A June 9 article on Geocaching in Johnson County cemeteries generated a flurry of e-mails and comments.

Doris Lanfear, president of the Johnson County Cemetery Association, and Johnson County Sheriff’s Office deputy Jim Sloan contacted the Times-Review recently to discuss Geocaching caches found throughout some of the 35 cemeteries maintained by the JCCA and JCSO work crew members. Neither opposed the activity but said they don’t think it should be carried out in cemeteries.

An attempt to reach Geocaching.com for comment on the matter received no response.

Geocachers from across the country responded after the article ran, however, eager to defend their hobby.

“Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices,” according to the organization’s Web page. “The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online.”

Geocaching is more a social and educational activity than a treasure hunt, said Harry Downer, president of the Texas Geocaching Association.

“It’s not people running around cemeteries playing like fools hiding geocaches,” Downer said. “It’s about finding unique locations, educational really, and about exploring the world around you. The treasure hunting aspect is really in the background.”

Geocaches found by Sloan and work crew members in Johnson County cemeteries consist of plastic containers holding inexpensive toys, trinkets and notes. Geocachers typically sign a log proving they’ve found the location and geocache, Downing said. Notes sometimes provide clues to another geocache, he said. Some participants trade items in and out upon finding a geocache, Downing said, but many play simply to visit and enjoy the history of the targeted location.

Geocacher Matthew Allen responded by e-mail to the June 9 article and mentioned his brother, killed three years ago by a drunk driver.

“He was a world-class cowboy and a friend to many people,” Allen said. “I placed a geocache near his grave site to share a piece of his life and how drunk drivers affect many people. His wife and children also like the geocaches there and like reading various stories that people write after visiting.”

Geocaching is hardly limited to cemeteries, Downer said. They are prohibited in national parks, but Texas State Park officials have been accommodating, he said.

“In fact, I’m a Scout leader, and I’ve been asked to teach geocaching in state parks as part of their family outdoor programs,” Downing said. “I’ll be teaching a class at Caddo Lake in two weeks. You ask a group of kids to go on a 10-mile hike, and they’re like ‘Oh boy,’ but you tell them it’s a treasure hunt, and they’re ready to go. It gets them out, away from TV and video games, plus they get to learn to use a GPS, which is kind of like a video game.”

Another recent geocaching hunt focused on visits to one-room schoolhouses and included visits with members of an association that oversees the care of those buildings, Downing said.

“Geocaching in cemeteries is to show off something, like an interesting headstone or person buried there, or a famous story,” Downing said. “There’s so much history in cemeteries that doesn’t get published to the public, and we like to highlight areas off the beaten path.”

Downing cited a Texas Historical Commission document encouraging parents to help preserve cemeteries by educating children about them through, among other methods, scavenger hunts.

Geocaching in cemeteries seems to be a “generational thing,” Downing said, although he added that geocachers debate the issue on Web site message boards with some members favoring the practice and others not.

Lanfear said she encourages people to visit Johnson County’s historic cemeteries as promoting their history plays a large role in the JCCA’s mission, but she remains opposed to geocaching within cemeteries. Others agree.

Estelle Stepherson, in a letter to the editor, said geocaching sounds fun but added that cemeteries are “sacred grounds,” not the place for “a game of hide and seek.”

In a comment posted to the Times-Review’s Web site, a woman identifying herself as Grieving Mother said she has a daughter buried at a local cemetery and geocaching in cemeteries distasteful and horrible.

Several geocachers spoke of the practice “cache in, trash out,” in which participants try to leave the area nicer than when they found it.

“They’ll upright flags or fallen flower vases and pick trash up on the way out,” Downing said.

Other geocachers wrote to say geocaches are never buried, usually not placed on or near headstones and usually placed near the entrance or perimeter of cemeteries.

Sloan said no buried geocaches have been found in the cemeteries he maintains but said geocaches have been found well within the cemetery grounds.

Most geocachers who responded said their members exercise common sense and decorum in cemeteries and do not engage in vandalism.

Incidents of vandalism have decreased in Johnson County cemeteries since the JCCA began maintaining them, Lanfear and Sloan said, but it always remains a concern.

“I truly don’t have anything against [geocaching] at all, and I’m sure most of these people probably have good intentions,” Lanfear said. “But my main objection is still that I think it’s distasteful. I don’t think we should be playing games in our cemeteries. I think there are other, more proper, places to do that.”

Downing contacted Lanfear to discuss the situation.

“I understand her concerns,” Downing said. “And I want to assure her that, in general, geocaching is all good clean fun, and it’s not about people trampling over grave sites. I want to try to work with [JCCA] to see if we can’t come to some happy medium in a respectful manner.”

Several e-mails suggested that local geocachers could assist the JCCA in maintaining area cemeteries.

Inmate workers supplied by JCSO maintain the cemeteries overseen by JCCA, Lanfear said.

“But, there are 97 cemeteries in the Johnson County area, most in outlying areas,” Lanfear said. “We take care of 35, and some the cities maintain. So, if a group wanted to adopt and maintain one of the others, that would be good.”

On reader, identified as TheAlabamaRambler suggested a possible solution.

“Perhaps agree that geocaches can be hidden outside the cemetery perimeter and reference in the geocache listing the interesting site inside the cemetery that the geocache hider wants to introduce people to,” TheAlabamaRambler said. “This way, geocachers can visit the interesting site inside the cemetery, but actually hunt the geocache outside it.”

Lanfear said this solution could be workable.



For information on the Johnson County Cemetery Association,

call 817-641-1671.



On the Web:

www.texasgeocaching.com