2019-07-28: Geocaching Through Ghost Towns, Cemeteries, History, and Finding an Old Corvette

Welcome back fellow geocachers, travelers, explorers, and Jeepers. Today is cemetery day it seems. On this 300+ mile backroads roadtrip from Central to North Central Texas, I visited several cemeteries searching for history and a ghost story to tell. As usual the passenger seat in the GeoJeep is open, so climb in and let's take a drive through the spooky alley of trees down the middle of the cemetery.

Leaving Killeen, Texas, my first stop as usual is the Dunkin Donuts for an iced coffee and a bagel. Then US-190 west to US-183 north in Lampasas. I make a quick stop for a geocache (GC435CN) at the radio station in Lampasas which for some reason I always skipped before. But today it seemed to be calling for me to stop.

I exit off US-183 near Bozar onto FM1029 going off some very rural backroads driving heading north to my next geocache (GC370W1). Upon arriving at the Trigger Mountain Cemetery I stopped for a photo by the sign and felt that I just had to wear the hat also with a name like Trigger Mountain!

The Trigger Mountain Cemetery is a rather large cemetery for just 13 interments here. But it is also well maintained by the very small community. The first listed burial here is that of 5-year old Riley Burgess Hays in 1904. His father, the Rev L. L. Hays is also buried here and lived to be 99 years old passing away in 1961. The cemetery is still in use today with the most recent burial in 2018.

Down another dirt side road about a half mile was Trigger Mountain Hunting. The small geocache (GC3CEEF) had a difficulty rating of 3.0 and a terrain rating of 3.5. Tucked away in the trees, brush, and weeds, it was not an easy task on this hot July afternoon! But success was had and I was able to sign the log.

Continuing down the very rural dirt backroads, I came to the next geocache at Brown's Creek (GC3BYJ4). Down a steep embankment to the creek, this small cache a D4/T4 rating. But with the water currently shallow, I was able to keep dry and stick to the taller rocks to make my way across.

After leaving the creek and just down a little further I came across a cemetery with a historical marker. I check my phone again but I'm not showing any geocache listed here. So I check out the cemetery and read the historical marker: "North Brown Cemetery was named for creek followed by homeseekers. This burial ground originated about 1857 when death struck at a nearby campsite. In the 1870's, North Brown farming community surrounded this site. It had a school and held church services in the schoolhouse. In 1895 local leaders A. A. Boulter, G. M. O'Quin, and J.S. Weatherby secured a deed to the acreage in which graves had so long existed, and North Brown Cemetery Association was formed. After school had closed, proceeds from sale of its site were pledged in 1967 for cemetery care. Pioneer families continue burials here."

Well I just couldn't let this historical cemetery and these pioneers go unnoticed. So I found two headstones of original pioneers and hid my own geocache in a nearby tree (GC8BNKX).

Working my way through the backroads to the small town of Priddy, I had two cemeteries and two geocaches to find. The first was at the St. John's Cemetery (GC22Z1J) with just over 600 interments dating back to 1902. The other was the Zion Lutheran Cemetery (GC19E1A) with over 200 interments dating back to 1889. This older cemetery contains most of the early German settlers to the town of Priddy and has this kinda spooky entrance with the rows of trees. I couldn't decide which I liked better this color photo or the black/white which I opened with at the top of the page.

Trying to make up some time now, I make my way back over to US-183 where I can move a little fast and put some miles behind me. One quick roadside geocache (GC5MVPM) and continue on my way.

But as usual I soon find myself off on the backroad headed towards another cemetery geocache. This one was for the Routh Cemetery (GC1NTWE) in a little community called Blanket. Supposedly named by a couple of surveyors who happened upon some Indians taking shelter under blankets placed over some bushes to give them some protection from a rain storm. As for the cemetery, the oldest marked grave is for that of 19-year-old Elizabeth Routh who died in 1876. She was the daughter of Simeon Levin Routh who is believed to have brought his family out here from Tennessee as part of the Peter's Colony Group to help settle Texas in the 1840's & 50's. Simeon was laid to rest here in 1890 along with his wife and many of their children. There are 58 interments here in total with the most recent in 2005.

Still on the rural backroads, I don't know if you could call this next one a ghost town when at it's peak it only had 100 residents. Owens, Texas, also known as Clio (GC2QM9D), is located eight miles north of Brownwood on U.S. Highway 183 in central Brown County. The town was settled in the early 1870's. The post office, granted in 1878 as Clio, was renamed for E. Owens, who donated the townsite in 1910. It closed sometime after 1930. John W. Yantis promoted sawmills in the area. In the 1930's the town had a school, a church, two businesses, and a number of scattered homes. In 1949 Owens had one business and a population of 100. In 1953 it had a population of forty and no businesses; and in 1965 the population was sixty. No census data was reported for Owens after 1965. In 1983 the community had two churches and a single business. It was still shown on county highway maps in 2000.

Making my way back to US-183, I'm still on the rural dirt and gravel backroads when I pass by this one house with an old 1969 Corvette just sitting there with no tops covered in dirt and dust open to the rain and weather. Made me sad to see that beautiful car being neglected. 

So now I start driving north on US-183 again and after a little bit I see a sign for a cemetery. I look at my phone but don't see a geocache in the area. Well I just have to investigate that further. It is sad finding cemeteries in such neglected care. The rusty sign above the gate just has the name Reagan on it. I can't find much information about this cemetery other than those who are buried here. The Find-A-Grave website shows there to be 14 burials, 12 of those between 1879-1955 and the other two in the 1990's. Though the odd thing is that I can't figure out why it is called the Reagan Cemetery. There are no Reagan's interred here and I can't find a ghost town or community called Reagan. Another website states that it also goes by the name of Latham of which there are two here by that name from the 1880's. Oh well, I find a spot and hide a cache here myself (GC8BNM4). Maybe somebody else will come along and shed some light on this place. Maybe bring some lawn equipment as well!

My last stop was for another geocache (GC22W7R) nearby in the ghost town of the Yellow Mound Community. I couldn't find much in the way of history and settlement. It had never really developed into an incorporated town. Just some local ranchers and farmers. Looking through newspapers for references of Yellow Mound, they started appearing in 1890 and slowed except for obituaries in the 1960's & 70's. Stories of oil discoveries and drilling in 1919-1930, then those stopped. Probably had a surge of workers during that time, but they too moved on. The most interesting newspaper story I found was on July 7, 1964: "Skeleton Discovered in Pasture" read the headline.

"A skeleton thought to be that of a man was found Monday under some undergrowth on a farm near the Yellow Mound Community, seven miles NW of Eastland. Sheriff Lee Horn, one of the officers who went to the scene, estimated the skeleton might have been there as long as 10 years. He based his opinion on the condition of the bones and a weathered shoe along side the skeleton. The find was made by a farm worker rounding up some calves. The sheriff said he would ask a dentist to check gold dental work in the hopes of establishing identity. About five years ago, a skeleton was found near Cisco, 10 miles west of Eastland."

I never did find a follow-up story to this one.

Getting close to work home in Munday, Texas, I was passing by the Brushy Cemetery. I stopped, but by this point it was 6:30 PM and I had already turned a 4 1/2 hour drive into almost 9 hours. Plus it was hot and I was ready to relax, eat, and settle in for the day. With the wind turbines as I backdrop, I thought it was a decent photo. Grabbed my phone, snapped a pic, and continued on.

That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the ride and my stories. I hope to see you back again soon for another of my geocaching adventures through history.

2016-02-28: Geocaching Through History and Counties in North Texas

Hello again and welcome back to our Geocaching adventure blog. We hope you have been enjoying our travels so far. Today we set out to find caches in some new Texas counties. We're past the halfway point finishing the day with 133 of the 254 Texas counties.

Setting out from Lubbock after breakfast, we headed north on I-27. Our first stop was the Abernathy Cemetery in Hale County. A quick cache find here. The cache was located in some trees behind this headstone. Of all the cemeteries we've been in and the headstones looked at, I think this was the first with a Corvette on top. I'm sure this one cost a pretty penny too. However, after spending so much on this headstone, you would have thought they would have spelled "BELEIVE" correctly!

Continuing north on I-27 and a few more quick caches near an old grain silo, another at the Hale Center Cemetery, and follow by the Kress Cemetery.

Then, a couple miles to the northeast of the town of Kress and sitting out in the middle of farm land lies three very lonely graves. The Wright Cemetery cache page (GC5R9B1) doesn't give much history, but I was able to locate some info at Find A Grave showing 11 burials here. I only found 3 headstones. Looks like headstones have been run over by farm tractors throughout the years.

About a mile down the road from the cemetery looking across the farms and the flat plains, I saw a tiny black silhouette of an old truck and just had to investigate. And this is what we found sitting out on the corner of the dirt road and the end of the driveway to the farm house. It had seen better days and would make a great restoration project.

The next cache on our journey today was at Rose Hill Cemetery (GC31F7A). The history of this community cemetery dates back to October 1890. Just three months after Swisher County was organized and Tulia was named county seat. The first recorded burial here is that of 18 year old Louis Harral who died on October 17, 1890. His parents obtained permission from landowner T. W. Adams to bury their son on this hillside south of the Middle Tule Creek. Twelve days later, 4 year old Robert Alonzo Hutchinson died and was buried on the hill near Louis. In 1906 five acres of land surrounding the graves were officially set aside for a community cemetery.

Also in Tulia on display at the local VFW is our next cache (GC14K6N). This retired North American F-86 SabreJet.

Our next stop located in Briscoe County was built in 1894 of handcut stone hauled here by horse-drawn wagons from Tule Canyon. The Briscoe County Jail (GC2KVTG) stands as the lasting reminder of what courage and dedication mean in preserving law, order and integrity.

Early day sheriff's families rented the lower floor as a residence. It was also used by Red Cross workers for sewing during World War I. Near the old jail is the county courthouse and administration building.

Continuing east from Tulia over to the town of Silverton for our next cemetery cache (GC5N53J). I couldn't find much history about Silverton Cemetery, but while finding the cache I spotted these to headstones belonging to Robert S. Christian (23) and Warner S. Reid (24). They both died on the same day of October 23, 1895. After doing further research, I found newspaper article from from 1995 that had the story of these two. In summary, while moving a very large herd of cattle along with 75 other cowboys; lightning struck killing these two young men, both their horses, and ten cattle. You can see the full story from the newspaper link.

A couple more caches later and we're in the little town of Quitaque and our next  two caches (GC1RVHP). The first settler in the area was the Comanchero trader José Piedad Tafoya, who operated a trading post on the site from 1865 to 1867, trading dry goods and ammunition to the Comanches for rustled livestock. In 1877 George Baker drove a herd of about 2,000 cattle to the Quitaque area, where he headquartered the Lazy F Ranch. Charles Goodnight bought the Lazy F in 1880 and introduced the name Quitaque, which he believed was the Indian word for "end of the trail."

Residents used other area graveyards to bury the deceased until 1922 when brothers Alvin and Edgar Howard donated ten acres for cemetery use. The first person interred in RestHaven Cemetery (GC1QZJV) was Katie Daniel in 1922.

The next town down the road was originally called Turkey Creek, then Turkey Roost by the locals. Eventually it was shortened to just Turkey by the time the Turkey Hotel, now a Bed & Breakfast, opened its doors in 1927. There was supposed to be a cache hidden near the hotel (GC1X8B3), but  we couldn't find it and neither could the last few cachers. It looked as though there may have been some bushes there at one time. And the cache owner hasn't been active since 2010.

Turkey is also known for being the hometown of Bob Wills which is our next virtual cache (GCCDBD). James Robert "Bob" Wills (1905 – 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western swing, he was universally known as the King of Western Swing. Wills formed several bands and played radio stations around the South and West until he formed the Texas Playboys in 1934 with Wills on fiddle, Tommy Duncan on piano and vocals, rhythm guitarist June Whalin, tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills, and Kermit Whalin, who played steel guitar and bass. The band played regularly on a Tulsa, Oklahoma radio station and added Leon McAuliffe on steel guitar, pianist Al Stricklin, drummer Smokey Dacus, and a horn section that expanded the band's sound. Wills favored jazz-like arrangements and the band found national popularity into the 1940s with such hits as "Steel Guitar Rag", "New San Antonio Rose", "Smoke On The Water", "Stars And Stripes On Iwo Jima", and "New Spanish Two Step".

Also in town is this old restored gas station and Bob Wills and the Playboys tour bus.

Moving on to our next county and next cache (GC62PGC). This area of Motley County was first called "White Flat" due to the tall white needlegrass which covered the flat prairie land. A post office, named Whiteflat, was established for the rural settlement in 1890 at the request of W. R. Tilson.

At its height, the community boasted four grocery stores, three service stations, three garages, two cafes, a hardware store, two gins, and three churches. A school first housed in a one room schoolhouse built by volunteers, opened in 1890. It was replaced by a four room school in 1908, and in 1922 a new two story brick structure was erected (see photo). It also served as a community gathering place.

Dependent on an economy based on agriculture and small family farms, the community began to decline during the depression and dust bowl years of the 1930's. The Whiteflat school closed in 1946 when it was consolidated with Matador schools. The local churches disbanded in the 1960's, the post office closed in 1966 following the death of the last postmaster, and the last remaining retail store closed in 1968. A few residence still exist, but it's pretty much a ghost town.

The Whiteflat Cemetery (GC2P34E) dates back to 1894. The hardest thing to see although quite common at that time, are headstones for babies and children. And here the Green family had three. And based on the headstones, they were probably of little means as well.

Our next cache in Motley County was Bob's Oil Well (GC17NTQ) and a piece of American roadside attractions. From the historical marker: "Greenville, Texas native Luther Bedford "Bob" Robertson (1894-1947), a veteran of WWI, came to Matador in the 1920's. He was a gas station attendant in 1932 when he decided to open a service station here. To promote his new business, he built a wooden oil derrick over the station. He patented his design, and in 1939 replaced the wooden derrick with one of steel that reached 84 feet in height and included lights.
Robertson was a gifted businessman and promoter, and he used any opportunity to advertise his operation and attract customers. He kept a cage of live rattlesnakes for the amusement of tourists, and from that initial attraction grew a zoo that included lions, monkeys, coyotes, a white buffalo and other animals. He paid long distance truckers to place advertising signs at strategic points across the nation noting the mileage to Bob's Oil Well in Matador, and they became well known to the motoring public. As a result of his success, Robertson enlarged his operation to include a grocery, cafe and garage.Bob Robertson dies in 1947, and two weeks later a high wind toppled the steel derrick that had been the trademark of his business. His widow restored it two years later with even larger lights. The business did not continue long after, however, and closed in the 1950's. Later efforts to re-open it were short lived. Today, the site serves as a reminder of a time when such bold roadside architecture was in its infancy and of a man who, through his business, widely promoted his adopted hometown."

The Motley County Jail was next. Similar to the Briscoe County Jail above, this 2-story jail was erected in 1891, the year Motley County was organized. Cells were on the top floor of the structure and the jailer's living quarters on the lower level. The first courthouse, also built in 1891, later burned, but this jail remains as a symbol of Motley County's frontier heritage.

Our last cache to highlight was at the Cottle County Heritage Museum (GC13AA8). I liked the old ambulance and fire truck outside. 

It was a long day and I think we drove over 300 miles. But we learned a lot of history, saw some cool sites, and just had a great day driving through Texas.

2015-06-25: Road Trip Day #6 Geocaching Ohio and Kentucky

Today began and ended with Corvettes. We started out this morning from Findlay, OH and headed over to the Cracker Barrel for some breakfast. In the parking lot was a row of Corvettes. And we finished the day down in Kentucky at the Corvette Museum. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

After eating we picked up a couple of caches there in Findlay, jumped onto I-75 southbound and a couple of new counties before getting off in Dayton, Ohio for a virtual cache and some history. Orville and Wilber Wright had a bicycle shop here in Dayton while designing their first powered aircraft. Outside the Engineers Club of Dayton is this memorial and full-sized version of that aircraft.

Our next stop down the road was in Sharonville, on the outskirts of Cincinnati at Sharon Woods Park. This beautiful park and waterfalls along Sharon Creek was the location of a virtual Geocache. If it not for Geocaching and someone setting up this virtual here, we would never have stopped to see it.

Also located within the Sharon Woods Park was this old neglected cemetery.

Leaving Ohio and driving into Kentucky, we detoured off of I-75 onto I-71 for a different route home. Also the opportunity to see new things and get caches in new counties. We drove I-71 into Louisville merging onto I-65 south down into and stopping in Bowling Green. Bowling Green is the home of the Corvette Museum and Factory. We didn't have time for a factory tour, but we did walk through the museum. While they have many Corvettes on display, I only took pictures of some of the experimental prototype cars. We also got to see the damaged rare Corvettes that were swallowed up in the sinkhole last year. 

Outside the museum is one of Geocaching's "Cache Across America" caches and of course we had to find it! That's it for today. Like I said it began and ended with Corvettes. See you tomorrow.