GeoExpeditionMT #33: Trip to the Past Traditional Geocache
GeoExpeditionMT #33: Trip to the Past
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Size: 
(regular)
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This Cache is part of the Helena, Montana GeoExpedition. The GeoExpedition spans the scenic Helena area from the heights of MacDonald Pass, through historic downtown gulch then south to Boulder and the Elkhorn Ghost Town. View GeoExpedition rules and DOWNLOAD a PASSPORT here.
Placed in an area full of the historic beginnings of Montana. The cache is an Ammo Can. There is a picnic area close by if you so desire. You should be able to get there in a car during good weather. There are a couple of bigger rocks in the road that you will have to negotiate.
Elkhorn cemetery, in the southwestern part of Montana, is high in the mountains east of Boulder, off of I-15. Go 7 miles south on Hwy 69, turn left over a small bridge then right onto gravel road 13 miles, bearing left at each of two forks in the road. This cemetery is situated on a hillside south of Elkhorn, known as Cemetery Ridge, which in recent years has somehow become US Forest land.
Elkhorn was once a very important mining town of the late nineteenth century. Due to metal prices dropping, it never revived to the peak reached in the 1880s. Today there is a modest population of people who live here year-round, and many original structures, such as houses, buildings, and mine surface structures, are still standing.
This small cemetery was the town cemetery since the mid 1880s and includes a number of stones marking the graves of those who fell victim to a diphtheria epidemic that struck Elkhorn in the late 1880s. It has no new graves because of the many unknown and unmarked graves. Currently, the cemetery is cared for by the Elkhorn Landowner's Protective Association.
Please note that neither birthplaces nor death places were given on many of the tombstones. Effort was made to record transcriptions with proper adherence to spelling and abbreviations used on stones, and transcriptions are therefore reflective of the times in which the markers were made.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Nzzb, Fghzcrq.