2015-12-10: The Tale of Two Cemeteries in Tyler County Texas

Since the town of Jasper doesn't have a whole lot of Geocaches, I now have to drive a little ways to continue my daily streak of Geocaching finds. So I drove a few miles west on US-190 into Tyler County, Texas. Today was a "Tale of Two Cemeteries."

The first cache was located at the Lazenby/Segrest Cemetery (GC649AB). It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Dating back to the 1800's, this place has seen better times. Not only is it a little overgrown, but what you don't see in the photo is that a tree had fallen over behind me and wiped out a corner section of the fencing and one headstone. Then you also have the killer ant mounds, more like ant resorts, outside the fence in the parking area. That red mound you see is probably 2 feet high in the center! I'd say the bones have been picked clean!

From there and not too far away, you have the Pedigo Family Cemetery (GC23B94). Abram B. and Julia Pedigo came to Texas in 1857. With their eleven children, they established a plantation near this site in the 1880’s. In addition to farming, the family operated a grist mill, cotton gin, and sugar mill. All but one of A.B. and Julia Pedigo’s children are buried in the family graveyard. A native rock chapel, built in the cemetery by their children was dedicated to these area pioneers in 1938.

What a contrast between two different cemeteries not very far apart. The things you find and see while Geocaching.

2015-12-09: Geocaching First-to-Find, a Power Run, Cemeteries in Shelby County Texas

Welcome back! So today was a quick run up to Shelby County, Texas. I drove up here yesterday for a chance at a First-to-Find on a Geocache that had published and gone unfound for 4 days. It was too hard to resist the drive up any longer, so I came, I looked, but could not find. This morning I was back again. I looked and looked and bam! There it was! Yippee! That was a tough one and a good hide. I haven't had a FTF since leaving Florida.

Feeling good about that one, I decided to do some more Geocaching on the way back to Jasper. My next stop was a short power run of 10 caches along dirt logging roads through the woods. Just another chance to use the GeoPrius like a Jeep! Yay! I didn't get stuck! 

Continuing down the road, I came upon the next Geocache at the Shelbyville Cemetery (GC1NW13). The town cemetery still in use today and going back to the mid 1800's. The first person buried there was Polly, an Indian girl. However the date of her actual death is unknown. Actually there isn't much known about her at all.

A couple more caches later was the Bunkner Cemetery (GCRYVV) established in 1838. Next one down the road was really interesting. At the Neuville Cemetery (GCRYWA), established in 1940, it wasn't who was in the cemetery so much as it was what used to be next door. It was the remains of the Neuville Public School building, also built in 1940. You weren't supposed to get close to it or walk around in it because the walls could potentially fall over at any time.

So I ended the day with 16 cache finds including one First to Find! But also some really cool pieces of history.

2015-12-06: Just How Many Cemeteries Can One Visit in a Single Day?

Today was cemetery day! Well not really, but it sure seemed like it. We decided to go north today up to San Augustine. Candy is from St. Augustine, FL, so we wanted to see what the sister city in Texas was like. And pick up a new county.

Driving up US-96 on this cool Sunday morning, we turned west on Hwy 255 in Brookeland. Our first Geocaching stop was a Travel Bug Hotel (GC5PX6D) near a church. We had three TB's with us, so now they've checked into a hotel to be carried along by the next cacher.

A couple more caches later and we drove over by the dam to get a good view of Lake Sam Rayburn.

After enjoying the scenic views, we drove back over to US-96 northbound and into San Augustine. It looked like a nice little town, established way back in 1832 with land owned by Thomas S. McFarland. The town was named after Presidio de San Agustin de Ahumada.

The first cache (GC2TK08) in San Augustine for us was the grave site for Rev Samuel A. Williams. Born in Tennessee in 1804, he became a Methodist minister in Tennessee, Alabama, and eventually East Texas in 1938. He died in 1866 and was buried at his home in San Augustine.

The first cemetery cache for the day was the Lewis Family Cemetery (GC2TK08). Located just outside the city limits, this sad, neglected cemetery has just a few headstones visible.

Back into civilization and in the town center was our next cache (GC2TJX3) and a step back into history. This once barbershop still has some of the old sinks and shoe shine chairs left in place. According to the cache owner, it was one of the last old time barbershops in the county before it closed.

Cemetery #2: The San Augustine City Cemetery (GCNNVG) with interments dating back to the 1830's.

Not related to Geocaching, but as you wander about going from cache to cache you still see some interesting things. Like this structure which appears to be some sort of water wheel that may have powered some sort of mill equipment. Not too sure. It was just next to a house down some back road. 

Also in town was this old church building. There was a cache located at the nearby Methodist church, but I thought this smaller one actually had more character. I think the Methodist church as a congregation was older, but the building was newer. This Episcopal church was built in 1869.

Cemetery #3: Liberty Hill Memorial Garden (GC341P2) (GC341PD)

Cemetery #4: Liberty Hill Cemetery (GC341NP)

Cemetery #5: Fischer Cemetery (GC341NT)

Cemetery #6: Horton Cemetery (GCPF63)

Cemetery #7: Mt Zion Church Cemetery (GCPF6W)

Another cache (GCJ130) brought us to some history which we didn't really get a chance to explore because it was closed. It took us to the site of Mission Delores which dates back to the very early 1700's. They had some short trails which snaked through the Piney Woods a little bit which was a nice stroll.

We then drive over for another cache by the boat ramp at City Lake. It was a nice scenic and relaxing view, so we just hung out for a while before continuing on.

Cemetery #8: Roberts Cemetery (GCRRZA), though we had to DNF this one.

Cemetery #9: Parker Cemetery (GCPF6X)

Cemetery #10: Chinquapin Cemetery (GCNNW7), began with the Loggins family in 1839.

Next cache (GCRVNZ) was a roadside memorial for the 7 Columbia Crew members. On February 1, 2003 as the space shuttle was reentering the earth's atmosphere, it broke apart and all 7 of the crew were lost over the piney woods of East Texas. Near this site, a mission patch was found. A small makeshift memorial consisting of a bed of white rocks with 7 American flags were placed on the shoulder of the highway.

Cemetery #11 Dickerson Cemetery (GCNNWH)

Overall we visited 11 cemeteries and found a total of 28 caches, learned some history, and saw some great sites in a lovely old town. Where to next?

2015-12-05: A Forestry Museum, Cemeteries, Train Trestles and More Geocaching!

FINALLY! After two weeks in a Beaumont hotel, we finally moved into an apartment up in Jasper, Texas! Now we can finally unpack the cars, cook meals, and have some room to move around! That also puts us about an hour north and more opportunities to grab caches in new Texas counties.

The downside however is that the nearest Starbucks is either back down in Beaumont or almost an hour to the north west up in Lufkin! And it has been a rare occasion for Candy to go without her daily Starbucks. Having to work all week, Saturday and Sundays are not only gonna be Geocaching days, but a run to a Starbucks day too!

So this morning we took US-69 north and headed for Lufkin! After arriving in Lufkin and getting our Starbucks and breakfast at Cracker Barrel, I looked for caches in and around the town and saw a virtual cache. And we always try to get the virtual caches. This one was at the Forestry Museum. My first thought was that it would be a quick "find the answer and go" museum. But as it turned out it was rather interesting! We spent close to an hour there inside and outside looking at all the displays and learning about the industry. We also took 55 photos! But we won't bore you with that many. Just three pics: one inside and one each of Candy and I on the old train engine. A cool place if you're ever in the area and it's also FREE to enter and browse around.

Another quick cemetery cache there in Lufkin and we headed back down US-69 to pick up some more geocaches along the way. The next stop was an old train trestle bridge. It was last found in December of 2013, with 3 DNF's in 2014 and nothing since then. I wanted to keep this piece of the past from going unnoticed. It's these locations that keep most of us Geocachers playing the game. I mean why else would anyone go down here. If we were not cachers, we wouldn't have stopped in this town. Just in case, I grabbed a couple of replacement caches depending on what we found (or didn't find) in order to keep this one active.

So we parked the car on the edge of a community park where the once laid railroad tracks passed through. We walked into the woods on the overgrown trail about 1/4 mile to the bridge. Looking all over the top and down below, I found only a tether attached to one of the pylons. If that was the cache, I can understand why it was missing. Looking at all possible locations, I decided it best to place a magnetic micro cache on one of the metal brackets that is reachable from the top, but only viewable from the bottom to make it more difficult to get muggled.

The only downside was that the container was white on a dark brown and black trestle. It stuck out like a sore thumb to any kid or person out there who may spot it. But I left it there in place. When we got back this evening, I looked up one of the local cachers to see if they go out there to: 1) make the find for themselves and 2) bring some brown spray paint to better hide the container. Which they agreed they would do so.

Another stop in Huntington was a cemetery cache. The geocache coordinates took us into the woods next to the cemetery a ways and we looked unsuccessfully for about 10-15 minutes. There was also some recent clearing and some new barbed wire put up between the woods and cemetery. So the best guess was that the property owner found and removed the cache. Oh well, you do have to DNF one at times.

The next cache down the road was a historical marker for the ghost town of Jonesville, TX located in Angelina County. Jonesville was the second of Angelina County’s four county seats, sandwiched between Marion and Angelina (aka Homer). It served in this capacity from 1854-1858. Jonesville never grew and in its short reign as county seat the people never got around to building a courthouse. County offices were rented. The 1858 election that made Angelina the county seat spelled the end of Jonesville. Ballots were said to have been burned and the resulting vote was recorded as 221 to Angelina while Jonesville got a mere 130. Jonesville residents fought with an opposing group from Angelina and some 40-50 people were indicted for the fracas. After the election Jonesville started into a decline from which it never recovered.

Continuing further south on US-69 and entering into the town of Zavalla, we found another cache at another old train trestle. Two train bridges in one day! This one right along side the highway and easier to get to. But still a nice piece of forgotten history.

A few more geocaches around the east of Zavalla through some rough forest roads towards the Sam Rayburn Lake. Sometimes I drive our GeoPrius places that it just wasn't meant for it to go. That's why Candy bought me a license plate for the front that says: "My Owner Thinks I'm A Jeep." It would be an adventure if I kept it on the pavement!

That's it for today. I hope you are enjoying my blog of our Geocaching adventures. Feel free to share it with your friends.

2015-11-29: Picking Up New Texas Counties, Viewing Murals, and a Hanging Tree

Hello again and welcome back! Today's Geocaching goal was to pick up some new Texas counties and we wanted to see another side of Texas landscaping. So from Beaumont, we headed west on I-10 to US-59 southbound.

The first stop was near a historical marker for the town of Kendleton which reads: "The site on which Kendleton now stands was originally a Mexican Land Grant to settler Elizabeth Powell, whose house was an early-day stage stop. During the Texas revolution, in 1836, Santa Anna's Mexican army camped near here. Later the settlements of Oak Hill and Humbolt existed briefly. Kendleton began during the Civil War reconstruction when Wm. E. Kendall sold land, for as little as 50 cents an acre, to assist freed negroes in starting their own farms. The rural village was named in his honor when the railroad came through in 1884."

A few more geocaches along the way and we soon pulled into the town of Wharton, TX. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Wharton was one of those town that had painted huge murals on the sides of their buildings. Here is a small sampling of those murals. One dedicated to the towns doctors, another of the different churches, and the last just some decorative artwork.

One of the towns geocaches was across the street from and brought our attention a TRUE tree frog. Literally! This frog statue located in a residents front yard, was the result of a skilled chainsaw sculptor.

Continuing south on US-59 and a couple more caches later, we came across another historical marker cache. "Here, in the 1890's, the celebrated Texas Cattleman A. H. "Shanghai" Pierce (1834-1900) platted the townsite of Pierce. "Shanghai" had hopes of it becoming the county seat. In 1894 he had 160 acres surveyed to become the Pierce Townsite. He built and named the streets, laid out a public square, courthouse square, academy square and a cemetery ground. A church was built and a two-story grocery store. He then decided to build a grand hotel, which would accommodate cattle buyers, traveling salesmen, etc. The spectacular structure, with open porches on two sides of both the first and second floors, would be a convenient stopover between Victoria and Houston. It was a three-story, 22-room mansion built in Steamboat Gothic style. The widow's walk on top provided a panoramic view of the whole countryside.The town of Pierce did not develop as "Shanghai" hoped it would. The magnificent hotel saw few, if any, overnight guests. Over the years the building gradually deteriorated and was demolished in 1980. The New England styled widow's walk and some of the railings have been restored on the original site."

A few more caches later, we eventually had to turn north on Hwy 111 up to US-77 north to loop back around heading towards Beaumont. In the little town of Hallettsville, we stopped to pick up a virtual cache. At the site of this old oak tree is a historical marker that reads: "Old Hanging Tree. Gallows used Sept. 12, 1879, at public hanging of 'Pocket', an Indian, killer of Englishman Leonard Hyde."

We ended the day with 19 geocaches and several new Texas counties. We also learned a lot of history and saw some great artwork. Overall another great adventure.