Cemetery caches in Pennsylvania

[+ClayC]

Just an observation I made while visiting the area of New Stanton, PA last week.

 

I drove by many many cemeteries, both large, small, old, and new, yet never saw one cemetery cache. Are these frowned upon or just darn right illegal?

 

Thanks!

Clay

[+cerberus1]

Guess it's just that area.

Where I live, nearly every cemetary within 16 miles has a cache in it. Think maybe four are missing.

Maybe some folks think it shows little respect, or nervous about asking permission

We like to visit and look at the very old ones. Be surprised at the little bits of history you learn.

Have done two so far (multi), where coords. to next cache is made up from dates on headstones.

CJ has a good sized regular cache at her church's cemetary and the folks who know about it look with amusement at "the nut looking for that geo thingy".

I don't believe they give out hints though.

[Stitchmonster]

There is actually a series of Small Country Cemetery caches (as well as various other cemetery caches) in Mercer County, PA.

[+bottlecap]

No, they're not illegal or frowned upon, as a matter of fact, I'm downright surprised that there weren't caches there. Like Cerebrus mentioned, "It must be the area", and no local cachers are "into" cemetary caches.

[Keystone]

Many cemeteries are private property and all of them are places deserving of respect. Therefore, in Pennsylvania, cemetery caches are reviewed against a slightly higher standard than some other types of hides, and each cache owner is asked to describe the hiding place and its proximity to nearby graves. If your cache is a plastic skeleton dangling from a tree directly above a headstone, it won't be published, and if I find out later on, the owner will be questioned and the cache may be disabled or archived. If, on the other hand, the container is tastefully placed in the woods behind the cemetery, then it is a lot easier for me to assume that adequate permission has been obtained, and the cache can be published.

 

I know that different standards are applied in different places. But the "tastefully placed" standard is OK with my bosses at Groundspeak, and it works well. It is my hope that applying a common sense standard will prevent Pennsylvania from becoming the next "ban caching!" battleground, as was the case in South Carolina.

 

Not every cemetery *has* to have a cache. There are many that do have a cache, and many more which do not. The same goes for parking lots, playgrounds and a whole lot of other places.

[+bottlecap]

Well said Keystone.

 

 

I'm thrilled to find out that cemetary caches are held to a higher standard. I personally won't hunt any of them, but have no issues with the folks that hide or find them, it's just my choice.

 

 

As long as "respect" remains the #1 issue, there shouldn't be any problems.

[+eaglespirit0]

Geez, I never realized how MANY cemeteries there were until I started geocaching ....... most of the modern ones don't have geocaches, but a lot of the old township cemeteries and family plots have geocaches located to showcase them. One of the most peculiar is one located in Hawley that links a small town to a national figure: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...17-048f805d17da

[Mr.Yuck]

Many cemeteries are private property and all of them are places deserving of respect. Therefore, in Pennsylvania, cemetery caches are reviewed against a slightly higher standard than some other types of hides, and each cache owner is asked to describe the hiding place and its proximity to nearby graves. If your cache is a plastic skeleton dangling from a tree directly above a headstone, it won't be published, and if I find out later on, the owner will be questioned and the cache may be disabled or archived. If, on the other hand, the container is tastefully placed in the woods behind the cemetery, then it is a lot easier for me to assume that adequate permission has been obtained, and the cache can be published.

 

I know that different standards are applied in different places. But the "tastefully placed" standard is OK with my bosses at Groundspeak, and it works well. It is my hope that applying a common sense standard will prevent Pennsylvania from becoming the next "ban caching!" battleground, as was the case in South Carolina.

 

Thanks for clearing that up! Different standards are definately applied in different areas for sure, and I remember you stating such in a different thread in the general forum recently. Actually, I just found 5 or 6 cemetery caches in NE Pa last month (all placed within the last year), and all were tastefully placed, and almost all had me going into the woods a little bit.