This cache type was originally called the Lost & Found Event and consisted of events hosted by geocachers from April 30 through May 3, 2010, in celebration of Geocaching's 10-year anniversary. All of the events needed to follow a particular naming convention and had the cache type retroactively applied by HQ staff.

When the 20th anniversary of Geocaching rolled around in 2020, the type was resurrected and rebranded into the Community Celebration Event. Cachers who met certain criteria were awarded a listing of this type that was originally supposed to be held in a particular time frame in 2020. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic led to that time frame being extended into 2021.

10 Years! Old Sacramento, CA

The Block Party idea was formed out of the success of the 10-year anniversary Lost & Found Celebration in Seattle in 2010. It occurred for five consecutive years on the third Saturday in August - International Geocaching Day.

2011 Geocaching Block Party

GC51D has an earlier date, but it was backdated after the Austin event had occurred, and the date doesn't match the date of March 31 given in the cache description.

Austin Geocachers Happy Hour

In February of 2003, the idea of organized Cache In Trash Out events for Earth Day was proposed (see https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/56170-cache-in-trash-out-for-earth-day/). A total of 67 events were organized and then the CITO cache type retroactively applied to them. The idea was the brainchild of The Leprechauns, so this listing is considered the original CITO event.

Earth Day Cleanup at Raccoon Creek Park

This is the original EarthCache created by the founder of the EarthCache type. There are older EarthCache listings now, but they are caches that were retroactively changed to ECs.

Earthcache I - a simple geology tour of Wasp Head

The HQ cache was originally listed as a mystery and its location placed in the middle of Lake Union in Seattle. Appointments were required in order to visit and log a find. When the 10-year anniversary celebration was in the planning stages, the type was changed to the current one and the location moved to the actual office location.

Geocaching Headquarters

The Mega cache type was announced in May of 2006 shortly after this event took place (see https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/133724-mega-event-cache/) and retroactively applied to this listing.

GeoWoodstock 4

GPS Adventures Maze Exhibit - Minnetrista

The webcam cache type was introduced in january or February of 2002 and retroactively applied to a number of listings on the site.

Houston Webcam Cache #1

This cache type was created as a massive party at HQ to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Geocaching. It was the precursor to the Block Party that followed each year for the next five years. It was resurrected for the 20th anniversary celebration, which due to the COVID-19 pandemic was pushed back to 2022.

Lost & Found Celebration

The APE caches were announced in May of 2001. More info on this cache type is available at http://www.markwell.us/projectape.htm.

Mission 1: Devil's Spoon

It is believed that this is the oldest multicache. Tour of Stone Mountain (GC1E) is older, but was converted to a multi in the summer of 2003 after the original traditional was muggled.

Missouri's 2nd - Odessa Confluence

This was originally a moving cache, and it later became a puzzle as it is now. The current version of the cache dates from 2003.

GC58 is a mystery type that is slightly older, but there's nothing on the listing to suggest that it was truly a mystery cache. It was never found, and may have been edited by the CO from a previous type.

Octopus Garden

This is one of the most difficult cache types to confirm. GC2D is the oldest Letterbox Hybrid in the database, but it was never found. It’s possible it was changed to a Letterbox Hybrid after the fact.

Open Space 6

This is the oldest of the listings with the locationless designation. It had been created in response to the tragedy of 9/11. The locationless type was not introduced until May of 2002 (see https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/52766-new-locationless-cache-type-policies/) and then retroactively applied to a number of listings.

Please Donate Blood Cache

Project MUNICH2014 - Mia san Giga!

There is some question as to what the first true virtual cache is. Some listings predate this one, but were previous types later converted to virtuals, or were listed later but backdated. Even the records for Rift Valley are murky, as it appeared that it was "placed" well before geocaching existed, and the user originally posted it using the estimated date for when he was there. That date was pre-2000, and at some point the record was changed in the database to match the dates on the records around it.

Rift Valley

This is the listing for Dave Ulmer's original cache. When Jeremy first imported the listings from Mike Teague's site into Geocaching.com, he pulled in the caches in Washington State first, followed by Oregon. For this reason, the Original Stash does not have the first GC code in the database.

The Original Stash

In January of 2008, the Wherigo platform was announced: https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/181284-wherigo%E2%84%A2-platform-on-the-garmin-colorado/. A number of people were involved in beta testing and thus had listings ready to go at that time.

Where I went, Hugo

When Jeremy first imported the caches from Mike Teague's online listing into the Geocaching.com database in 2000, all were given a type of "Geocache." On May 7, 2001, he announced distinct types: Traditional, Multi-cache, Letterbox Hybrid, Virtual, Unknown (now Mystery), and Event.

In those early days, many listings had their type retroactively applied by both cache owners and the site, so in many cases the true first instance of each type is not clear. For more discussion, see
https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/361113-first-published-cache-of-each-type.

Many thanks to Isonzo Karst and many others in helping to compile this history.

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First Cache of Each TypePublic