Guardian of the Spirit Quest Traditional Geocache

This cache is along the edge of a cemetery and you MUST obey the dawn to dusk cemetery rules. Parking at the nearby postal facility.

You may not know me at first but you will recognize me. The only way you can see me is early in the morning when the sun is coming up and just starting to heat the day. I am the wisp of vapor drifting in the breeze, that you only see for a moment. If you look away and then look back, I will be gone.

I was born nearly two centuries ago in a place called New York. It was there that my wife died of the fever and left me with two small children. Having lost the only thing that meant the most to me, I saw no reason to stay there any longer. I took my children and our few meager belongings and joined a wagon train west. Your history books that you read don't even come close to describing the difficulties that we all endured. Of course there were no roads at all, and only rumors of trails that always seemed to be where we weren't. Little did we know that the worst was yet to come. In the morning our small wagon train was attacked by a band of dark skinned men on horses. They were adorned with feathers and paint on their bodies. I remember my first impression of them -- I thought that they were beautiful, until people around me started to die.

I did not know that these people were as desperate as we were. They were only trying to protect their land the only way they knew how. In desperation I found a small opening in a thicket that had four or five large stones grouped together like a small cave. In my final act, I stuffed my two children into this cave like structure and told them to be very quiet. I carefully picked up my rifle and crawled back to help the rest of the men fight off the invaders. The women folk loaded our rifles while we used our pistols. The fight was a desperate loosing battle as we were greatly outnumbered. Suddenly I felt a thump in my chest and a stinging feeling. At first I was stunned but the realization of what happened set in. I tried to move my arm to remove the arrow from my chest but I was too weak. During this time the dark skinned men took our rifles, food, and horses. I tried to move but it was in vain. After a while a warm feeling came over my body until there was nothing.

In my mind I could see my ten year old son and my seven year old daughter. They had slid my lifeless body into a shallow depression that they had scooped out of the soft soil with their bare hands.

They then covered me with a blanket of stones as they had seen others buried along the way It was at this time my son said "Papa, I will say your name every day so you will always be alive in my heart."

The words my son uttered that day was the beginning of the legend of the Spirit Quest. To this day when you pass a marker of one who has gone on before us, just say their name even if you did not know them, and they will hear you. Their spirit shall go on forever.

In the state of Ohio only a couple of miles from the Cuyahoga River is a town which would later be named Cuyahoga Falls. It was in this place where I placed my two small children in the stone formations so long ago. Maybe you can find that place.

Legends come and go. As with all legends, some parts are true and other parts are not.

It's up to you to decide.