Cemetary and Church Geocaches

[HercRx]

I am curious to know what people in the Arkansas geocaching community think of church and cemetary geocaches. There seem to be quite a bit of them around here. After geocaching in Alaska where there are not a lot of cemetery caches they give me the creeps....especially when there isn't a note on the cache page saying that the owners of the cemetery or church gave permission. What do the rest of you think?

[RugerPilot345]

Most that I have seen are very respectful and do not invade on the privacy or the sanctity (sp??) of the location......I think they are a neat look into the history of our great state!!

Just my two cents.......ha ha!!

Cool!!

[nonnipoppy]

At first we felt a degree of creepiness when searching for caches in a cemetery. Experience has changed that for us. There are significantly interesting sights in almost every cemetery that we have ever visited. Prior to caching our visits were almost always associated with sadness and loss.

If not for geocaching we would never have visited many truly beautiful, interesting and peaceful places.

A significant find to us was the multi cache that requires information from the headstone of WalMart founder Sam Walton. It is amazing to us that a loved one from such a wealthy family rests under such a modest stone. It speaks volumes about having your priorities in the correct order.

We have found caches that were requested by the departed, in honor of the departed, and commemorating the lives of the departed. As long as the cache is done in good taste we now enjoy them a lot. A person looking around in a cemetery is seldom noticed and raised little suspicion.

We now have caches hidden in several cemeteries and think they are respectfully of the permanent residents there.

[cachecrazies]

We can't be as eloquent as Poppy - but we echo his sentiments entirely! We love these cemetery caches - mostly for the history involved!

We have learned so much - we never treat these as a "grab and run" cache. We always look around (except when we're with rklmbl)

We loved the cemetery caches in White and Johnson Counties so decided to do the same thing in our county.

We've learned so much about our own counties history because of the cemeteries. And we wouldn't have visited those cemeteries without caching. We've even bought a book from the Historical Society so we can check everything out. We've driven by several of these small cemeteries for years and never knew they were there - maybe caching will cause some people to visit the abandoned cemeteries and acknowledge the lives that were lived in the past.

We believe that all of our caches have been respectful and encourage all cachers to do the same.

[HercRx]

Thanks! I'm glad for the feedback. It was so speedy! This whole cemetery geocache thing is new to me. Like I said, there didn't seem to be as many in Alaska as there are here. Maybe its because 99% of the state of Alaska is public land...and it seems like 99% of Arkansas isn't. It seems more difficult to find somewhere to put a cache here. Its amazing how different geocaching is here...especially with the threat of snakes, ticks and chiggers. With bears, wolves and moose, Alaska gives a whole other meaning to "getting eaten up by the critters."

[flannelman]

I really like this type of cache. They take me to some really interesting places filled with history. You can learn a lot about an area by visiting it's cemetary. I also like to look at the stones to see what they tell about the life of the person that is resting there. I just went to a neat cemetary in Plainview this last weekend.

[cachemates]

We love cemetery caches. We like to look at the headstones and each cemetery will be different. While on a trip to Indiana ( And they have many cemetery caches there) We saw two Revolutionary War Solider graves.

We saw the grave of a family that died in the I-40 bridge collapse in Oklahoma, While we were at the Paris Event.

We met a family cleaning their mother's grave that had died of breast cancer. We have visited many cemeteries that we would have never seen if not for geocaching.

We placed a cache in honor of my Agri Teacher, and also one for our Typing Teacher. Our English Teacher will probably be next. These people was both our teachers and, We have many good memories of them and wanted to place these caches for them.

We do not feel we are being disrespectful when geocaching in a cemetery, it is just another trip down memory lane. We will all be in a cemetery some day, I hope some one takes the time to visits my grave.

[oenavigator]

[Geezer_Veazey]

I agree with everything that has been said about cemetery caches. I love them. Creepy? - not at all. I lived across the road from a cemetery for over 30 years and not one time did any of the residents cause the slightest bit of disturbance.

You struck on one thing that too few people pay attention to, namely:

....especially when there isn't a note on the cache page saying that the owners of the cemetery or church gave permission.

All land everywhere is owned by someone, even cemeteries. I know of very few government owned cemeteries so they must be privately owned. The guidelines say you must get the owner's permission to place a cache on private lands. I dare say 99.9% of the cemetery caches were placed without permission.

You cache hiders need to get your act together as far as cemeteries go. Get permission and post details of the permission in the cache description. I would hate for a Sherwood police incident to happen in one of our fine cemeteries.

Geezer

[kevnjenn]

We like them. Lots of history to be seen, especially at some of the veterans cemeteries. I put one out at the cemetery next to the church Jenn and I got married at back home in MO. Her grandparents are buried there, and we used clues from their headstone to make it a multi. Grandma Hazel loves visitors. And we did get permission before putting it out.

kevnjenn