The following story comes to us from Pam Monson, Editor of Free Press Newspapers in Wilmington, IL.
Small Towns Hiding Treasures for Visitors to Find
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Four communities teamed up this year to bring something new and different, that the whole family can enjoy, to the Illinois Route 66 travel experience - geocaching.
Geocaching is a worldwide, free, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices, including smart phones and iPods. Cache (pronounced "cash") owners hide their treasure box and publish the exact coordinates so others can go on a "treasure hunt" to find it. Players try to find the hidden containers using longitude and latitude coordinates.
The only rules are:
- If you take something from the cache, you must leave something, and you write about your visit in the logbook you'll find in the cache. You can also log your find online. The caches you'll find between Wilmington and Braceville are registered at geocaching.com - just search Red Carpet Corridor. (The Red Carpet Corridor is a partnership of Illinois communities who celebrate their heritage along the Mother Road the first weekend of each May.)
- If you find an item with a code number stamped on it, chances are it's a "traveler," and its owner has selected a destination for it. If you take a traveler from the cache, you agree to move it along in its travels, and log your experience online.
