Thursday, March 30th

Caching in Arcadia

 

We spent a beautiful very warm day in Arcadia. There were a number of geocaching sites there that we wanted to visit. I especially enjoy spending time in cemeteries and today we stopped at three of them. All of them involved geocaches.

 

Fort Ogden Cemetery contained a geocache that was placed by a mother to honor and remember her daughter.

 

 

While we never figured out which grave was Jeanie’s, we spent quite a bit of time looking at other graves.

 

 

The first thing I noticed when we arrived at this cemetery was the number of Confederate Flags that were placed beside special markers. Being born and raised in the south, I have a different view of the Confederacy than a lot of other people.

 

 

There was a Confederate Cow Calvary Memorial dedicated to the soldiers who were part of a battalion organized in 1863 in response to the severe hunger that the southern army suffered. These soldiers not only fought in the war defending their homeland, but they also rounded up wild cattle and drove them north to depots in Georgia and other destinations.

We have visited cemeteries in other states and also quite a few here in southwest Florida. Nowhere else have I seen so many grave ledger markers—slabs of concrete or stone that cover the entire grave.

 

 

 

 

I noticed several grave markers that were marked with vertical columns.

 

 

As we have seen in other cemeteries, several of the graves had various objects placed on them. One in particular, had a beer bottle, a beer label, a wild boar statue, a glass jar with seashells, and other garden statues and markers.

 

 

The second cemetery we visited was Kabrich Cemetery.

 

 

 

James Mitchell Johnson was a pioneer mail carrier and farmer who was renowned for his prowess for quickly delivering the mail long distances and the subsequent legendary folk tales. The third of eight children, he was affectionately known as “Acrefoot” for his size fourteen boots. Making the 50+ mile trip from Fort Ogden to Fort Meade on foot just once seems like a monumental task, but Acrefoot reportedly made this trip several times a week, mail bag in tow. His final resting place and others in his family are in this cemetery.

 

 

 

 

We also visited Pine Level Ghost Town Cemetery which we found in an unusual location, in the middle of a cow pasture. This cemetery was apparently part or near the ghost town of Pine Level which was the county seat of DeSoto County in the 19th Century, but only for 18 months.

 

 

The plaque near the flag pole points out the early settlers.

  

 

 

There was also an Indian Mound clearly visible in a nearby pasture.

 

 

 

 

 

The earliest gravestone we saw was from 1898, the Whidden family.

 

 

There are numerous gopher tortoise holes throughout the grounds.

 

 
  

Cordell saw a marker for a member of the Brady family which was interesting to him because his mother was a Brady.

 

 

 

During our travels we drove through many orange groves. Our map showed us how concentrated groves are in this area.

 

We didn’t understand why some of these groves had fruit laying on the ground going to waste.

 

 

 

 

Some citrus is being harvested because we often see these trucks carrying full loads.

 

 

We saw a tree that even though it looked like it could be dying, it had plenty of life in it. I have never stood inside a tree.