Recent travels sent me to Columbus, Ohio to visit an old friend. Our objectives for the trip were to catch the Memorial golf tournament, sample some of the fantastic food in Cbus, and, of course, geocaching. There were many to chose from, as the City of Columbus actively promotes geocaching. The city has even published caches as part of a GeoTrail, which may be the topic of a future post. As I scouted for interesting caches, I couldn’t help but be drawn to the Haunted Columbus series. Each cache led to a location with a particularly spooky story, and since most were in old graveyards, I simply couldn’t resist.
The first few led me to Greenlawn cemetery, a rather large collection of graves dating back to the mid- 1800’s. The first stop was ‘Hauntings – A Ghostly Good BYE’ by Sweetfyre (GC58R6F). This nearby tombstone was more whimsical than scary, and a fine example of dark humor, or at least I thought. Ironically, it was actually the Bye family plot. We next ventured over to the Hayden crypt. You know the ghost story must be good when the cemetery goes to great lengths to keep people from waking the dead on their own. The wooden door to the crypt was protected by a rusty iron gate, but we still tried to summon the spirits with a few good raps. The mausoleum itself was a rather imposing structure, with columns on either side of the door and a red clay dome. The inside must look amazing.
The geocache (‘Hauntings – Hayden Mausoleum’ by Sweetfyre GC2CFD7) was hidden in an area behind the crypt that was plenty creepy in its own way. Previous logs talked of ghosts, security guards, and an angry beaver, so we had several things on our minds as we crept around. Thrashing about in the overgrowth, I noticed a small pond a few feet away. Hidden in the shadows of the oaks, and covered in leaf debris and pond scum, it had its own morbid charm. I half expected a zombie security guard to grab me by the ankle and drag me into the murky depths! Thankfully, my muggle friend made the find here (his caching skills are impressive for a muggle), and I for one was glad to be out in the open again.
I found another interesting ‘cemetery’ on my own. I wouldn’t have noticed this even if I had driven by, but a cache at the location had the word cemetery in the title (‘Cemetery on King’ by Chemist Kahuna, GC6ATJG), so I decided to check it out. I got rock star parking right at ground zero. I was on King Avenue, near downtown, and the rather nondescript building looked like an old house that had been recently renovated. To be honest, all I noticed at first was a ‘for sale’ sign stuck in what was left of the grass in front. Next to the sign was the single, lonely gravestone of Sylvester D. Uline from the 2nd Ohio Infantry division. Who was this guy? Why is he buried all alone here? Is he EVEN buried here? (A past log suggested he may actually be buried in the Grove cemetery in Kenton, Ohio). It was a bit creepy but also a little poignant. The cache here was a real tough one, as there were dozens of places to look. The fact that you are searching along the sidewalk of a busy street, in the sightline of probably a dozen houses, made it even more difficult. Personally, I loathe these hides because I always feel like I’m casing out the joint. I was determined to find this one though, and after a 30+ minute search, I finally had my hands on the prize. Definitely worthy of the 4-star difficulty! Stay tuned for more creepy caches from Columbus!