This series needed an historic site cache. Saint Joseph’s Mission Church is the oldest church building in the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese. St. Joe’s is a log cabin church located near Hart’s Sleeping place, an old Indian trading post and resting place along the Kittanning trail. On October 10, 1830 The Apostle of the Alleghenies, Father Prince Demetrius Gallitzin dedicates the church.
In 1881 the outside of the church was covered over with weather boarding, losing its appearance as a log cabin. The original logs of the church can be viewed at the small window in the front. In August of 2024 I toured the inside of St. Joe’s during an open house. Many of the old furnishings remain & I was impressed with the beautiful stained-glass windows depicting historic scenes of the area.
The roads in from Tower Road & Rt219 are both rough so use caution. The inside of the church is only open a few times a year for visitation during an open house and for special church services. Please no Night caching!
Congratz Jeff121finder 4 FTF!
The Series:
This 25-for-25 Series was placed as a collaboration of local geocachers in the Johnstown-Altoona Geocaching Association (JAGA) area and surrounding counties. We wanted to place a series of 25 geocaches to celebrate 25 years of geocaching. We hope you enjoy the various types of hides, all across JAGA-land: Micro, Small, Regular, Large; Traditionals, Multi-Caches, Letterbox-Hybrid, Wherigo, and those pesky Mysteries. Happy 25th Birthday, Geocaching!
On May 3, 2000, Dave Ulmer, a computer consultant, wanted to test the accuracy of GPS by hiding a navigational target in the woods near Beavercreek, Oregon. 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 3, Dave placed his own container, a black bucket, in the woods, taking the location's coordinates to be N 45 17.460 W 122 24.800. 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.
THE REST IS HISTORY!
(Historic text taken, mostly as-is, with minor edits, from www.geocaching.com/about/history.aspx)
Throughout the spring and summer of 2025, look for various caches of this series to publish most weekends, with a "series final cache" to conclude the series on or around International Geocaching Day in August of 2025. That's one new JAGA-land cache for each year of geocaching's history, plus "one to grow!"
Be sure to write down or take photos of code words provided in some of the series caches (for caches that have them) that will help you get the coordinates for the series final when it is available at the end of the series.
See the entire 25-for-25 series list at 25for25.jaga.group
As the geocache owner, I ensure that the above link is to a local geocaching group site that is active in the community and contributing to geocaching in positive ways. This link has not been checked by Geocaching HQ or by the reviewer.