Down the road from the Air Force Museum is Harshman Cemetery, and Cache Owner goltzene’s hide.
Our cache description says that Mr. Harshman paid $30 for forty acres of rich Ohio farmland. He set up a copper still in 1814, and sold whiskey, at a time when the neighboring Shawnee and Wyandot were fighting to save their youth from alcohol addiction, relentlessly marketed by traders and settlers. With those profits, Harshman opened a warehouse to transport farm products on canal boats bound for the eastern cities. Soon he was representing the county in the Ohio Assembly. When he died in 1850, he was a bank president, the most profitable of financial ventures. His grave pulls the quilt of religion snugly over his life, yet even that coverlet cannot conceal the opportunities and advantages which were shared by some, at the expense of others.
Our GPS lands at a tree in a quiet corner, rugged and silent, bearing a wound inflicted by some bygone storm. All nooks and crannies are explored, hoping that the dreaded DNF is not just around the corner.
And there it is, sweetly cooperative.
As we pause to eat a car lunch, we hear lawn mowers descending on the tiny cemetery. Two Mugg L. Guys on industrial mowers circle around our vehicle. I can hear the conversation, “Hank, Albert, get to the cemetery, there’s some aliens down there, I saw them pacing around funny-like, then they wrote a code on something and stuck it right into the tree. Hank, get Albert and get down there.”
Our space ship lifts off. On a whim, we fly over to the Harshman Mansion, to see Mr. Harshman’s version of West Palm Beach or Malibu. When we arrive, a dilapidated and dying palatial residence greets us. Our cache description finishes the story. The house was sold and eventually owned by investors, hoping to establish a bed and breakfast. Recessions, pandemics, and global competition changed the script.
The sign that catches our eye across the highway seems too fitting to be real. Out of sight, out of mind. Those who came to this rich land and made their fortunes have now disappeared in the pages of history.
OH Love Of Geocaching 