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Another question about ethics (cemetaries)


CachinSpree

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How does the general geocaching public feel about walking around in cemetaries looking for caches? It just don't seem right to me. If it were one of my loved ones, I am not too sure that I would like someone planting caches on them. I looked at a cache today, and it was somewhere about 250' out into the cemetary from where I was parked. The hint is "hanging over headstone". I don't mind walking around the edge of it, but not on someones grave. How do ya'll feel? Thanks - 69rrvert

Edited by 69rrvert
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In general I like it when caches take me into cemetaries. They are places that I wouldn't normally visit and they can be full of history. They always make me think about life and mortality and that's not a bad thing.

 

Like all caches however, there are good a bad placements. Requiring someone to walk on a grave to retrieve a cache is probably a bad placement and you might want to mention your thoughts in your log.

 

If you dont like caching in cemetaries, I'd say just skip them. There are plenty of others to search for.

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It appears this topic comes up a lot.

 

We as a family really enjoy cemetery caches as long as they are placed respectfully. The majority of the ones placed here in Illinois are along the boundaries of the cemetery. After finding the cache we like to take a walk through the cemetery reading the headstones. There is a lot of intersting history to be found.

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I know there are at least a handful of cachers that left instructions for caches to be placed near "the final".

 

Having said that, I don't think it is a good idea to place a cache on or next to any of the grave markers or sites. However, it is possible to have a cache on the grounds and tastifully hidden. I have been to one that was on hooked to a bench near a parking area in the center of the cemetary.

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I love cemeteries and visit them when I'm on vacation or come across a particularly interesting one in my area that I've not visited. The history is interesting and I find myself seeking out caches in cemeteries as it gives me an extra excuse to go there. I don't think it's cool to hide a geocache ON someone's grave however. Of the several I have found in cemeteries, only one has been near an actual headstone. All the others were in a tree or up against a fence along the perimeter of the cemetery.

 

Everyone is different though so if they bother you, don't do them.

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How does the general geocaching public feel about walking around in cemetaries looking for caches? It just don't seem right to me. If it were one of my loved ones, I am too sure that I would like someone planting caches on them. I looked at a cache today, and it was somewhere about 250' out into the cemetary from where I was parked. The hint is "hanging over headstone". I don't mind walking around the edge of it, but not on someones grave. How do ya'll feel? Thanks - 69rrvert

 

Well, you're not alone, that's for sure. I personally know one cacher who would never find a cemetery cache, and there are several others that post to these forums regularly. Go with the ol' "if you don't like them, don't find them" rule. For example, I myself never cache in parking lots. :huh:

 

Of course they should be respectfully placed. Not enough info from the hint you're quoting, it could actually be tastefully placed hanging in a tree above a headstone, for example.

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I love cemeteries and I dearly like the extra excuse the go to them. Not that I need one. I've been visiting cemeteries for years to do my family history.

 

Of course, I grew up with a grandmother who faithfully went out every single Sunday (rain, snow, sleet or shine) to freshen up the graves of her loved ones. We rotated through the three cemeteries our local family members were buried in and made a trip to all three in one day to change decorations for variuos holidays.

 

That was back in the day when they would let you put decorations on the stones for the holidays--many cemeteries don't do that now. If there are decorations on the stones, the caretaker can't just drive over the graves with the lawn tractor to cut the grass.

 

One of the largest cemeteries near me gives tours year round. They have sculpture done by famous artists all through the cemetery, and buildings dones by famous architects, and landscaping done by famous landscape artists. People come from all over the world to see the rare plants there, too. They've spent millions of dollars making their cemetery a showcase to be enjoyed. People walk and jog there, do art there, take photographs, do grave rubbings--some folks even have their wedding receptions there.

 

I truely despise cemeteries where they pack people so close to each other that you can't even walk to someone's grave without walking across someone else. Oh, I know the caretaker runs over the graves with heavy equipment and runs weed-eaters around the stones and does all sorts of things I don't even want to think about (like moving the stones and not quite getting them back in the right place), but I prefer not to walk across someone's resting place.

 

I do dislike caches that are right on the stones--unless the stone belongs to the cache owner's family and they say so explicitly on the cache page. Luckily, there are usually plenty of trees or shrubs or perimeter fences etc to place a cache where it doesn't impact the burials.

 

The absolute worst thing that can happen to a cemetery is for people to stop going there. The graves become neglected and the whole area becomes a target for vandals. It's extremely disrespectful to ignore the dead while the lettering of their headstone is eaten away by acid rain, and their last memorial fades away untended, unseen, and unremarked.

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One could, of course, search the fora for 'cemetery' caches, and find quite a bit of discussion. Many find them quite disrespectful (myself included). Many love them. Some people even think that a cemetery is a great place to have a picnic! You will not find a concensus either way here.

If you dont like them, do as I do, and put them on your ignore list. I do think, since there is such a division here, that a cemetery attrbute would be a good idea. That way we could eliminate them from our GPX files.

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I guess it really depends upon the nature of the cache itself and the demeanor / deportment of the cacher himself / herself. I always enter the cemetery with the same respect and demeanor as if I were visiting my loved ones.

 

I felt an awful lot like you do now. But, some cemetery caches are meant to draw attention to a historical figure or event. Sometimes the hunt for the cache will require getting information off of headstones. That can be really cool. We have a couple of cemeteries here in Michigan that date back to the late 1700's!!!! I never even knew they existed.

 

Cache the way you feel in your heart. If you don't feel comfortable with it, no one will look down upon you because of it. Hold to your principles!

 

Cache Safe!

Grigorii Rasputin

http://www.glass-cockpit.org

http://grigoriirasputin.wordpress.com

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It seems that the general concensus does not have problem with it. I guess I will go out tomorrow and see if I can find it. As long as it in not disrespectful, it should be Ok. This particula cemetary is out in hte county so it does not get a whole lot of traffic. Thanks for the help. I have only been at this for about a month now. Thanks - 69rrvert

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For me it lies in the demeanor of the cacher. If you carelessly walk across the graves and seem indifferent to where you are it would bother me.

 

If you are walking purposefully, carefully, respectfully and reverantly, and treating the place with dignity I have no issues with hunting caches in/near a cemetary. Permission of the landowner is a another matter altogether.

 

Some of my favorites were caches that honored a fallen soldier, 9/11 victim or hero, or famous historical figure from my community. When done respectfully I think it is a tribute, not an insult. I especially like it when they are offset caches and require me to find the marker to gain info on how to locate the cache. I often find myself reading many of the markers and wondering about the people lives who are buried there.

 

I think it is a great way to humble yourself too, realizing what a small part of the world's events I really am.

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It seems that the general concensus does not have problem with it. I guess I will go out tomorrow and see if I can find it. As long as it in not disrespectful, it should be Ok. This particula cemetary is out in hte county so it does not get a whole lot of traffic. Thanks for the help. I have only been at this for about a month now. Thanks - 69rrvert

Actually, the general concensus is do what you are comfortable doing...

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Speaking very general here: Regardless of what the majority does or doesn't do, you have your own free will to hunt for caches that you want to hunt for. Right or wrong is not about what the crowd does...it is about what you do...

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A cemetery is not a public place.

 

Some are.

 

In general I don't see anything wrong with a tastefully placed cemetery cache. There are many people who use cemeteries for reasons other than mourning. I see joggers, walkers, bird watchers, geneologists, artists, historians, tombstone rubbers, photographers and nature lovers among the respectful users of cemeteries. There is no reason that geocachers can't be included among them.

 

Until the early 20th century cemeteries were commonly places for picnics and family outings. In fact I've still encountered cemeteries with picnic tables. The idea that they are dark places, solely reserved for mourning is a fairly recent concept.

 

I see geocaching as a tool to explore the interesting places in my world and cemeteries are fascinating places, full of history, art and nature. Precisely the kind of place I want geocaching to bring me. I guess if you look at geocaching as just a game you might see things a bit differently.

Edited by briansnat
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GC1A91Q

 

Was a cache that I recently archived. It was a micro placed just outside the boundary of a burial ground. But it was a good spot and it achieved the intended result. It was a burial ground where soldiers of the revolution were buried, and it had fallen into total ruin, I talked it up to some Scouting Geocachers and sure enough one of the young men undertook to clean it out as his Eagle project. They came over to tell me that the project is done and asked that I go look at it now, they were so proud of their work. And again the question was asked as it often is in Geocaching circles: "How did you find this place" . I would never be unmindful of the dignity of the deceased nor of their loved ones while caching a cemetary.

 

On Cape Cod I have visted several burial grounds for the activities mentioned before. I consider it a rememberance of lives. One in Dennis Ma, has plots with row after row of gravemarkers that say "LOST AT SEA", the graves contain no remains. I find that a fascinating bit of history.

 

I would be very careful about checking to make sure that the cache is in a general domain location. Some cemetaries are private property and are stictly treated as such.

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How does the general geocaching public feel about walking around in cemetaries...

 

It's all in the spin. Ever walk along a river? Odds are you have walked on someones grave and never knew it. Cemetaries have a known locatoin (most times) but the broader world doesn't.

 

When you break caching into the walking and hiking and exploring parts. Folks don't mind those in a cemetary. When you call it a game. Now it a dirty stinking thing that should be no where near a cemetary.

 

Respect is as Respect does.

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I've found a few cemetery caches. The caches were placed away from the graves so they were fine with me. This might sound creepy, but while I was there I wondered whether the dead people were happy that I stopped by....

 

You reminded me of a few graves I've found while caching. An uknown child on the oregon trail. Another unknown person on anohter section of the oregon trail (the oregon trail has been called the worlds longest graveyard). A small cemetary surrounded by urban sprawl. It had swollwed up everthing but this forgotten place. Cachers bring more respect to the location than any urban shopper ever would. An abandoned cemetary near a ghost town where there is nobody left to care but those few who had some to find it and in so doing are among the few who know of the location and remember.

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I go to every cache with the idea that I am going to take something positive away with me, be it a beautiful sunset, an interesting location, a unique hide, one that makes me laugh. So naturally I do this when caching in cemeteries. One cemetery had a handmade metal sculpture of a weightlifter named Shannon. It was a wonderful tribute. One cemetery I had to walk about 1/2 mile to get to it - that one had a marker from the 1800's of an 18 year old who had fought off the Indians. In fact, I saved my 100th find for a cache placed about 20 feet from my 18 year old sister. I loved this cache & hope it stays around. I won't cache in a cemetery where a funeral is taking place, or a mourner is visiting a gravesite.

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How does the general geocaching public feel about walking around in cemetaries looking for caches?

 

You know, your question makes me think about setting up a cemetary cache. Stick with me on this one though...

 

Not long ago, I was in a very old cemetery in Franklin, Michigan. It dates back to the early 1800s. There, dilapidated and forgotten, was the headstone of a private in the Union Army who was killed during the Civil War. "WOW!", I thought, "A real American hero!"

 

I'm thinking about making a cache that will take someone through the cemetery, then to this headstone. A combination of the names of the deceased and their dates of birth would take you to a cache OUTSIDE the cemetery!

 

So, would my cache turn the cemetery into a circus? Not by a long shot. I think one of the greatest things to do for the dead (besides pray for them) is to speak their name that hasn't been spoken in a century. Okay, I'm getting philosophical. Shut up, Pete....

 

Cache Safe!

Grigorii Rasputin

http://grigoriirasputin.wordpress.com

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There are two virtuals in the National cemetery in Chattanooga. One takes you to a monument to the first ever recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor (the US Military's most prestigious metal for bravery). The other takes you to the headstone of another recipient of the same medal, I believe placed by a relative to honor the deceased. I consider both to be respectful caches in cemeteries.

 

Other local caches take you to or through cemeteries to find the cache located just outside the fence, or in trees away from the graves. Those can be nice too.

 

I know of one where you visit the grave of the hider's grandfather to gather info for a multi-stage puzzle. The hider did this because he believes his grandfather would have enjoyed meeting the people who stopped by to visit, and stated this in the description.

 

But even with the most respectful hide possible, it all is pointless if a herd of group-cachers stampedes through. And then there are caches where a micro is hidden in a bush in the middle of the graves (inviting the standard decimation of the bush as seekers paw through it) or a film can is dropped in a random urn on a random headstone. That's kinda disrespectful in my opinion, but each to his own.

 

... it could actually be tastefully placed hanging in a tree above a headstone, for example.

The first thing I thought of was someone standing on the headstone to reach for the cache...

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a cemetery super of a famous cemetery once offered to get me a false headstone in which to place a cache.

 

i have been to some old cemeteries at which geocachers are the ONLY visitors now.

 

why not go and hang out there? enjoy the day while remembering the deceased? say a little prayer? those monuments are there to preserve memory, even after your family dies out. that's why they carve 'em in durable materials.

 

if you pause a moment at my grave to think of me, i won't care why you came, just that you did. in fact, i will be pleased to think you might be there to have a good time. share a bright moment with me, if you will.

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a cemetery super of a famous cemetery once offered to get me a false headstone in which to place a cache.

 

i have been to some old cemeteries at which geocachers are the ONLY visitors now.

 

why not go and hang out there? enjoy the day while remembering the deceased? say a little prayer? those monuments are there to preserve memory, even after your family dies out. that's why they carve 'em in durable materials.

 

if you pause a moment at my grave to think of me, i won't care why you came, just that you did. in fact, i will be pleased to think you might be there to have a good time. share a bright moment with me, if you will.

 

Well said. I happened to be in VT last weekend and found a few cemetery caches. In each case we took the time after finding the cache to pause at a few of the headstones and reflect on the lives of the deceased. In some instances we might well have been the first person to do that in a hundred years.

 

I also make it a point to seek out the graves with flags and say a silent thanks to the veterans who served in long ago wars. We found the grave of a patriot who lost his life at the Battle of Bennington. I spent some time there wondering what he was like and what he would have thought of the nation that rose thanks in part to his sacrifice.

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I looked for a cache a few days ago that led me to an old cemetary. I am pretty sure where it was hidding, but my GPS put me wandering around a few graves so I left it alone. I'll go back again one day and look again. I did spend a little time there reading the headstones. Lots of interesting facts. Thanks - CachinSpree

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a cemetery super of a famous cemetery once offered to get me a false headstone in which to place a cache.

 

i have been to some old cemeteries at which geocachers are the ONLY visitors now.

 

why not go and hang out there? enjoy the day while remembering the deceased? say a little prayer? those monuments are there to preserve memory, even after your family dies out. that's why they carve 'em in durable materials.

 

if you pause a moment at my grave to think of me, i won't care why you came, just that you did. in fact, i will be pleased to think you might be there to have a good time. share a bright moment with me, if you will.

While I frequently experience a difference of opinion with flask, I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment in this post.

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I don't understand why people are so hung up on visiting cemeteries. I think they should be visited much more often than they are. By visiting we can honor those who came before us and we can remember those we loved.

 

I have done a fair number of cemetery caches and have always come away with a feeling of serenity and appreciation of life. One cache took me to the cemetery where several of my relatives are buried. It was a very moving experience for me and I thanked the hider for placing the cache and giving me the chance to reconnect with people who are a part of me.

 

We shouldn't discourage cemetery caches, rather we should ENCOURAGE them.

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I personally love cemetery caches. One can learn so much history from visiting old cemeteries. I have done caches that have taken me to graveyards from the 1600s and 1700s. Pretty awesome!

 

Today I went with a friend of mine so he could get "Clark's Eternal Rest". I have been there three or four times and never get tired of going out there. We walked through a swamp and came up to the clearing. It opened up and there was a fence around two gravestones from the mid-1700s. I never would have known this spot was there if it wasn't for geocaching.

 

That goes for a lot of the cemeteries around here. They can be awesome places. Peaceful and serene and great for the imagination. There is nothing like reading old tombstones and wondering about the people who lived "way back". Laurel Hill in Philly is one of my favorite places to visit!

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back in the days before geocaching i used to hang out in a cemetery near a camp i went to in the summers. i noticed an interesting configuration of two families buried side-by-side in two different rows and wondered if there was a connection.

 

so i made diagrams and took pictures and then i went to the town offices and spent time in the vaults. the clerk was very friendly and the camp counselors were amused.

 

those people have been gone a long time, but if not for me playing among the graves nobody would be thinking of them. i learned everything i could about them: their birth and death dates, their land records, their enlistments, their birth and death certificates. i was able to trace their migration to my state, and the passage of their careers, the town's history, and the evidence of the epidemics that i knew about but hadn't given much thought to. cholera epidemic took every child a family had. young man died in a prison camp in virginia. family all gone.

 

right on the headstones, it says "remember me as you pass by".

 

who will remember if nobody passes by?

 

recently i was at a cache at a place where a soldier was buried where he fell in the course of a long march during the 1812 war. his name is unknown. who visits him? geocachers, mostly.

 

our old cemeteries are full of civil war dead; our state had the highest per capita casualties in that war. entire hill towns died out because the men never came home. some of the bodies were shipped home. few of those graves have visitors these days.

 

at the end of my street there are both union and confederate dead; where i live it is unusual for there to be confederate dead. the mills are gone. the houses have been razed. the road has been thrown up. the trees have grown back.

 

a geocache means people will come to see. they will get to stand on the steps of the old baptist church even though the steps are all that's left.

 

one day i'll be buried up there. i hope you'll come visit.

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Flask, while you indeed used the cache as a way to keep those families alive and on someone's mind and I truly think that is what should happen with every cemetery cache, all too often, it doesn't.

 

The cacher may find himself/herself in a lovely place, full of historic significance, but the only reason they enter is for the cache. Once they sign the log, and leave, the cemetery and its history is deleted with the waypoint coordinates.

 

How many cachers take the time and effort to do as you did? Most enter the cemetery, find the cache and never return. Why then, make the excuse that the cache is only a tool for bringing them to a place?

 

If one finds a cache, but never returns to the graveyard, how then are they paying respects, showing reverence, or keeping memories of those who have gone before us alive? It just doesn't ring true.

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If one finds a cache, but never returns to the graveyard, how then are they paying respects, showing reverence, or keeping memories of those who have gone before us alive? It just doesn't ring true.

Really? It "doesn't ring true" because a person might go there just once?

 

A family member went to the grave of one of our ancestors a few years ago. It was 700 miles from his home. He had to walk at least 10 acres of weedy grass to find the stone of our ancestor, which was covered in tall grass and vines. He cleared the stone, took photographs, and got a gps reading of the location to share with the rest of us. The visitor was 73 years old. He is too feeble to go there again. So you are telling me that he didn't pay respect to our ancestor of keep the memory alive because he will only visit there once in his life?

 

Who says you never return anyway? I've been taken to cemeteries by caches, and returned to them later, just to see them again. There is no rule that says you can't visit a park, cemetery, or even a parking lot ever again just because you already found a cache there.

 

Perhaps it's more important to go to a new spot and "pay respect to/keep alive the memory of" another vet, another family, another lonely stone. Visit once or visit multiple forgotten places...How do you measure those two ideas against each other? I honestly don't know which one is more important.

 

Or perhaps it's just as important that multiple people visit, yes even if the draw is to find a cache.

 

So what if you never return? Isn't visiting once better than never visiting?

 

Even if it's only Flask, at least someone has not forgotten that family. And just by sharing her story, there are people who know about that family than ever before. That will last as long as she lives. I'd even recommend going one step further and depositing information with the local historical society, or the local library. Perhaps some relative will be able to find more about their family that way. And the information won't be lost again.

 

(There are people --not geocachers--who visit cemeteries just to take photographs of the headstones and record the information for genealogy purposes).

Edited by Neos2
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If one finds a cache, but never returns to the graveyard, how then are they paying respects, showing reverence, or keeping memories of those who have gone before us alive? It just doesn't ring true.

 

i'll probably never go back to that lonely roadside where the unknown 1812 soldier is buried. do i need to? because i went to that cache i stood for a few moments at his grave to say a prayer and to feel sorrow at his death of sickness on a long march far from his home.

 

chances are very good i won't be returning to a lot of the cemeteries i have visited. i don't need to keep going back in order to remember a lot of those graves.

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We found one cache at a cemetary today ..the cache was placed on the other side (the rim of the property) not in the graveyard ..very discrete we thought ..we love old cemetaries also.

Thanks to who placed the cache at the San Pasqual Cemetary,outside of San Diego County!!You all did great.!!

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Flask, while you indeed used the cache as a way to keep those families alive and on someone's mind and I truly think that is what should happen with every cemetery cache, all too often, it doesn't.

 

The cacher may find himself/herself in a lovely place, full of historic significance, but the only reason they enter is for the cache. Once they sign the log, and leave, the cemetery and its history is deleted with the waypoint coordinates.

 

How many cachers take the time and effort to do as you did? Most enter the cemetery, find the cache and never return. Why then, make the excuse that the cache is only a tool for bringing them to a place?

 

If one finds a cache, but never returns to the graveyard, how then are they paying respects, showing reverence, or keeping memories of those who have gone before us alive? It just doesn't ring true.

 

The same holds for caches near historic sites, at beautiful views and other interesting places. There are some geocachers who don't give a whit about the view, the history, or whatever. They want the smiley and they are out of there. It doesn't mean we shouldn't place caches in these places because a segment of geocachers don't appreciate them.

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In an instance like that, I wouldn't feel comfortable looking for it. With that said, I have done cache's in cem's but they were not on a grave. I have learned a lot about the history of the area I live in because of some of these cache's. I think that there is a tasteful, respectable way to do one. Historical cem's for instance is a great place as long as its not on or near a grave site. Just my two cents.

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As someone mentioned earlier, this topic comes up repeatedly.

 

So .....

 

1. If you like cemeteries, do the caches. If not, then don't.

 

2. Cemeteries are open to the public. Visitors welcome.

 

3. They are full of history. Lots of stories to 'tell'.

 

4. I know cemeteries that hold art fairs. Car shows. Grave walks. Picnics (My family takes the grandchildren to visit their aunt, and celebrate her birthday).

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Hello, I am new to Geocaching and enjoyed reading all the comments about cemetery caching. I used to be in the land-clearing business and one day while clearing for a new road, I saw a straight line of objects off to the side of the road. I got off the bulldozer and checked to see what they were as God doesn't grow or put things in straight rows. I discovered about a dozen small graves. Some of them had caved in. Some had stones around the grave. Others were markers made of cypress slabs. Thats what I had seen in a straight row. The cypress slabs were all weathered, worn and unreadable. I contacted an old man with the local historical society and he told me that must be the children's cemetery that he had heard about. He said that had it become lost in time and I must have found it. He told me he heard it was put out of town because the children had died from a cholera epidemic back in the early 1800s. He was going to have the Historical society mark it and have it preserved. You know I haven't been back there or even thought about it in over 25 years till reading the above posts. So tomorrow I will go find it again and see what's there. Maybe put a Geocache nearby for remembrance.

Best regards

OB

Edited by obobrien
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There is a cache in Canada, B.C, that seems to be a good solution to the cemetery ethics question. We have not actually been to the cache, but plan to if the weather is warm enough while we are there.

 

The cache is a mystery cache requiring the cacher to answer questions about various headstones in order to get the correct cordinates to the cache, which is placed a short distance away. In other words, it requires you to visit the cemetery but the cache is not phisically placed in the cemetery.

 

Here is the cache page

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Of course they should be respectfully placed.

 

An example of a non respectful placement

I would not have put a geocache there...but the headstone itself is very likely not at the exact burial location, either.

 

There is no base showing for it to be mounted on/in, and that should be there---except it could not be with the trees there. Given the apparent age of the stone and the size of the trees, at best the burial was on one side of the trees. (Oh, you hear about people saying "Bury me under the chestnut tree on top the hill" but it's just too hard to dig into all the roots for a burial and it damages the tree, so people usually interpret the last wishes to mean "In the shade of the tree" and place the loved one nearby).

 

Looks like someone clipped that headstone with a piece of heavy equipment at some time, too. My guess is the headstone came loose of it's base and was propped between the trees to save the trouble of resetting the mount.

 

Besides all that, the cache is way too exposed there anyway. Surely there is a better spot nearby for a cache?

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You have to take the responses you see with a grain of salt. Geocaching is an activity that attracts a wide range of people and everyone is free to enjoy this activity in the fashion they choose. I see comments that look like they might make people feel bad because they treat geocaching like a game, if someone tries to detract from your fun they are wrong, just ignore them. If you are not negatively impacting other searchers and you are respecting the wishes of the cache owner then you are geocaching properly and you should ignore people who tell you otherwise.

 

I used to try and avoid cemetery caches. That all changed when I visited this cache in Montana. The cache was hidden in a private cemetery and it touched my entire family quite deeply. We honoured the wishes of the cache owner by sitting there and imagining how we would react to the same set of circumstances.

One cacher recently wrote this in his log - Stopped by and found this cache while visiting Montana from North Carolina. This one was a little more painful than we thought it would be but it is in an very interesting area. TFTC

 

The pain they felt wasn't thorns or poison ivy. :(

 

After that visit I relaxed and realized that my choices weren't as important as honouring the wishes of the cache owner. Since that time I have found several cemetery caches. I don't look for them but I no longer "not look" for them. In some cases I know that our visit or the visit of other geocachers are the only visits that some of the "forgotten by most cemeteries" receive.

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We love to cache in Cemeteries. We love the old headstone. We have the up most respect for cemeteries. We do not cache in the dark just a little on the creepy side. I will say that for me personally I respect that there are peoples family laying underfoot, my own mother died 7 years ago butI feel that the body is just a vessel and the spirit has moved on. Why I don't have a problem with cemeteries.

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I throughly enjoy cemetery caches. In northeast Ohio there are many. I haven't come across any that are placed on a grave.

I have hidden several caches in local cemeteries. Lakeview Cemetery is a beautiful place. I encourage folks to visit there if they are in Cleveland.

One of my hides was in a cemetery that had been neglected for years. (East Cleveland Cemetery) I didn't even know this place existed until a newspaper article told of a group that had formed to try to restore the place. After my cache was visited a few times, a local team, Team Dot One, contacted that organization and arranged a CITO event at the cemetery. Many local cachers showed up and raked leaves and helped clean up the place! How cool is that!

 

As others have stated, cemeteries need visitors. I think it shows respect for the deceased that we visit, and remember them.

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I dunno about you, but when I die, I want my headstone to be a geocache. This could be done easily simply by mounting a little flower vase on the headstone, and sticking a Rite In The Rain type logbook in it.

 

Anyone else share that sentiment?

I share the sentiment, but I think some kind of hinged container would be better. Yeah, a secret container. I've already told my husband that's what I want.

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