE: JAN 2006: Now it's a Peanut Butter jar. If you find a fallen U.S. flag, please stick it back in the ground, preferably next to a Vet’s Marker. As always, please be respectful, and cache in, trash out.

Cache In - Trash Out! all kitties WELCOME! Available year-round Less than 400 ft. from car to cache Check Tide Before Caching Accessible in Winter

GEHEN JETZT JAGD FUR UND FINDEN DEN SCHATZ. VIEL GLUECK!!

NIGHT CACHING IS NOT ALLOWED ON ISQ CACHES