GC7GB10 Colorado Spirit Quest: Grand Lake Pioneers
Type: Multi | Size: Micro | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: BugRanger @ | Hide Date: 11/11/2017 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N40° 15.615 W105° 50.297 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
 

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Colorado Spirit Quest:

Grand Lake Pioneers

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The Colorado Spriit Quest is a series of caches placed near cemeteries to pay respect to the many pioneers & ancestors who walked here before us. There are hundreds of historic cemeteries in rural and mountain communities across Colorado. After finding the first stage of this cache, please take time to reflect on the lives of these pioneers, and what it took to make Colorado such a great state.  This series is inspired by, but not affiliated with, other Spirit Quest groups, beginning with the Indiana Spirit Quest group in 2004.

 

The Grand Lake Cemetery is on land originally belonging to these pioneers, and now owned by the National Park Service & as part of Rocky Mountain National Park. It is operated by long-term permit with the Town of Grand Lake. Permission for the virtual stage given by RMNP Supervisory Rangers

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This is a multi-stage cache: Stage 1 is a Virtual Cache at the Grand Lake Cemetery, with the clues for the final to be found within the Cemetery. The actual (final) cache container is outside of RMNP, along the road about 1/2 mile away.  

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Final Stage:    N40 1A.BCD W 105 5D.XYZ

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Among the many pioneers around Grand Lake, the Harbison Family was quite prominant in the early days of this valley. Andrew K Harbison was born in Philadelphia, moved to Rockport, Missouri, where he married Mary Quinlan on December 4, 1867. Together they had 3 children, Annie Eliza, Kittie D, and Robert A Harbison. The couple continued their westward move to Nebraska, where Annie was born; then to Kansas where Kittie and Robert were born, and eventually to Denver by 1889, where Andrew had a soap rendering business. By 1896, Andrew had already filed once for land in Colorado under the Homestead Act, and was not eligible to file again for land near Grand Lake. Both the girls, now in their twenties, each filed for claims. Kitty took up a quarter-section and Annie took one adjoining her sister's claim along the "North Fork" of the river, about 2.5 miles north of Grand Lake. Each built their cabins on their own claim, but along the edges of their claims, and were not more than 100 feet apart. Their mother, Mary, & brother Robert, arrived in the valley in November, and built the "Big Cabin" in between the two individual cabins, where the whole family lived.

The sisters "worked like men", cutting and stacking hay, roped the horses and fed & milked their sizable diary herd before getting younger brother Rob out of bed to deliver milk and butter around Grand Lake in his horse-drawn cart. The sisters devoted their lives to their parents, care of the ranch, and service to others. By 1905, they began taking in summer guests at the ranch, gradually adding tourist cabins. Their Sunday dinners were legendary, and the talk of Grand Lake. In 1907, they opened their home to two foster daughters, Mamie & Beatrice Schooner. Mamie's help would be invaluable in later years. The "Harbison Girls" were a large part of pioneer life of Grand Lake country, known and loved by many. It is said that their friends "were countless".

Stricken with pneumonia, the two sisters died within days of each other. Their double-funeral service was held in the Grand Lake Community House, and they were buried together in the family plot in the cemetery on the hillside above Grand Lake. Today, their meadow is empty, their houses are gone, the road abandoned. Only their headstones & stories remain.

 

For the Final Stage: N40 1A.BCD W 105 5D. XYZ

Find the markers:

Annie & Kitty Harbison:  Their birthdays were 11 days apart, not counting the years. They died just A days apart, in 19C8, and were buried together here.

Robert A. Harbison + Murnie M. Harbison: Robert was born in 18B X.

A.K. Harbison & Mary E. Harbison, the parents: Mary was born in 183Y. Andrew died in 19D X.  He served in Compny D, PA Voluntary Regiment 18Z 

 

 

Please take a moment and consider the efforts it took to ranch here, long before Trail Ridge Road was built and maintained, as it is today.

 

Information gleaned from these sources:

http://GrandLakeHistory.org/grand-lake-history/people/harbison-family/

www.NPS.gov/ROMO/Harbison_Ranch.htm 

Headstones on site 

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Additional Waypoints

R07GB10 - Entrance to Grand Lake Cemetery
N 40° 15.521 W 105° 50.273
Entrance road into GL Cemetery

07/01/2019 By SBAB1214
Didn’t come up with this one today. Looks like it has been awhile since someone has.

10/06/2018 By SeekDaCache
We arrived at GZ and got all of the needed information to go make the find. Just as we were heading back to the car a couple of ladies come walking by and asked if we were caching. We told them we were and was about to head to the final. They said the three of them had just come from there and didn't find it after searching for quite awhile. They told us good luck and parted ways. We arrived at the final and began our search. After about 5 minutes of searching a car pulls up behind us and the two ladies and a man get out of the car and come over to where we are at and searched for abit. With 5 pairs of eyes searching this one might be MIA.

10/04/2018 By *GeoDeeDee*
TFTC Here from AZ to do the Geo Tour. Such fun

10/04/2018 By AzJoker
On the geotour

10/01/2018 By momcheers
Thank you for another great CSQ! I love old cemeteries and this is a fabulous example of a well kept pioneer cemetery! We LOVE the puzzle/multi -- easily solvable, but you have to work at it! :-)

08/21/2018 By IzzyMoney
Looked every where. Feel like I found multiple places it could have been. Definitely “stumped”. Is it missing?

08/20/2018 By hpflxr
Missing cache

08/20/2018 By hpflxr
This is missing. Someone has taken the cache

08/14/2018 By AntonEtsii
Good GT55. I love this GeoTour -cache's and love this too. Thanks for so much! TFTC

08/08/2018 By diaphi
GPS was flipping around, but found it. Cemetery is lovely.