Canada-Kitchener Red TB

I maintain records on my trackables. They have the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers. That is a target rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 14-Aug-23 this trackable had survived for 4.1 years and had been moved by 12 cachers, for an average drop every 124 days. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

This wooden maple leaf recalls the maple leaf on the national flag of Canada.  Most people people living in the United States couldn’t name many cities in Canada, unless they live in the northern tier of states or Alaska.  This series of “Canada” travel bugs brings attention to the largest metropolitan areas in that country. 

The City of Kitchener is in southern Ontario.  Located approximately west of Toronto, Kitchener is the seat of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo.  It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916.  The metropolitan area, which includes the neighbouring cities of Waterloo and Cambridge, has 507,096 people, making it the tenth largest metropolitan area in Canada.

In 1784, the land that Kitchener was built upon was an area given to the Six Nations by the British as a gift for their allegiance during the American Revolution.  From 1796 and 1798, the Six Nations sold some of this land to a Loyalist by the name of Colonel Richard Beasley.  The portion of land that Beasley had purchased was remote but it was of great interest to German Mennonite farming families from Pennsylvania.  They wanted to live in an area that would allow them to practice their beliefs without persecution.  Eventually, the Mennonites purchased all of Beasley's unsold land creating 160 farm tracts. By 1800, the first buildings were built, and over the next decade several families made the difficult trip north to what was then known as the Sand Hills.