This cache is not a physical container. Read the description for logging requirements.
Congratulations to trailtrekn for FTF!
When we had the opportunity to publish a virtual cache, of course our thoughts went immediately to octopuses. The member of the rifkegribenes team who was alive in the 1980s has fond memories of Portland’s most famous octopus: Spoticus, the enormous sculpture that lived above the Greek Cuisina restaurant (downtown, 4th & Washington) for decades. But when we started trying to figure out what ever happened to Spoticus and where he might be now, things got complicated.
A little background information:
Spoticus, a 10-foot by 40-foot sculpture made of steel, foam, and purple polka-dotted fabric, was an iconic landmark in downtown Portland for more than 36 years. This is about how much we knew when we began thinking about a Spoticus-related geocache.
Once we dug deeper, we learned more: Greek Cuisina owner Ted Papas commissioned a local artist to build Spoticus in the 1970s. When the restaurant closed in 2010 after a long battle with the city over fire code violations, Papas put Spoticus up for sale on eBay.
Eric Cavizo, owner of Brick’s Barbershop in SW Portland, heard the news and stepped in to save Spoticus from the auction block. He paid $2000 (which Papas donated to Portland Rescue Mission) plus removal costs to have Spoticus relocated to the roof of his barbershop. Watch Spoticus’ big journey here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmRQKweA19Y
(in unrelated news we also learned that Cavizo took a respectable 3rd place in the 2011 West Coast Beard and Mustache Championship)
Two years later, Cavizo moved his barbershop to Tigard and Spoticus was left behind. Cavizo put an ad on Craisglist, offering him free to anybody with a crane.
Kacey Birch, owner of the Southeast Grind coffeeshop, was working on a plan to get Spoticus moved to the roof of her business in 2014. And that’s as far as we got with information available on the internet.
So we started trying to track down anybody we could think of who might know something about Spoticus. We learned that the Southeast Grind had closed in 2019. We found a phone number for Kacey Birch, but that turned out to be a dead end. Finally some internet stalking led us to an Etsy account, and we were thrilled when she wrote back! Unfortunately, she told us she had never been able to get the city permits needed to display Spoticus at her coffeeshop, so the deal fell through. She gave us the name of the owner of a warehouse in the NW industrial area where Spoticus was being stored in 2014.
We found an email for the warehouse owner and wrote to him, but he never wrote back. A little more research showed that the whole warehouse company closed in 2019. The trucking company associated with the warehouse appeared to still be operating, but nobody answers any of the phone numbers available for them online. A lead on the owner’s personal cell was also a dead end, or perhaps he was just put off by the series of slightly unhinged text messages we sent in an attempt to find out what he knew about a giant purple octopus last seen in 2014. Eric Cavizo, the barbershop owner, also did not respond to email inquiries. What to do?
We discovered we are not the only people wondering what happened to Spoticus. A local YouTuber found a mural painted in Spoticus’ honor near his former home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXde_jatEBQ but had no info on his current location.
Where is Spoticus now? If anybody can find a missing item, it’s a bunch of geocachers. So we’re posting what we know here in the hopes that somebody out there has a lead.
In the mean time, the silver lining that came from weeks of googling ‘Portland Octopus Sculpture’ is the discovery of the glorious specimen you see before you! This 10-foot tall cephalopod was created by Washington State chainsaw artist Ray Schulz in early 2020. It was commissioned by Kelly Green, owner of the Green Oasis dispensary behind it. The sculpture was made from ponderosa pine, carved into sections called "cants", then kiln-dried, transported to the Sellwood location and bolted together. Green calls the sculpture "Mr. OG", and says he hopes it entertains passersby. We love Mr. OG already, and although he will never replace Spoticus in our hearts we thought he was worthy of carrying on the 'giant octopus sculpture' legacy with a virtual cache.
To log this cache, take a picture of yourself, or a piece of paper with your username on it in front of Mr. OG and post it with your log.
To win our eternal admiration, share any leads you may have in the search for Spoticus or tips on any other octopus-related public art in Portland.
Our research these past few weeks has led us to so many other fabulous octopus locations and we’re already scheming about future caches...
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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.