|
Although the
following info isn't needed to find the cache, it is always good to
brush up on some HISTORY:
On May 1, 2000, President Bill Clinton's executive order to
discontinue Selective Availability allowing users to receive a
non-degraded GPS signal globally was executed.
On May 2, 2000, at approximately midnight, eastern savings time,
the switch controlling "Selective Availability" was thrown.
Twenty-four satellites around the globe processed their new orders,
and instantly the accuracy of GPS technology improved tenfold. Tens
of thousands of GPS receivers around the world had an instant
upgrade.
On May 3, 2000 a GPS enthusiast, Dave Ulmer, a computer consultant,
wanted to test the accuracy by hiding a navigational target in the
woods. He called the idea the "Great American GPS Stash Hunt" and
posted it in an internet GPS users' group. The idea was simple:
Hide a 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 his or her GPS receiver. The rules for the finder
were simple: "Take some stuff, leave some stuff." On May 3rd he
placed The Original Stash (GCF), a black bucket, in the woods near
Beaver Creek, Oregon, near Portland. Along with a logbook and
pencil, he left various prize items including videos, books,
software, and a slingshot. He shared the waypoint of his "stash"
with the online community on sci.geo.satellite-nav: N 45° 17.460 W
122° 24.800 and Geocaching was born.
Within three days, two individuals online read about his stash on
the Internet, used their own GPS receivers to find the container,
and shared their experiences with others online. Throughout the
next week, others excited by the prospect of hiding and finding
stashes, began hiding their own containers and posting coordinates.
Like many new and innovative ideas on the Internet this concept
spread quickly, however this online innovation required leaving
your computer to participate.
On May 29, 2000 Matt Stum placed Michigan’s the first two
geocaches in the Manistee National Forest (GC33 and GC34); both of
these have been archived. On July 16, 2000 Mike Klusowski placed
Michigan’s third and oldest curent active cache: Power
Island(GC35). Six of the first 100 caches world-wide were placed in
the intellectually progressive state of Michigan. Slowly geocaches
started to be listed and finding more than two or three caches in
one day involved some long distance driving. Now ten years later,
we can all enjoy the variations of the mind and ankle twister paths
to little treasures of all types in western Michigan.
What started out 10 years ago as a single hide in Oregon has
blossomed into a thriving hobby/sport with over a million active
Geocache hides worldwide with an estimated 3-4 million
participants.
|