INDIANA GHOST TOWN
QUEST
The Indiana Ghost Town
Quest series of geocaches will take you to towns of yester-year
that no longer exist or are near extinction. Inspired by the
Indiana Spirit Quest cemetery series, this series will take you to
remnant sites as well as vacant sites where towns once existed,
hopefully exposing a part of our historic past to the
visitor.
These towns were once
important centers of trade but due to various reasons now are gone.
These reasons can include changes in local industry, changes in
trade routes, or even changes in transportation. This can be as
simple as railroads replacing canals and interstates replacing
local highways.
W.T. GUFFIN
FARMHOUSE
INDIANA GHOST TOWN
QUEST #15:
"CLAYSVILLE (BRACKEN)"
Claysville was platted in 1853 by William T. Guffin and Hiram
Westover. Guffin had purchased 1000 acres from the govrnment in
1838 at 25 cents an acre. The original plat contained 17 lots along
the old Huntington to Liberty Mills Road. When the Post Office was
secured the name was Changed to Bracken since Claysville already
existed in Indiana. Bracken was the county that Guffin came from in
Kentucky.
The town boasted a sawmill, 2grocery stores, a drug store, 2
doctors, 2 blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, saloon, barber shop
(5-cent haircuts), school and church.
The school building that still stands here north of town, is
an italianate structure built in 1883. The Red Brick house that
still stands on the corner of the Bracken Road was built around in
the late 1860's.
The two-story Saloon that stood on the west side of the main
street was used as a band hall for the town band. It was burned
down by an angry churchlady.
This town died a slow death. Population in 1910 was about 50
souls.
The coordinates listed above will get you to Bracken, but not
the cache. You will have to figure out the coordinates from the
information given below:
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Cache is located in county road ROW. No Night Caching.
This series is brought to you by Gunpowder and SixDogTeam and
Are_we_there_Yet? If you would like to join us in hiding these
caches in your area, visit the IGTQ profile page by clicking on the
website link at the top of this page, then email
Gunpowder.