The Old Lakeview Cemetery, located in Thorold, first opened in
1886. A beautiful area with many stories and many secrets.
Rumour has it there are tunnels located beneath the grounds
throughout not only the cemetery, but the entire area. There are
also a number of caves in the area along the ridge of the
escarpment nearby. The cemetary is also the final resting place of
a number of famous people. As you look through the old cemetery you
will notice a bit of an anomaly. A number of headstones are dated
prior to 1886. How can this be when the cemetery only opened in
1886? The answer is simple they were moved here. In fact, 250
graves were moved here from "St. Peters Burial Grounds" also known
as "The Old German Church Cemetery". This cache will take you on a
tour back through time and give you only two of the many stories
surrounding this area and take you on a walk along an under
utilized section of the St. Catharines side trail on the Bruce
Trail leading to the final cache.
The History
Our tour will look at two of the famous people buried at
Lakeview, Patrick Donnelly and George Keefer.
Patrick Donnelly
Patrick Donnelly was the fourth child of James and Johannah
Donnelly born in Bidulph Ontario. James Donnelly, head of
"The Black Donnellys" escaped
the hangman's noose in 1858 only to be murdered along with four
members of the Donnelly family on February 4, 1880 by members of
a vigilante group called the Bidulph Peace Society. The murdered
Donnellys are said to still haunt the property where the murders
took place. The victims of that dark night are buried at St.
Patricks Church in Bidulph. Legend has it that if you leave a
coin on the Donnelly tombstone and make a wish, the Donnellys
will grant that wish. It is interesting to note that the
tradition seems to have continued on the tombstone of Patrick
Donnelly.
To learn more about the Donnelly family please visit the
Donnelly Family Page
George Keefer
George Keefer was born in 1773 in Sussex, New Jersey and was
said to have walked to Upper Canada with a younger brother in 1790.
Keefer served in the war of 1812 and is the founder of the city of
Thorold. George Keefer was the president of the Welland Canal
Company and coincidentally owned a large tract of land on which the
first canal passed through. These same lands are where today the
city of Thorold are situated. George Keefer died in 1858 and was
buried in the "The Old German Church Cemetery". He was re-interred
in Lakeview Cemetary around 1923. During his life George Keefer was
one of the founders of St. Peters Burial ground and was its
trustee.
The Mystery
St. Peters Burial ground was located along the banks of the
third Welland canal close to the "Blue ghost tunnel". St. Peters
Burial Ground consisted of 913 graves but when the cemetery was
moved in 1923 to make way for the present Welland Canal, the
land occupied by the cemetery was flooded over. Only 250 graves
were moved to the Lakeview Cemetery, which means 663 graves
remain to this day under the lake. Many theories attribute some
of the haunting of the Blue Ghost Tunnel to this injustice.
Hamilton Paranormal has written an excellent article on the Blue
Ghost Tunnel and St. Peters Cemetery, you can read it here. On occasions when the
lake has been drained, remnants of grave markers can still be
seen.
Photo1 - Grave marker
Photo2 - Support base for gravestone
More information on the Blue Ghost Tunnel and the St. Peters
Burial Grounds are available on the Adventures
Niagara website.
At the final location of the cache you will have a view which
overlooks the area which was occupied by St Peters Cemetery.
The Puzzle
In order to find the final cache you will need to solve the
following sudoku puzzle. The rules are simple, each line (vertical
and horizontal) as well as each 3X3 square can only contain the
numbers 1 through 9 once. The values of the squares which have a
letter in them will be used to calculate the final coordinates.
To find the final coordinates you will need to visit the following
locations and answer the questions:
Patrick Donnelly's Grave (N43 07.507 W79 11.329)
[A]Second letter of Patrick's daughters name ____
Second letter of Patrick's wifes name ____
[C]Patrick's middle initial ____
George Keefer's Grave (N43 07.525 W79 11.255)
[D]First letter of George's 1st wifes name ____
[E]Fourth letter of George's 2nd wifes last name ____
[F]First letter of George's 4th wifes name ____
Name or Message from Beyond?(N43 07.511 W79 11.280)
[G]First letter of message on gravestone ____
[H]Second letter of message on gravestone ____
Now convert each of the answers to a number using the sodoku
chart you completed. Read the number from the soduku chart which is
associated with the letter you wrote down for your answers. Insert
these numbers into the final coordinates. The unknowns are arranged
by order of the questions (eg. [A] is the numerical answer for
question [A])
THE FINAL CACHE WILL BE FOUND AT:
N4[A] 07.[B[C][D] W7[E] [F]0.[G]0[H]
FINAL NOTES:
The blue trail can be seen easily from the starting coordinates.
Look for the typical Bruce Trail flashes. At points the trail
appears to vanish, it will appear again. There may be some climbing
involved which will increase the terrain. Please respect the
property. Do not do this cache at night, the gates are closed at
dusk.
HAPPY HaUNTING!
