How Geocaching Got Started
Ever wonder how Geocaching got started and who is the creator of this awesome game? In this blog post, I'm going to share all those interesting details with you that helped create this game. Geocaching can definitely be considered a product of the new millennium. With the limitations of the GPS before the 2000's, Geocaching would have been very difficult to play. Before the update removing the "selective availability", the GPS receiver would only get you so close to a Geocache and you would spend some time searching a large area for the Geocache. It was almost like searching the area the size of a football field before the GPS users got an update. Are we not happy this happened! I know I am, imagine searching for a bison tube or a nanocontainer in an area that large! We will chat later about all the different kind of Geocaching containers you can find. They can all change based on the hider, let's say a bison tube and a nano are most likely some of the smallest Geocache you will need to search for.
For GPS users the removal of selective availability was a reason to celebrate their excitement. Many were really happy to see this change take place suddenly a lot of groups teamed up together with ideas on how this technology could be used.
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| Dave Ulmer at the location was the Birth of Geocaching took place |
Dave Ulmer, I personally want to send a big THANK YOU to Dave Ulmer, he wanted to hide a " target " in the woods to see just how accurate this theory would be. He called his idea
" Great American GPS Stash Hunt " and posted it to an internet GPS user group not really knowing what would corrupt his idea. His idea was very simple. Hide the container out in the woods and note the coordinates with a GPS unit. The finder would then have to locate the container with only the use of their GPS. The rules were easy " Take some stuff, Leave some stuff "
On May 3, 2000, is the day that David placed his own container, a black bucket, in the woods near Beaver Creek, Oregon. Inside the container he left a logbook and pencil, he left some prize items including videos, books, software and a slingshot. He shared the location of his " Stash " in an online group.
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A plaque remains at the First Geocaching hide of David Ulmer
Photo Credit by Geocacher: Sweet Potato Pie |
Three days is all it took for David Ulmer's Geocache to be found by two different people who were very interested in seeing the stash and getting to try their own GPS to see if finding this treasure would be possible. They shared their stories online and throughout the next week other began hidden their own containers and posting their coordinates. Like any other idea posted on the Internet, this one bloomed into something big very quick and is still growing in popularity today.
The first month of this activity taking it's course into the real world, Mike Teague, the first person to find David Ulmer's Stash, began gathering the online post from fellow Geocachers around the world. He would keep them all documented on his personal web page. The web page was created to allow other Geocachers a place to discuss this super fun activity. Names were being tossed around to replace the current name " Stash " with Geocaching which was later on done and remains to this name today. The famous name of Geocaching. 💙
* Happy Caching *
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