Walter

This is Walter. Buddy is lost, and Walter wants to find him so they can visit Peep at the Presidio Pet Cemetery. After documenting their visit, please place them together in the Falsework cache.

This trackable, "Walter," is one of a pair, and this pair is one of several.  All are part of an artwork by Jeanne C. Finley + John Muse entitled Falsework.  A falsework is a temporary structure used in construction to support, protect, provide scaffolding for, or shore up other architectural components of the construction zone.

The Presidio Pet Cemetery, nestled under Doyle Drive at the foot of McDowell Avenue, is the final resting place for the more than 420 dogs, cats, birds, hamsters, lizards, and goldfish that once lived on the military base at the Presidio. Grave markers date back more than fifty years, when 2,000 families were stationed there.  The base was closed in 1996 and is now a national park. 

While Doyle Drive, the ramp that leads to the Golden Gate Bridge, is being replaced overhead, the Pet Cemetery is protected by falsework, nets, and fencing and is currently inaccessible. After construction ends in 2015, the site will be restored and once again serve as a reminder of what military family life was like at the Presidio.

Falsework explores the visual disparity between the cemetery’s fragile, illusive graves, and the massive structure that protects them to examine the dynamic relationship between humans, their pets, and this site. Video about the construction of the pet cemetery’s falsework, photographs, geocache elements, and texts will be posted to the Falsework website.  Pairs of geocache travel bugs depicting living pets and their owners will be separated and then placed in different caches outside the Presidio.  The public will then be invited to find and reunite these pairs, visit the pet cemetery with them, and then place them in the "Falsework" cache located nearby.