Indiana Spirit Quest #273: Up, Up & Not Away... Traditional Cache

The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of historic cemeteries built by Hoosier Pioneers. In just a year and a half, the quest has grown to over two hundred seventy caches hidden in twenty-seven Indiana counties, and two Ohio counties, and the hiders have grown to ten cacher teams, nine of which of which are comprised of Dogs and their Humans. Over 500 cacher teams have logged over 5,600 finds. One cache machine found 102 ISQ caches in a single day (daylight hours only).

(Photos by SHADOW)

Welcome to Mt. Zion, Steuben Township, Steuben County, Indiana.

Listen to what the Shadow tells you:

This is a large cemetery and growing rapidly. There are several driving lanes through the area. It's expanding to the west, so the oldest area is at the southeast corner of the site, near the old road intersection.

NUMEROUS veterans are buried here, from the Civil War to Vietnam. Many stones are unmarked as such, but have the veterans flagholders in place.

Three veterans in particular may be mentioned. One each from The Civil War, WWI & WWII. The Civil War & WWII veterans were KIA, whereas the WWI veteran was a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross. His "job duties" in the military was rather unique as well. He went on to live a full life of 89 years.

--THE SHADOW

You may find the grave of Aaron W. Brand of the 486 Refrigeration Co. He was KIA in Belgium on Dec. 16, 1944, just 22 years old. Another gravestone of note is that of William H. Deller who died at Nashville, Oct. 24, 1862, 19 years old, a member of Co. A, 29th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

Another Civil War casualty was twenty year old Eli Dahuff, a member of Co. D, 7th Indiana Cavalry, died March 17, 1866.

This cache is in honor of GEORGE CARROLL, a 1st Lt. of the 3rd Balloon Co., 3rd Corps, American Expeditionary Force, World War I. This unit operated gas-filled observation balloons tethered to trucks. The Observors in the balloon's basket directed artillery fire for American and French units via telephone. The balloonists wore parachutes in case they were shot down by enemy aeroplanes before they could be reeled in. The U.S. Army Signal Corps Balloon Companies lost 45 Balloons in France.

This is a captive Balloon of the 3rd Balloon Company, being brought safely to earth after a period of observation near Mellanacourt, Meuse, Oct. 1, 1918. Ground crews could bring balloons down quickly when enemy planes were sighted.

Reel Trucks controlled the Kite Balloon's flight and location as well as serving as an anchor.

Here's a first hand account of a balloonist from 3rd Balloon Company, exerpts from his letters home:

Capt. Birge Clark commanded the 3rd Balloon Co. , was posted to France and stationed behind the front lines, where he went up in tethered balloons to observe enemy movements. He collected his letters into manuscript form in the late 1920s, and we've found one that mentions our Lt. Carroll! (The second one here reproduced)

August 29, 1918

Our balloon had its first determined attack today. I had taken up Lieutenant Dold and spent the first half hour in the air showing him the sector, explaining the use of the photographs, and how to allow for perspectives in comparing what he saw with the maps.

The balloon jerked and started down, and simultaneously a phone call came up that there were five hostile aircraft in the west; so we were being pulled down. We could see the German planes way off and coming our way. We were down to 500 meters when I noticed that one plane had drawn considerably ahead of the others and apparently had burst into flames. I was very astonished at this as there were no anti-aircraft bursts near, and told Dold, "Why, that plane has caught on fire." Then I realized that the plane was shooting at us through the propeller with its two machine guns and was driving straight at us.

I told Dold to jump.

He was somewhat excited and upset by this and began to expostulate, and I started to climb back into the basket to push him off when he dropped off over the side. Almost immediately I saw his parachute open and slid off myself.

I dropped into the woods, falling down through a tree, which caught the parachute so that my feet just touched the ground and then the limbs bent back and left me suspended about three or four feet in the air. I at once cut the rope with the knife tied to the harness and dropped.

Later, we hauled the balloon down and found there were eight holes through it and came to the conclusion that the aviator was very green and had not wanted to attack us very badly.

October 20, 1918

I have never felt so much a sense of complete fatalism. I know that, if I was killed today, CARROLL would take over the company. If he was killed or even the whole company was killed, there would be new men and new officers to take on the 3rd Balloon Company. We just all seem to be part of a big machine and, if we are killed ourselves, it doesn’t seem to matter much. In fact, except for the folks feeling bad at home, I seem to have no particular fear or dread of it at all. In the past, I never have been particularly certain or clear about immortality, but right now, for some reason, I seem to be absolutely certain of it and rather look forward to knowing the answer to lots of things such as what is beyond space and time, which I feel I will know when I am dead.

Of course, I don’t really expect to get killed. No one does. In talking it over, we can hardly believe, though, that we will ever be back living the sort of life that we expected to lead after college. But all of us are mighty glad that we lived now at this time, that we were able to be here taking part in this drive, and that we are not back home. All this whether we come out of it or not.

These are the words of an extraordinary man who led ordinary men who became Extraordinary because of the circumstances of their lives and times. These are aunthentic American Heroes and GEOISQ salutes them . God Bless their souls.

Clark survived the war and returned to practice architecture in Palo Alto, "the City that Birge built." He died in 1989. and of course we know our Lt. Carroll survived The War to End All Wars, as well...

The cache container is a PLASTIC PILL BOX. BYOP. .The cache is not located near a grave... If you find a fallen US flag, please stick it back in the ground. As always, please be respectful, and cache in, trash out. XXXXXX

"Indiana Spirit Quest" is brought to you by the following fellows of GEOISQ*: The SixDogTeam (Earthdog Patrick, Lead Dog, Wheel Dog) Kodiak Kid, THE SHADOW, Team Shydog, Rupert2, Torry, ~Mystery Dog~, Team Tigger International, Cache Commando, bbSurveyors and Dover Duo. If you are interested in spreading the Quest to your neck of the woods AND WOULD LIKE TO JOIN US, email SixDogTeam.

*Grand Exalted Order of the Indiana Spirit Quest

** THIS IS A GENUINE INDIANA SPIRIT QUEST CACHE** xxxxx