The History of Geocaching

Written by Jeff on September 14, 2007

from GPSgames.org

GPS, or Global Positioning System, was developed by the US Department of Defense. This satellite navigation system was intended for military use and therefore the signals were scrambled, limiting accuracy for civilian use to about 100 meters. On May 1, 2000, President Clinton announced that this scrambling, known as Selective Availability (SA), would be turned off. Civilians were then able to enjoy accuracy on the order of 10 meters.

The Geocacher’s Guide to Trading Swag

Written by Jeff on September 11, 2007

Treasure for the Geocaching Sport and Game

By Melanie Schwear

Geocaching is a sport or activity in which the participants use handheld GPS devices to find hidden caches. These caches can be of any size, and hidden in any type of terrain: from under a bench on a city street, to dangling off a cliff in the rugged mountains, to under a pile of leaf litter on the side of a park trail.

Geocaching is “caching” on

Written by Jeff on September 9, 2007

High-tech treasure hunts gaining popularity

Mickey Tibbits
Special to The Free Press Mankato, MN

ST. PETER —

Geocaching is a treasure hunt using high-tech tools — or as one geocacher noted, using billion dollar satellites to find Tupperware.

After Bill Geary of St. Peter retired in 2005, his wife bought him a GPS. “That started me,” he said.

An enthusiastic participant of geocaching, Geary (aka Ramsey63) has found 1273 caches in two years. “I’ve done all the rest areas between here and New Jersey,” he said.

What is Geocaching?

Written by Jeff on September 9, 2007

Geocaching is a game that is played outdoors. The players (or cachers) use a handheld GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver or, for some people who really like a challenge, use a topographical map and compass to hide and seek containers that are referred to as geocaches. A typical cache container is a small waterproof enclosure such as a film container or it could be as large as a 5 gallon pail containing a logbook and some kind of treasure- usually toys or trinkets of little value. According to the latest stats I found there are over 400,000 geocaches in more than 200 countries around the globe and on all seven continents. There are even a few in Antarctica which hopefully, is where one of my Travel Bugs is heading to! (More about Travel Bugs in an upcoming article.) Many families love to go Geocaching with their children, since what child doesn’t like finding hidden treasure! Even in the middle of my city there are some great little out of the way places I would never have found without Geocaching.