Trading rules: Logging a "find" for this cache REQUIRES a trade. This cache contains "state" quarters from several different states. (Click for more info about the State Quarters Program.) You may trade one or more quarters, but any quarters traded must be replaced with states not currently represented in the cache when you found it. Please clearly log on the website what you've traded, so that future finders might know what's available to trade. Anyone finding the cache but not trading may log a "note", but may not log a "find".
The initial contents of the cache are: Vermont, Ohio, Illinois, and the unexpectedly historic New Hampshire.
Bring your own pencil/pen. Please trade quarters, but do not add quarters, as the cache becomes too full, and it also becomes more difficult for subsequent finders to provide a state not yet present in the cache.
This cache also serves as a satellite for the
Geo-Stationery Cache, so you may wish to read that description also before visiting here, to save yourself having to come back again.
The spot is dedicated to the memory of Marian Harlow, a pillar of the local community. Marian Harlow was born in the family home on Altivo Way in Elysian Heights (the hilly part of Echo Park) in 1909, and died there in 1989. Though she lived other places, she retired to the Altivo Way home in 1969 and became very active in the local community for her remaining years. She was a founder of the Hill Dwellers Association (a historical society, though she thought Echo Park Historical Society sounded too pretentious), and helped to document much of the local history through interviews with long-time residents. Her work was published in several booklets, copies of which can be found at the Echo Park Library. She was also an avid gardener, and together with some other neighbors, created the spot where you will find this cache. As some of the original Hill Dwellers started to pass away, she had the notion to create a memorial garden. Many of the trees and plants there were planted in memory of a particular neighbor. When Marian Harlow passed away, the spot was named in her memory, with a sign created by local artist Peter Shire (who also did "Space Station Grace"), though it is actually a memorial to many. The spot is still tended by a few long-time neighbors. Geocachers will also be interested to know of her husband, Neal Harlow, who passed away in 2000 at age 92. Neal Harlow was a distinguished librarian and cartographic historian. Among his accomplishments, he authored Maps and Surveys of the Pueblo Lands of Los Angeles, Maps of the Pueblo Lands of San Diego, 1602-1874, and The Maps of San Francisco Bay, from the Spanish Discovery to the American Occupation. These works would be found in the LA Public Library in section 912.7941, a section that geocachers would find nearly as engaging as 526.7 (and 526.8).