Today I set out for Wells County, Indiana, to do another Adventure Lab, this one in Ossian. And after completing the five stages of the AL, I drove a bit south of Ossian to find a traditional cache — find No. 1,800.
Ossian is in the northern third of Wells County, on Indiana 1, about 15 miles south of Fort Wayne. Current big-league baseball player Josh VanMeter is from Ossian. According to Wikipedia, it has an estimated population 3,382. Also, according Wikipedia, the town was named after Ossian, the narrator of a cycle of epic poems by the Scottish poet James Macpherson. Beyond that, I don’t know much about the town.
The Adventure Lab visits five locations, four in town and one in West Ossian. Before a ditch was dug between Ossian and West Ossian, swampland separated the two towns, and it was easier for residents to get to Cincinnati, more than 100 miles away, than to Fort Wayne. The ditch helped drain the swampland and made travel north to Fort Wayne easier.
I learned that tidbit of history on the Adventure Lab and from a traditional cache I found along the way. The town’s founder is buried in the Old Cemetery, which really appeared to be run down. Many headstones were broken and knocked over.
I learned of a local family that was dedicated to auto racing and one of the letters of another family name on their headstone in the other cemetery is backward. Oh, and a town marshal served more than 20 years. I decided to walk the Adventure Lab, so it took me probably 90 minutes to complete. Driving would have been faster. Taking my bicycle would have been faster. In either case, I walked and except for a few places where the sidewalk ended, it was a nice day to be out.
After completing the Adventure Lab, I headed south to the small settlement of Kingsland, where in September 1910 there was a deadly train wreck. The cache is at a historical marker signifying that event. For reasons unknown, I’ve had this cache on my watch list. Since finding it and logging it, I’ve wondered why I have it on my watch list. It doesn’t meet a Jasmer month. It doesn’t meet a date hidden need. Every time it’s found I get an email. I got an email today when I found it.
Over the past two days, counting the Adventure Lab, I’ve found 12 caches. I hope to find another 200 before the end of the year. I’ve already picked out my target cache for No. 2,000. I’ll keep that my secret for now, though I should put that one on my watch list, right?
On Tuesday, Capt. TailWagger and my sometimes geocaching partner and I drove to northern Whitley and southern Noble counties to find some caches. Three were in cemeteries, one was at the site of church fire, and one was at a beach. The one at the beach was just published the day before. We got second to find on that one.
How has your geocaching gone?
Geocaching with Capt. TailWagger 