Neat old Cemetary

[Tsmola]

Just thought I would share some photos of this cemetary, I was out geocaching the other day, I found 3 caches in this cemetary, I had passed by it probably a million times but had never visited it until now, this was perhaps one of the coolest geocache hunts and neatest cemetaries I've ever visited, from the road you can only see about 100 yards into the cemetary, but it goes up into the hills back for a really long way I was just amazed by how far it went back, and the neat stones I found the farther I went. I walked around for over an hour just taking pics of all the cool headstones, I don't know of another cemetary anything like this one anywhere near us.

The pic above was one of the highest burials I found, located well over 500 yards from the road and completely out of sight, I never would have known these were back here had I not walked up there.

close-up of the stone in previous pic

I found this spray-painted on the ground near my truck, with all the old headstones, spooky foilage, plus this it made it seem like this place should be in some sort of horror movie, it was pretty creepy.

note in the pic above, the red blob in the backround is my truck, and I wasn't in the highest part of the cemetary yet.

some parts of it were obviously in disrepair, despite the fact that people are still being buried here, it appears the old stones in the back don't get near as much attention or groundskeeping work as the ones out front do.

Took me a while to get these images down to managable sizes, I found that the medium-size images off my new D50 are 300 DPI!

I was wondering why the file sizes were so large even when compressed!

 

[pbrdog]

Cool pics. So, did you camp out there that night? LOL

 

[BelchFire]

Travis, that's AWESOME! I LOVE cemeteries. They're so cool, and have such character (no pun intended -- really). The tall markers, and the one on the hill top are probably my favorites above; I wish I could visit that cemetery. Where is it located?

It's a shame that someone out there has the complete lack of respect for a cemetery as to take spray paint to it. That's a shame; too bad there wasn't a quick fix you could do for it (like "cache in, trash out")

Thanks for sharing that; it's REALLY cool, and the pictures are well orchestrated.

 

[Tsmola]

thanks, no I didn't camp there, the place closes at night, the spray paint was on one of the few places that was paved. This cemetary is located just outside Paw Paw MI, I've got more I may post later if you want to see them.

I had never been in a cemetary this hilly before, I had to climb down a few really steep slopes to find the geocaches, and whenever I looked up I could see those really tall monuments sticking up from above. There are lots of cemtaries in the area with stones as old as these, but those cemetaries are all in flat areas, seeing this made me wonder just how did they haul those huge stones up there?

anyone who geocaches knows the min distance apart caches have to be spaced, there are 4 in this cemetary, just to give an idea of the size. Also in the closeup of the farthest back stone, the gray lines in the distance in the backround are a highway. I had never seen multiple geocaches in one cemetary before this one.

 

[duckwidow]

cool cemetary...I make it a point to walk thru old cemetarys whenever we come across them...I really like reading the headstones, it is very interesting to see some of the things people put on headstones and how old the person was when they died. I guess I am just weird.

thanks for the pics

 

[BelchFire]

You're not wierd DW. I think cemeteries are some of the coolest most peaceful places on earth, and the further back in the woods they are, the more I like then. Older too. And I'd camp there, 'specially if it was MY family; I just wouldn't let you guys know about it until the next day. ...wouldn't put it past you guys either.

Travis, post up the rest, I can't wait. I'm not too familiar with the Geocahce rules; what's the minimum distance? How do you "obtain permission" to place a cache in a cemetery -- ouija board?

 

[duckwidow]

I think I actually like being scared too...

 

[Tsmola]

I have no idea how you obtain permission to place them in a cemetary but the min distance apart caches must be is .10 miles or 528 feet. All the caches in this cemetary were much farther apart than that, it doesn't sound very big when talking about it, but I can't ever recall multiple caches in one cemetary, or a cemetary this large. Here's the offical guidelines:

http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx

since there is so much interest here's some more pics

note in the pic above, all you can see from the road is the stones up to the bottom of the hill, but they continue on up into the woods for quite a ways at the top of several large hills.

I plan to go back here sometime and find the one cache I couldn't locate and to take some better photos using a tripod.

oh and for any geocachers out there, here's the cache pages for the ones in this cemetary. Out of all the caches I've done in the area I highly reccomend these to any geocacher just passing through or visiting the area.

GCNPWD
GCNPWN
GCNPWJ

 

[Hideandwatch]

Cool pictures, I'm sorry that I dont know what a geocache is though. Guess here's another to look up. BUT, what really got me was right when I was really getting into the pictures and the other posts ( right at duckwidows post) I hear a loud crashing thud sound like something fell against the wall under me in the basement or the garage. I go down there (scared)

and can't find anything that has fallen. I stand in the garage which is below the room I was sitting in and think, is there a ghost in this house? Then I see that the garage door spring has broken, it's a roll up with two springs one either side and the one directly below me broke. phewee!

Yeah, thanks for sharing these

 

[Tsmola]

a geocache is a small container with a logbook and pencil and depending on the cache different kinds of items that get traded by the people who find the cache. The cache is located by putting in GPS cooridinates you get off the internet, then going to the spot and trying to find the cache. Sort of a modern treasure hunt. It's hard to really explain it and the attraction to the sport until you've gone on a hunt yourself.