Welcome to the Geographical Center of North America! If you happen to look this location up on Google Maps, you will see that it is listed as the Scientific Center of North America, which is likely meant to distinguish it from the Geographical Center of North America located in Rugby, ND. Wait - which one is actually the center?
In 1928, The U.S. Geological Survey estimated that the geographical center of North America was located near Rugby, ND by balancing a cardboard cutout of North America on a pin. Rugby erected a monument to mark the center in 1931 and claimed the title of Geographical Center of North America, which it proceeded to hold unchallenged for 90 years. However, in 2017 a geography professor at the University of Buffalo developed a computer program that could determine the geographical centers of various land masses, and when he ran his program for North America it placed the center at the location you are currently visiting, just outside of Center, ND. This finding has lead to quite the feud between the two cities. As if that weren't confusing enough, the owners of a bar in Robinson, ND decided in 2015 over a few drinks that their bar was, in fact, the true geographical center of North America, and briefly snatched up the trademark for a while before returning it to Rugby and removing the sign labeling their bar as such. To top it all off, there is no commonly accepted definition of what constitutes the geographical center of a landmass. As the situation currently stands, Center seems to be the true geographical center of North America...for now, at least.
To log this cache, you will need to complete the following tasks:
1. Message me the answer to the following question within 48 hours of logging your find: At the entrance, there are three flags. Two of them have a legion post number and a year inscribed at their base. What is the post number and what is the year?
2. Take a picture of yourself or your GPS or a personal item in front of the monument at the posted coordinates and include it with your log.
Logs that do not meet the requirements will be deleted after 48 hours. Happy caching!
Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-calculations-reposition-geographical-center-north-america-1-180961932/
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.