A letterboxing we will go....

This looks like a typical tree in a typical older historical cemetery right?? Well it has a hidden treasure of sorts. Armed with clues we were lead to the Fairfield Church's cemetery which is believed to be one of the oldest ones in the area (estimated to be est. around 1826). We needed these clues to find the "letterbox" we were hunting for. We found it...nestled between the gap of the tree under some leaves, sticks and bark. This was our 2nd letterbox we have found. The boys and I are really getting addicted to finding letterboxes. It is a fun and educational way to spend time together. We feel like treasure hunters of sorts.

Check the dates on this tombstone.....is that is 1796 and 1793 you see for the dates of birth!! I was amazed at discovering this. ...here in Indiana of all places. This tombstone as you can probably tell is a new one as the actual orginal stones seen on either side have weathered the elements of time and the engraving is hard to read. We learned that the Jessup family had extensive roots in this area. There were more than a few stones honoring the Jessup family. I am somewhat intrigued into learning more about them. This was part of the clues for the 2nd box we found today in another cemetery just across from the one above. Our 2nd set of clues lead us just past here where we discovered our 2nd box for the day!

From the Church/Cemetary we head to Plainfield where our 3rd box lead us thru a beautiful hidden park called Friendship Garden. Again armed with our clues we went on what was about a mile or 2 walk thru the park. Our clues told us to go across the bridge....and so we did.




Another clue was to look for the circle inside the circle and go right.



From here we followed the trail around. Chasing each others shadows and stomping on them. We saw other families out riding bikes, walking, taking dogs for walks even joggers. We had a several other clues that we really need to pay attention to if we were to find our 3rd treasure of the day. Finally we were lead to a clearing that had several trees. One which was off by itself. With more clues to look for two trees together and a 3rd one that was curved between the 2 we would find " Our Indiana Letterbox". This lil' gem was a fun one to find! It was off the path nestled back off the trail of sorts. Jarod went back to explore and found it! Once he did we all snuck over to get our stamps ready to log into there book along with stamping their stamp in ours ( we just carry blank 3x5 cards that I note the place and date of the find along with the stamps. I plan on then making a log book of sorts where we will track our finds along with pictures to remind us of the location and treasures we may find!


Here Riley signs his name in the log book where we have stamped our stamp. Jarod and I both sign it too. I also put our "code name" the 3cluefinders and the date we visited. Afterwards we make sure to put everything back in the box making sure everything is sealed well to protect it from the elements. It's important that when you are done you put it back as you found it if not better so that means we covered it back up with leaves and the stones that not only helped to hide it but were also clues to it as well.



While we work on getting everything back together we "keep watch" as there are people going by. We don't want to expose our secret mission we are on! The boys get a kick out of this! I have to admit it is fun! We feel do feel like we are on some secret mission that we don't want to expose.

So as of today...we have found a total of 4 letterboxes since we stared doing this on March 30th. We would have found more I believe if we had better weather during spring break. We are planning to go on another hunt next weekend. This one is up in Indianapolis and has clues that we have had to do a bit of research on prior to looking. Stay tuned for that!!