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Cemetery Caches, who likes them?


joranda

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I generally do like them. They are nice and quiet and no one around to bother me!

 

What i don't like is people traveling through the area an haphazardly leaving a cache. How hard is it to put some dadgum thought into it?

 

I hate seeing this:

Well we were driving through the area and i cant beleive this cemetery didn't have a cache already! I fixed that!

I don't think it is too much to ask to expect that people actually put thought and ingenuity in their hides. But i don't think this will happen anytime soon.

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Just getting fellow cachers input on cemetery caches, should they be allowed, and are they enjoyable.

 

We enjoy them. It's fun to explore cemeteries especially if the hider has done some research and can lead us on a tour. I plan on starting my own series someday. It will take awhile because I want everyone to enjoy it.

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I like the cemetry caches in my area particularly if the hider has some historic our interesting fact to point out about the inhabitents. A side point.... I am currently researching my ancestry and have found that many ancestors are in Michigan graveyards that have been neglected or vandalized. I think having people visit these sites might spark interest in saving some historic sites!

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When in Toronto you should try GC110GG. It took several weeks of planning and execution, then several months of negotiations with the rector but it all seems worth it. There's also GCWXET. As long as the owner and visitors are sensitive, there shouldn't be any problems.

Edited by moop
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I hate the whole concept, and put them on my ignore list.

 

Everyone is free for there own opioins, but to go as far as to ignore them? I would at least go with the cache is a cahe, and go log it, but your stance is your stance.

 

They are on my ignore list because I will not search for them. I find them morbid and disrectful. I know that some people love them. I do not. My personal opinion.

And I think that people who hide cemetery caches should label them as such.

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I hate the whole concept, and put them on my ignore list.

 

Everyone is free for there own opioins, but to go as far as to ignore them? I would at least go with the cache is a cahe, and go log it, but your stance is your stance.

 

They are on my ignore list because I will not search for them. I find them morbid and disrectful. I know that some people love them. I do not. My personal opinion.

And I think that people who hide cemetery caches should label them as such.

 

That's kind of harsh, to call people who hide them morbid and disrectful, that's just my opinion. The people who destroy the old tombstone stones are morbid and disrespectful, not the ones who come out to see the old cemeteries.

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There is nothing morbid or disrespectful about visiting or walking through a cemetary. Actually, by reading the stones you are actually remembering and respecting those people. Would you like to be totally forgotten? Someone reading a tombstone is making sure that people aren't totally forgotten. There are a couple in our area in pioneer cemetaries that without people visiting and donating would fall into complete disrepair, become overgrown, and forgotten to time. Now that is disrepectful to the dead.

 

The real issue with cemetary caches, is to be sure that some thought is put into the placement and that it is put in a spot that does not get in the way of the mourners or in any way damage the stone or the areas around them. It is only then that they are a problem.

 

JD

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They are on my ignore list because I will not search for them. I find them morbid and disrectful. I know that some people love them. I do not. My personal opinion.

And I think that people who hide cemetery caches should label them as such.

There is one about 15 feet from my grandparents headstone. I did not place it. But i was pleased finding it because visiting cemeteries always reminds me of my grandparents, and i miss them.

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I can understand both sides of the argument, but my take on the whole issue is as long as the cache is small, camoflaged well, and placed appropriately (not ON someone's headstone), then its okay. Also, if someone is seeking out a cemetary cache, then they need to remember where they are and act appropriately.

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I can understand both sides of the argument, but my take on the whole issue is as long as the cache is small, camoflaged well, and placed appropriately (not ON someone's headstone), then its okay. Also, if someone is seeking out a cemetary cache, then they need to remember where they are and act appropriately.

I totally agree! I've found 5-6 different cemetery caches, one is in a very cool old cemetery with a lot of historical value. ie. The comstock lode.see here It's amazing to walk through this cemetery and look at all the headstones from the 1800's and yes people are still buried there today, but this one is done so your not really on or near anybodys plot. Then we've come across others such as this one. I liked the story behind it, but you kind of had to manuever some stuff around to find it, it kind of creeped me out even though it's more of a relecting bench than an actual grave, it still kind of creeped us. I think it's all about placement and the signifigance of the site.

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That's kind of harsh, to call people who hide them morbid and disrectful, that's just my opinion. The people who destroy the old tombstone stones are morbid and disrespectful, not the ones who come out to see the old cemeteries.

 

You asked for opinions. I expressed mine. This is, of course, one of the 'everyone who responds agrees' threads. I consider them morbid and disrespectful. You do not. I put them on my 'ignore list'. You are more than welcomed to wander through the cemeteries. I shall not. If you ask for opinions, you will find that there are those who disagree. If I go to cemeteries, it is for reasons other than "Take the age at which this person died, and divide by his month of death to find the next stage." I go to pay my respects, not to play a game.

As I mentioned, I really would have prefrred that the hider who said "I found an interesting place here" had mentioned that it was a cemetery. Ssme hider: "Spectacular view here." Yes. It's a great view, so why did you hide the cache in the cemetery, rather than at the view?

And I'll leave you with this benchmark that I wish I hadn't gone looking for (though benchmarks are more a science than a game):

17ced769-4b3c-4130-a9be-9cfd3bd09ff2.jpg

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That's kind of harsh, to call people who hide them morbid and disrectful, that's just my opinion. The people who destroy the old tombstone stones are morbid and disrespectful, not the ones who come out to see the old cemeteries.

 

You asked for opinions. I expressed mine.

 

And they expressed theirs... After you express your opinion, is it your requirement that noone can then disagree with you?

 

I agree with Joranda that you sound a bit harsh... If you don't want to get feedback on your opinion, then don't give it.

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That's kind of harsh, to call people who hide them morbid and disrectful, that's just my opinion. The people who destroy the old tombstone stones are morbid and disrespectful, not the ones who come out to see the old cemeteries.

 

You asked for opinions. I expressed mine.

 

And they expressed theirs... After you express your opinion, is it your requirement that noone can then disagree with you?

 

I agree with Joranda that you sound a bit harsh... If you don't want to get feedback on your opinion, then don't give it.

 

I don't think Harry Dolpin was being harsh at all, and I do know two other cachers who feel the same way as him. But they never post here. :anitongue: Personally, I really like them, and I'm guessing I've found 100 or so. I have however come across 2 or 3 that I thought were placed disrespectfully, in my opinion. But that's a pretty low percentage.

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I would say that a cache should in no way EVER be placed anywhere near a gravestone, out of respect. But I've found a lot of great caches near cemeteries that were of tremendous historic interest. Any cache that comes with a history lesson is a fun one to me.

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That's kind of harsh, to call people who hide them morbid and disrectful, that's just my opinion. The people who destroy the old tombstone stones are morbid and disrespectful, not the ones who come out to see the old cemeteries.

 

You asked for opinions. I expressed mine.

 

And they expressed theirs... After you express your opinion, is it your requirement that noone can then disagree with you?

 

I agree with Joranda that you sound a bit harsh... If you don't want to get feedback on your opinion, then don't give it.

 

The only thing that I was disagreeing on was calling people who hide caches in the cemeteries morbid, that was it, I just thought that that was a little extreme. Sorry about making you unhappy.

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I enjoy cemetery caches because I enjoy visiting cemeteries - especially old ones.

 

What I don't like are disrespectful hides. I've seen caches UNDER headstones and those where you had to use a headstone as a boost to get a cache out of a high place. Then there are those that give you no choice but to stand on graves to search in bushes or trees for the cache. These types of ill-planned hides have come very close to making me think that cemetery caches should be disallowed or at least require cemetery caches be along the perimeter of the cemetery and/or some distance from the nearest grave. But what is they say? You can't legislate morality?

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I like cemetery hides that are done respectfully.

 

As an aside if you have older grandparents ask them if they ever had town picnics in a cemetery. It might surprise you to find out that not to long ago cemeteries were often a place to socialize. I have heard many stories of my great-grandparents playing hide and seek among the headstones while their parents had a picnic near "uncle ned"

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I enjoyed a cache I found today. There was no cache IN the cemetery, but I was given a set of coordinates, and at that place was a certain tombstone. I had to put coordinates in my GPS based on the death date of the male, and the birth date of the female. It was like "subtract 1644 from the date of death of Abigail Hobarth and add the result on to the West coordinates". It was fun, and I found myself wandering around wondering about the people, (It was a really old cemetery). No cache, a history lesson was provided, (a man was hung there) and I was sent on my merry way to the real cache. Very respectful I think.

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Haven´t found one at a cemetery yet but would not mind.

I used to have to walk between lectures and the best way (to me) led through a really big cemetery. On occasion I sat there for hours and studied - no better place than a quiet bench in good company that knows how to let you study and doesn´t bother you with questions.. lol - seriously, I think cemeteries are beautiful, have abundant wild life and it´s nice to see people coming to care for the graves of their loved ones, talking to them, placing something there...

Now, years after, when I happen to be in the area, I walk through it and recognize headstones and names, see that some have joined others who had been alone in their grave before and so on... even made me cry to see a child having been put to rest.

 

Cemeteries are a part of our lives and deaths, so placing a respectful geocache there sounds like a great idea to me!

 

Reading back on the thread, I respect anyone´s opinion - sometimes it helps to re-read a post, Dolphin wrote that he found the CACHES there morbid and disrespectful, not the people that place or seek them there. I know I spooked a fellow student by sitting there studying and he would never have set foot there. I think you have to respect either way - if we were all the same it would take the fun out of meeting new people!

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Cemetary caches... it depends. I've found 4 of them. One was in Rockville, MD, and was very old and impressive-- a place really unknown even to those who live within a mile of it. I'm glad I was able to experience it.

 

The others I found were in Michigan, a few were impressive with interesting histories which shared stories of the first settlers; others were placed just to place one.

 

I think it all depends on the time and effort the owner takes. My new criteria with cemetary caches is to read the description and decide if it will enlighten me.

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I have two cemetery caches, and my personal faith make them no problem to me. I don't think those people are "there". The spirit has moved on.

 

That being said, mine are historical, tell the stories of someone's life, and if they're not "there" all the time, they might be there when someone is thinking of them.

 

I've left flowers, and have never meant any disrespect.

 

I did one cemetery cache that took me to a family site where a number of children had been killed in a car wreck, and that one I did not enjoy.

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:grin: The Bond Girl and I love to do cemetery caches. In Wisconsin, they now call them WSQ for Wisconsin spirit quest. Everyone I've found has been in good taste often with the actual cache hidden along the outer boundaries of the cemetery. Never have seen one buried under a headstone, nor have I had to stand on headstone to make a grab.

 

The cemeteries we've been to are quite varied and have shown us gravestone ideas I never knew about. At one cemetery, many of the deceased had mailboxes by their headstones where friends and family could leave them letters. At another cemetery we found the buried survivors of the Titanic. Never knew so many had ties to Milwaukee.

 

To summarize, we find them much more interesting than LLP's.

Edited by Sean Connery
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:) Actually I have one, and when tactfully done, they can be an enlightening experience. Why would I ever create one? Because I wish to open a window into the life of someone who was very special to me. Just because a person dies, does not mean their life has to die as well. My father was a very interresting person who did a lot of good for a lot of people in his community. Just because there is not a plague or statue to commemorate his accomplishments, doesn't mean that his life is not worth remembering. That is why I made a cache for him so people would know the kind of person he was. In fact my mother recently passed away, and I plan on making a cache to remember her as well.

 

On a different note: How many times have you walked through a cemetery and actually looked at grave markers? Some are really fancy and some are just plain. Wouldn't be interresting to know who the person was? Where they came from?

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Now that Geocaching is around, I can think of a few people I know who are eccentric enough to actually make their own death and gravesite into a cache! I see a new fad, caching from beyond the grave :unsure: .

 

As far as cemetary caches themselves go, I recently found myself at one and at first was surprised that someone would hide a cache there. However, I got out of my car and began reading some of the headstones, and found quite a few WWI vets! I am a midshipman myself, and despite not knowing these men and their families, I silently offered my own prayers to them. So yes, I think cemetary caches should be allowed, with the hope that the seekers remember to be respectful.

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We enjoy the cemetery caches ourselves, but can certainly understand the viewpoint of those that don't. We took a road trip about a month and a half ago from Colorado to Mississippi. We found caches in 3 cemeteries along the way: One each in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. In our opinion, all 3 were done tastefully and did not disrespect anything.

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It used to be, before the concept of a public park, that the only place in a city where the proletariat could recreate was in a cemetery. It was the only place not developed with streets, homes and commerce. I don't see any problem with it at all.

 

In fact, we used to have a multi that started in the public cemetery, where the clues led you from the subject's grave to the home where they lived, to the business they owned and finally to the large forested park that they bequeathed to the city. It was quite fun.

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We enjoy the cemetery caches ourselves, but can certainly understand the viewpoint of those that don't. We took a road trip about a month and a half ago from Colorado to Mississippi. We found caches in 3 cemeteries along the way: One each in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. In our opinion, all 3 were done tastefully and did not disrespect anything.

My favorite cemetery cache is in Colorado. On the hill above Glenwood Springs is the virtual for Doc Holliday's gravesite with a physical cache less than 200 feet away just outside the cemetery.

I have also done a puzzle cache in Oregon which had a very cleverly hidden small cache hidden in an empty spot in a country cemetery.

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Our first find was a micro in a ex-cemetery.

All the headstones bar one had been removed, a monument with all the names on it placed. It is now a park with a few trees where children play.

 

Another we have found was in a cemetery on State Highway 1 (goes the length of New Zealand) that you can not see from the road, has no signage or anything. Locals I have spoken to are surprised and didn't know about it.

 

Also a virtual I would like to visit is in Central Otago which is hot and dry during summer and very cold in winter. The placer has inherited repsonsibility for looking after a rose bush on an ansesters grave and asks geocachers to water it to log a find. Corrindates given for a tap as well as the grave. They no longer live in the area so although they visit it not often enough to ensure the rose bushs survival.

 

I think if it is in a cemetery the page should say so that way people can make their own mind up if they want to find it or not. People from all over the world treat death and dead people in different ways, no one way is better than any other.

I would not be happy to stand on someone elses grave to find a cache.

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The first few I did made me feel a little bit uncomfortable. Probably because I had never really been in cemeteries all that much.

 

After that, I felt OK finding them but I was still lukewarm on the concept. Lately, I've found a large number of them in rural areas. It suddenly occurred to me that they are pretty much the rural equivalent of an urban park and grab. That's when I realized that I liked them soooo much better than a guardrail or lamppost hide. They are usually in peaceful, quiet settings. There is often some interesting history around you if you take the time to read some of the headstones. I usually see interesting stonework or very individualized markers that tell a lot about the person.

 

All in all, I've come to enjoy them quite well. Someone in our area has taken to finding some cemeteries that are mostly unnoticed or "lost" and making them part of a multi-cache. These are in urban areas but in patches of woods or old neighborhoods that I'd otherwise never see or know about. They are great and I always look forward to his next one.

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Cemetary caches... it depends. I've found 4 of them. One was in Rockville, MD, and was very old and impressive-- a place really unknown even to those who live within a mile of it. I'm glad I was able to experience it.

 

The others I found were in Michigan, a few were impressive with interesting histories which shared stories of the first settlers; others were placed just to place one.

 

I think it all depends on the time and effort the owner takes. My new criteria with cemetary caches is to read the description and decide if it will enlighten me.

 

I am a descendant of those first settlers in Michigan. I have been doing my genealogy including locating graveyards. More than once I have been disappointed in finding that the sites have been vandalized by idiots playing "mow the stones" with their old car. I would much rather some half way intelligent geocacher be looking around. Some kind off living people traffic might discourage the idiots form doing some damage. Besides what is the point of having a grave stone if nobody is going to look at it?

 

I know no geocacher that goes trodding around on the graves themselves! I would think that 99% or more of the geocacher population would be offended by the accusation. I myself visited local graveyards, before I ever geocached, where I discovered some of the Donner Party buried. How thrilling to learn about our history. One cache "Ton Lifter" in Angels Camp Ca. pays tribute to a performer who, after making a fortune in the PT Barnum & Bailey Circus and not having any children of his own, became a philanthropist and dedicated his time and money to taking care of orphaned children. Who will know of this great soul without something pointing the way?

 

While I respect the opinion of the other geocacher wanting to not participate in these kinds of caches, it does not sound like, from the tone of the post, that they are willing to be as tolerant as the book they hold dear teaches. I have found that while I favor being donated to science, after my passing, I have grown to question that opinion as I have seen some of the epitaphs written and displayed on graveyards and the link it provides to future generations. I think that is of great value as well.

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No cache at this one, but an interesting story:

 

There is a cemetery where you can also see an NFL game!

In the early 70s when Erie County, NY was building a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills, they found an abandoned cemetery. It turns out it was asmall family cemetery of the ancestors of the people who had sold the land to the county. Instead of digging the bodies up, the county fixed up the cemetery and it now stands in the parking lot for Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park NY.

 

I have also head a lecture on the local public access channel where the archeologist said that the median of one of the major streets in the town still has hundreds of Native American skeletons in it. When they were putting the street in, they found so many that they and the local tribe decided to leave them there.

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I'll say I have to like them. I have one hidden in a really old cemetery with hand made stones. I placed mine away from any headstone or marker. Every reply has been good. My daughter and I love to go find them. Its always peaceful. There are hundreds in East Texas alone and most of the hiders have done there homework in placing the caches. Now, mind you this is my 2 cents and I can see why others might not like them. If you go into a cemetery with numbers on your mind..ie, just another cache, you may never see who is there. We go in with the idea being respectful and you often learn something when your not even trying too!

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We love doing cemetery caches. Because of them, we have learned a LOT about the county in which we live, as well as the surrounding areas. We've found memorials for people whose parents were born on the Mayflower. We've seen a lot of Veteran memorials and were able to have great conversations with our son about war and to have respect for our service men and women. We've learned a lot about the first settlers in our area. AND we've learned how to navigate all the back country roads around here! :) Whenever we place a cemetery cache, we ALWAYS state that it is in a cemetery and require cachers to follow cemetery rules. Most we've cached are not near graves at all. I get tired of finding so-and-so's birthdate and subtracting it from blah blah coords, but I still like to go and admire the beauty of the place after finding the cache. I really like the ones that tell a story about someone or give a history lesson.

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I hate the whole concept, and put them on my ignore list.

 

Everyone is free for there own opioins, but to go as far as to ignore them? I would at least go with the cache is a cahe, and go log it, but your stance is your stance.

 

If a cacher has no intentions of ever hunting a cache way shouldn't it be put on their ignore list.

 

The ignore list is a powerful tool. I put just about every parking lot micro, night case and paddle too cache on my ignore list. I also run several other list to hold micros and paddle too caches.

 

As for cemetery caches, there better be some thought or significance to the cache, just another drive a dump does nothing for me, and IMHO is a detriment to the game.

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