Indiana Spirit Quest #96: A Monument to...?? Traditional Cache

edited 8-22-11 8-25-11

Pioneer Cemetery (All photos by The Shadow)

The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of small, rural, historic cemeteries built by Hoosier Pioneers. In less than a year, the quest has grown to almost a hundred caches hidden in nine northeast Indiana counties, and the hiders have grown to three cacher teams, each comprised of A Man and His Dog...The Indiana Division of Historic Preservation & Archeology claims there are over 100,000 cemeteries and burial grounds in Indiana. Personally we think this is an absurd figure, but since they're a part of the IDNR, they MUST be right...so we're at the one-tenth of one percent mark and climbing! PRAIRIEPARTNERS has set a record for one-day ISQ finds on 10-16-2004 at 55! 97 cacher teams have logged over 1,300 finds.

TOP TEN FINDS

FTF's

2. 16 --Bluegillfisherman
3. 14 --Buddaman
4. 8 --Pinestrail

The Shadow has selected Cosper Cemetery in DeKalb County for his second ISQ hide. Listen to what he has to say:

This is Cosper Cemetery , renamed in 1855 from Union Chapel Cemetery. This graveyard is L-shaped from road, so one can assume a church house (Union Chapel) once stood in the corner area. It is Well maintained and the BEST RESTORED older site in the county. All the older markers have been repaired as needed, and set into cement bases. Would love to see all the old sites done this way. Shattered stones have been reassembled, flat on ground, and set in cement. This site was apparently named after the Veteran of 1812 War, David Cosper.

There is at least one Civil War vet here as well, but the only legible information on the marker is:

(Pvt. Burton was a member of Co.K, 9th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The regiment was organized at LaPorte in Sept. 1861 and was in West Virginia assigned to II Corps of the Army of the Ohio at the time of his death. -- LEAD DOG)

I have no idea what the tall brick structure is. From a distance it appears to be a monument, but there are absolutely no inscriptions anywhere on it, but it does have a drain in its base. The cemetery has new chain-link fence around it, with walk/drivethru gates. --THE SHADOW (All photos by The Shadow)

MYSTERY MONUMENT

If anyone out there can identify this structure and tell us what it is, and a little about its history, tell us about it in a log and earn a bonus smiley, whether or not you've found the geocache...

UPDATE, 12/24/04: OK folks, you lose out; The Shadow has figured it out:

At a Civil War Round Table, the question was asked if the President knew anything about the Cosper Cemetery Monument located in DeKalb County. He said that he had heard "A collection had been taken up and given to a gentleman to purchase plaques to place on the large monument to honor the soldiers buried in the cemetery. The gentlemen took off with the money instead of placing the order. The plaques were never purchased." From R. Wells

The cache container is a camo waterproof match container. BYOP.Park with care. If you find a fallen US flag, please stick it back in the ground. Payton Manning may be on the verge of breaking touchdown pass records in the NFL, but when at Tennessee U., in three tries, he NEVER beat the Gators! Go Urban Meyer!! As always, please be respectful, and cache in, trash out.

Cache In - Trash Out!

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DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, VISIT INDIANA CEMETERIES AFTER DARK. YOU WILL BE SUBJECT TO ARREST.