Grafton area: do you get Ozaukee-Washington Daily news

[Lostby7]

There is an article printed about my Grafton Earthcache and I would like to get a copy…I believe the print date is May 13th. I saw a teaser online but nothing more. If you have a copy I’d appreciate the page sent to me. (The paper could also be called GM Today or Cedarburg News Graphic )

Lime Kiln Park ‘caches’ eye of Geographical Society of America
Lime Kiln Park has gone from being just a local recreational hotspot to a “officially-designated” site for an increasingly popular outdoor game based on locating points of geographical significance.

…and in the tradition of getting the facts wrong they listed the Geological Society of America as the Geographical Society of America.

I offered to fact check the reporters article…I guess he should have taken me up on the offer.

[Lostby7]

OK I got the article… 😳 Suddenly I’m not sure how much of what I read I wish to believe. So many facts were wrong in this:

@Article wrote:

…A small log at the site is signed by the discoverer of the Geocache, who then subsequently replaces the container with a new one…

@Article wrote:

Participants must log onto earthcache.org and submit a photo and correctly answer all the questions in order to receive credit for the visit.

There are other inaccuracies as well. I guess I’m kinda bummed because I sent a full page of information detailing how geocaching works and how they are different from earthcaches….Here this is the information I sent him:…in retrospect I can see how he got the container replacement issue confused.

@Lostby7 wrote:

Hello Tim

Here is some information about the lime kiln Earthcache I plan to release shortly in Grafton. First I’d like to give you a little background on geocaching and Earthcaches:

An Earthcache is much like a geocache which you may have heard of. In geocaching a small container is hidden then the coordinates are listed on a web page for others to find using a handheld GPS receiver (which are accurate to about 20 feet). Once the container is found a small log book is signed as proof of the visit and the container is replaced.

Unlike a geocache, an Earthcache has no container and nothing is left at the site. The visit is strictly educational in nature. Earthcaches are simply locations which teach about geology and each listing must be approved by the Geological Society of America and other agencies prior to getting published.

People who visit geocaching.com would record the coordinates from the website, visit the park and answer some questions about the site as well as take a photo as proof of their visit. Once they send me answers to questions about the site and the photo, they could log the Earthcache as having ‘been found’ on geocaching.com.

Here are a few of the 12 Earthcaches I have set up in the state-

Meteor Impact:
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=dc48ab34-7689-473d-ac61-0504d115ab28
A Waterfall:
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=679e3306-48a3-4d20-92c9-bab0db1fa439
A Bog:
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=8e53dc90-6ac3-4e94-b399-1d910e75f1d3

You can learn more about Geocaches and Earthcaches at the following two links:

http://www.geocaching.com/

http://www.earthcache.org/

Here is a copy (Word doc) of the 99% complete Earthcache page:

Let me know what questions you may have and if this is to go to press, I’d be happy to do a quick fact check on the article for you….many times when articles get written about geocaching the reporters write about “Buried” containers and we try very hard for people to understand that no containers are buried and in this case there is no container at all.

Thanks for your interest in our little game and in particular, my Earthcache placement. I plan to list the cache this afternoon so it should show up on geocaching.com in a day or three.

I tried…but I guess in the end most people reading the article will not see the inaccuracies and the article will get across the general idea of what the Earthcache is about.

[kbraband]

As a former newspaper reporter and editor, I’ll say that although your heart was in the right place, you provided TMI to this reporter and overwhelmed him. Short and sweet. That’s my creedo.

[Author]

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