Today in History: May 3, 2000: 15 Years of GeoCaching

2000 – Up until May 1, all GPS signals were scrambled for protection. President Bill Clinton announced they would be turning off the Selective Availability (SA) because it didn’t propose a greater threat. But it also gave geeks something new to play with. But what to do?

Dave Ulmer ultimately started the GeoCaching phenomenon. He hid a bunch of trinkets out in the woods of Portland, Oregon. He then went to the USENET group sci.geo.satellite-nav and stated: “If you take something, leave something”.

The Usenet message:
From: Dave (news2yousNOneSPAM@hotmail.com.invalid)
Subject: The Great American GPS Stash Hunt!
Newsgroups: sci.geo.satellite-nav
Date: 2000/05/03

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The Great American GPS Stash Hunt !!
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Now that SA is off we can start a worldwide Stash Game!! With Non-SA accuracy it should be easy to find a stash from waypoint information. Waypoints of secret stashes could be shared on the
The Internet, people could navigate to the stashes and get some stuff. The only rule for stashes is: Get some Stuff, Leave some Stuff!! The more valuable the stuff the more stashes will be started.

I’m thinking of half burying a five-gallon plastic bucket with a lid at the stash point. Putting in some stuff. Adding a logbook and pencil so visitors can record their find. The log should contain: Date, Time, What you got, and What you put in. Scanning the log book should give you a quick inventory of the stash.

I’ll look for a place near a road where few people would normally go… Put in some cash, an old digital camera, and some antique silverware!! I will come up with a cool name for my stash and post coordinates soon!!!

Make your own stash in a unique location, put in some stuff and a log book. Post the location on the Internet. Soon we will have thousands of stashes all over the world to go searching for.
Have Fun!!

Dave…

He also made a video, which has the container and contents.