Indiana Spirit Quest #8: Where Have All The... Traditional Geocache

Is this cemetery really here?

The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of small, rural, historic cemeteries built by Pioneers in central Indiana..

Here is The Halderman (Holderman) Cemetery in North Manchester, Wabash County, Indiana. Land for this pioneer cemetery was donated by Allen and Jane Halderman, when they needed a place to bury their daughter in 1839. They allowed other folks to bury their kin here, at no cost, and as no provisons were made for perpetual upkeep, the plots eventually fell into disrepair. As a result, we now have one of the more unique pioneer cemeteries in the state: The tombstones were removed in 1955, all but a very small plot of them, and a brick wall was erected in 1986 incorporating some of the stones, as well as plaques listing transcriptions of several hundred others!! From the local Historical Society’s website:

"Many of the gravestones had disappeared; taken away by relatives or used for doorsteps or driveways. Some were simply piled in one corner of the plot. Some members of the Society helped to move most of the remaining stones to the town water plant lot. All of the legible inscriptions were copied and the best preserved were selected to be incorporated into the planned memorial. Thirty tombstones are built into two of the walls of the memorial and six anodized aluminum pewter plaques carry the names (and dates) of those buried there and are mounted on the inside of the east wall…. A significant number of the original burials were removed to Oaklawn Cemetery (as noted on the Master List) and Thomas Marshall's parents were removed to the Oddfellows Cemetery in Marion."

In addition, a new memorial has been placed on the site this year, incorporating 5 large panels similar in appearance to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, with the names on them that are not identified. UPDATE OCT> 2005 SEE ISQ #375.

Also in this small park, is the birthplace house of Thomas Marshall…

The cache container wass a small plastic spice bottle, now it's a tupclone—Watch out, the CLUE is a spoiler.

Lunchtime Cache Dogs Allowed Available year-round Less than 500 ft. from car to cache No restrooms available Swimming Nearby Check Tide Before Caching Accessible in Winter

GEHEN JETZT JAGD FUR UND FINDEN DEN SCHATZ. VIEL GLUECK!!

NOTICE, 7-29-05: NIGHT CACHING IS NOT ALLOWED ON ISQ's. LOGS INDICATING CACHING AFTER DARK WILL BE DELETED.

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