Indiana Spirit Quest #98: Small Walk Traditional Cache

EDITED 8-17-2011

Pioneer Cemetery (All photos by the mysterious 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

1. 32 --Dragon Ryders Three
2. 16 --Bluegillfisherman
3. 14 --Buddaman
4. 8 --Pinestrail

The Shadow has selected Big Run Cemetery , Section 7, Stafford Township, DeKalb County, for your caching pleasure. Dekalb County was named for Baron DeKalb and was established in 1837. County seat is Auburn. Listen to what he has to say:

Welcome to Big Run Cemetery, Stafford township, DeKalb County. A rural, mid-size cemetery that is barely active. Fairly old site. The Big Run church is adjacent to the cemetery. It is still in use. Needs a good coat of paint or new siding. BEAUTIFUL stained glass windows. Unique little HIS/HERS? outhouse in back. Offroad parking is available here. There are quite a few veterans here, considering the overall size of the cemetery. About everything from the Civil War to VietNam. Many, I thought were very interesting. bit on Uriah Swagger marker: Born Nov. 10, 1842; Enlisted in the service of his country Feb. 17, 1865; in Co ? 152 Regt Ind. Inf.; Died Mar. 16, 1865; Aged 22y 1m 6d Man, what a tragedy!?? SO young. Such a short time after enlistment, and so close to the end of the war! --THE SHADOW

Well, It appears there are several hundred folks calling Big Run home these days. The oldest grave appears to be that of Abigail Hackley, died Sept. 27, 1838, aged 19 years, 3 months. Most interrments seem to have occurred in the 1840's to 1860's. There are ten Peppers here, all in a row. We noted a few veterans of the War Between the States:

The DIEHLS, Isaac (1812 - 1887) and Susannah (1818 - 1893) want you to know they "Pioneered to DeKalb Co., Indiana in June 1840."

IS IT A "BIG RUN" OR A LITTLE RIVER? OR JUST A PLAIN 'OL CREEK? iF YOU REALLY WANT THAT SMILIE TO STAY THERE, LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK IN YOUR LOG! IT'S LOCATED LESS THAN HALF A CLICK DOWN THE ROAD, SOUTH OF THE CHURCH...this is no drill! OK, I give up, it's just too, too much to ask isn't it? And after all I do for you guys...oh well. :(

The cache container is a small camo'd match holder. BYOP. Park with care. As always, please be respectful, and cache in, trash out.

Cache In - Trash Out!

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