INDIANA SPIRIT
QUEST
The Indiana Spirit Quest series of
geocaches will take you to a number of historic cemeteries built by
Hoosier Pioneers. In just over a year, the quest has grown to over
a hundred ninety caches hidden in twenty-one Indiana counties, and
the hiders have grown to seven cacher teams, six of which are
comprised of A Man and His Dog... and one who is a Dog and her
Woman. 325 cacher teams have logged over 3,200
finds.
INDIANA SPIRIT
QUEST #198
”Nothing to See Here"
Wait a tick! What is going on here? No
pictures? Can this really be a genuine Indiana Spirit Quest cache?
Rest assured this is the real deal. Welcome to the Merritt
Cemetery, Washington Township, Hendricks County, Avon, Indiana.
What's wrong, do you see nothing? That is because there is nothing
to see here. Parking for the cache is at 39 45.131 86 24.261. This
site is located in a residential subdivision so please be
respectful of the property owners. Official ingress and egress will
start at the parking coordinates and the route will be obvious. If
anyone from the community questions your presence please tell them
you are visiting the Merrit Cemetery. You will probably get plenty
of strange looks since most do now know that it even
exists.
When you reach the final coordinates you will be
standing in the middle of cemetery. The story of this site is
somewhat a mystery as I have not been able to locate any
documentation as to why this site was striped of it's
identity. According to records at the Plainfield Public
Library this site was originally the Dr. Mason farm. There
are currently 28 confirmed burials here dating back as early as
1835. The thirteen surviving grave markers were removed from
this location and placed behind the Avon Town Hall next to the
Northlawn Cemetery (see
ISQ #160 Trading Spaces). The graves themselves were left
completely in tact. Today no one could ever tell this is a
cemetery. If my observations are correct, the neighborhood
walking path cuts right through the center of the graveyard.
It would be improper of my to make any judgments without first
understanding the circumstances under which the grave markers were
legitimately moved, however I cannot in my wildest imagination
think of a singe circumstance in which that would be appropriate
(especially if it involved the development of the
subdivision). Perhaps I need to think
harder.
The cache
container is is a medium size plastic container that is VERY well
hidden. Please leave it at least as well concealed, if not better,
than you found it. You will not find fallen or worn US flags at the
graves of veterans here, so no there is no need to tote along
extras. Be respectful of the residences by caching
only during daylight hours. If you find the coordinates to be a
little off, do not hesitate to post a waypoint with your log.
As always, be respectful, and cache in, trash out. God Bless
our troops in harm's way.
WARNING: FIND LOGS ON THIS CACHE THAT INDICATE
NIGHT CACHING WILL BE DELETED WITHOUT
NOTICE!
"Indiana Spirit Quest" is brought to you by the
following fellows of GEOISQ*: The SixDogTeam, Kodiak Kid, THE
SHADOW, Team Shydog, Rupert2, Torry, ~Mystery Dog~, and Team
Tigger
International."