"Bloom Switch Cemetery" Traditional Cache
Backwoods Reviewer: As the owner has not responded to my prior note, I am archiving this listing.
Backwoods Reviewer
Geocaching.com Community Volunteer Reviewer
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Located along State Route #140 and the old “Iron Railroad”, Bloom Switch was a community that was thriving at the turn of the century…The original permanent residents that came with the growth of the furnaces, the arrival of the railroad, and
stayed to raise their families, now rest in peace on this hill above Lick Run Lyra-Bloom Switch Road…
Bloom Junction and Bloom Switch were listed on birth and death certificates of many settlers in Scioto County from the mid 1800’s on… Today neither location is in existence anymore… A population base sprung up from the fertile farm land owners and the rich ore deposits that spawn the pig iron industry…
With the onslaught of iron furnaces in the 1820’s, the need for raw materials saw the need for a railroad to service them…The “Iron Railroad” was constructed in the mid 1800’s… The service connected pig iron furnaces throughout the region… Riverboats delivered raw materials for transport by railroad to the furnaces and transported brick and iron ore products for use across the country… It wasn't long before passengers arrived by boat at Portsmouth and Ironton to pick up rail service through here and north…
Bloom Junction Station was just a short distance from Bloom Switch, which included a main control building, two smaller switch houses and side spurs...
In the mid 1800’s, the Scioto and Hocking Valley Railway added Bloom Switch as a cross over station for railroad cargo...Trains soon had railcars added behind the cargo cars for passengers…It seemed like a grand way to travel then, but the original passenger cars would seem a tad rough by today's modern rail car standards...The Detroit Southern took over the original Iron Railroad and started passenger service through Bloom Switch where passengers switched lines to travel from Ironton to Springfield in 1902…Connections were made to other adjacent railways...
A school, post office and telegraph station all were part of this community at the turn of the century…In 1930 the post office and telegraph station closed… When the furnaces had all blown out, the boom communities created with the arrival of both the furnace and railroad were merely a wide place in the road dotted with a few residential homes…Today, it is only a memory of old timers... It is listed only as a historical place of population today…
On the hill above is the Bloom Switch Cemetery…The cemetery is well kept by the township… You will have to either back up the hill or park and walk up… The hill is pretty steep…There is not enough room to turn around at the top…But the view is awesome!
Cache is a camouflaged ammo box with a log book and small trade items… Bring a pen…
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Onpx bs przrgrel, nybat crevzrgre va gur onfr bs n ynetr qbhoyr gehax gerr.