History of Wisconsin Geocaching

[wzbt03]

How about a little info from the cachers who were around when geocaching started in Wisconsin.
I think we have all heard bits and pieces:
Ken hiding the first cache?
Thorson involved in the original naming of the sport?
Who were the original leaders in number of caches found?
I understand some like Steve B. were ranked nationaly quite high.
How about it – share a little bit of the history with the rest of us.

[Ray]

This site:
http://members.cox.net/pkpublic/
gives this cache:
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=61
as the first cache in Wisconsin.
Today, we are left with no trace of the cache or of the cacher.

Wisconsin’s oldest surviving cache:
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=945
and there are reports that the cacher survives as well.

Our longest surviving cacher is M0E. She comes to us from S.Calif via Colorado. Her first reported cache 1/27/2001 and her last reported cache 6/26/2004.

tb

[This message has been edited by Trudy & the beast (edited 07-06-2004).]

[kbraband]

Here’s some of what I remember, in bullet point form. Brian, perhaps you can add to this.

• April 2000. I bought my Garmin eMap GPSR, which is what I still use today.
• Feb 2001: I learned about geocaching from a note posted by Jeremy Irish in an online forum called GPS Adventures.
• Feb. 27, 2001: I found my first cache, Beverly, in the Chicago area.
• March 2, 2001: Placed my first cache “Pike Powder Hike” in Pike Lake State Park near Slinger.
• March 3, 2001: I found my first cache in Wisconsin, “Pookie’s Stash”, placed by Kevin & Grace in the Horicon Marsh area.
• April 9, 2001: Found my first cache in the Milwaukee area, “Geocache” by Gregory James.
• April 2001. Started reading posts and exchanging email with other early Wisconsin geocachers including “Bill and Nikki”, “GrouseTales”, “jvechinski”, “Team Investigators”, “JTJ”, and “Yawningdog”.
• Summer 2001. I posted a note in the Midwest topic of the geocaching.com forum raising the idea of a late summer geocaching picnic in SE Wisconsin and asking if anyone else wanted to help me plan it. jvechinski, GrouseTales, and Yawningdog responded. We exchanged a few messages in the forum and settled on Pike Lake State Park as the location of a late August geocache event. About 50 attended and searched for 8 temporary caches we hid in the park. For awhile we thought a TV crew from the Today Show was going to attend. They contacted me about the picnic and had made plans to attend, but they didn’t show up. A reporter and photographer from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did attend and wrote a nice story about the event. http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/aug01/geo27082601a.asp
  It included a now-famous quote from Yawningdog about aliens and Pong, which we delighted in teasing him about for quite some time.
• My recollection is that I was the first Wisconsin geocacher to reach 10 finds. Team Investigators then hit their stride and zoomed all the way up to 20, 30, and 40 before anyone else in Wisconsin. Then came Cache Cows. They were #1 in the state for quite some time, first to reach 100 if I recall correctly. Later I got going and was first to reach 200. Then along came the ubercachers, beginning with Socko and followed by The Lil Otter. Otter was first to reach 1,000 and 2,000 among Wisconsin geocachers.
• Early 2002. The original planners of the first picnic got together to plan a state organization. We also invited Cache Cows and Thraxman to take part, since they were also active in the gc “community”. The Wisconsin Geocaching Association was created in early 2002. First officers were:
  Ken Braband, president; Brian Jansen, vice president; Jeremy Vechinski, secretary; and Joe Schnicke (Thraxman), treasurer. Other board members were Alan and Arn (Cache Cows), and Sam (Yawningdog).
• I posted a note a few weeks ago detailing the dates and locations of all the major WGA events we have hosted, but I can’t find it right now. Anyone know where that is?

[Jeremy]

Here’s the listing of the 17 teams that attended our first campout. For some reason Sam (Yawningdog) is not listed… probably because he forgot to fill out the registration sheet. Anyway, it gives you an idea of the number of finds people had and what caches had been placed back in August 2001.

Geocaching.com Username: Lee42048
Real Name(s): Lee Ashelger
Hometown: Milwaukee, WI
Found/Placed: 2/1
Names of Caches Placed: Wauwatosa

Geocaching.com Username: geogirl
Real Name(s): Bill (Bill-bo) and Nikki
Hometown: Germantown, WI
Found/Placed: 8/3
Names of Caches Placed: Snake Den, Monches Redemption, Lord of the Caches

Geocaching.com Username: Lavalamp
Real Name(s): Andrew, Rob, and Kay Goethel
Hometown: Cedarburg, WI
Found/Placed: 0/3
Names of Caches Placed: Andrew’s Cache, Flutter Flutter, Toys Are Us!

Geocaching.com Username: Team CacheCows
Real Name(s): Alan, Arlene, Eryn Fiebig
Hometown: Darien, WI
Found/Placed: 25/5
Names of Caches Placed: Tales from the Crypt, Ode to Bearded Lady, 3 Blind Mice, Puff + Stinky’s Great Race, Little Cache Calf in the Wildwood

Geocaching.com Username: BadLatitude
Real Name(s): Ken and Nate Nelson
Hometown: Waukesha, WI
Found/Placed: 12/0
Names of Caches Placed: –

Geocaching.com Username: Team Rusch
Real Name(s): Jason and Chris Rusch
Hometown: Fond Du Lac (Jason) and Green Bay (Chris)
Found/Placed: 3/0
Names of Caches Placed: –

Geocaching.com Username: The Searchers
Real Name(s): Bill and Deb Rusch
Hometown: Oakfield, WI
Found/Placed: 3/0
Names of Caches Placed: –

Geocaching.com Username: –
Real Name(s): Floyd and Margene Creamer
Hometown: Black Earth, WI
Found/Placed: 0/0
Names of Caches Placed: –

Geocaching.com Username: –
Real Name(s): Steve, Chantel, and April Brittain
Hometown: Milwaukee, WI
Found/Placed: 1/0
Names of Caches Placed: –

Geocaching.com Username: TGuner
Real Name(s): Mark, Debbie, Stephan, Alicia, and Caitlin Kappes
Hometown: Franklin, WI
Found/Placed: 5/1
Names of Caches Placed: Oak Leaf Trail’

Geocaching.com Username: Nicole
Real Name(s): Jason Engel / Nicole Buttke
Hometown: Cedarburg / Oak Creek, WI
Found/Placed: 14/3
Names of Caches Placed: Ladybug Adventure (archived), Telltale Tombstone, Wehr in Whitnall Park?

Geocaching.com Username: Team GrouseTales
Real Name(s): Brian, Becky, Doug, and Nick
Hometown: West Allis, WI
Found/Placed: 20/3
Names of Caches Placed: Ice Age Vista, Big Arb Ruins, Salute to Stute

Geocaching.com Username: InsideEdge
Real Name(s): Jim Jarosz
Hometown: Marshfield, WI
Found/Placed: 3/0
Names of Caches Placed: –

Geocaching.com Username: Cachew
Real Name(s): John and Heidi Carvin
Hometown: Madison, WI
Found/Placed: -/3
Names of Caches Placed: Capitol City Trail, Thor’s Thunder, Capital City Trail

Geocaching.com Username: Thraxman
Real Name(s): Joe Schnicke
Hometown: Janesville, WI
Found/Placed: 9/0
Names of Caches Placed: –

Geocaching.com Username: jvechinski
Real Name(s): Jeremy Vechinski
Hometown: Milwaukee, WI
Found/Placed: 27/4
Names of Caches Placed: Vernon Marsh, Magnolia Bluff, Powers Bluff, Wy Not Wyalusing?

Geocaching.com Username: kbraband
Real Name(s): Ken, Robin, and Jacey Braband
Hometown: Cedarburg, WI
Found/Placed: 27/10
Names of Caches Placed: Pleasant Valley Sunday, Pike Powder Hike, Devil’s Lake, New Prospect, Lake by a Lake, Family Bicycling Virtual Cache, Tourist Attraction Virtual Cache, Grandpa Kettleson’s Farm, Wild Goose Chase

[This message has been edited by jvechinski (edited 07-07-2004).]

[GrouseTales]

My recollection is the same as Ken’s. There was only a handful of cachers in the area. When one would hide a cache, everyone would rush out to find it. There seemed to be a core group of about 15 cachers that were active. Cache logs seemed a little more personal, like you were talking one on one with the owner.

I was doing pretty good in the numbers game until Team Investigators came along. They apparently had more free time and quickly logged a lot of finds. There was a short time that I was concerned about numbers, but that faded when I hit about 50 caches.

I started caching around April 4, 2001. My first finds were Pike powder hike and then New Prospect, both placed by kbraband. We were quickly hooked.

The Geocaching.com forums were actually fun to read at first. Now I can’t stand reading them

BTW, the original website was a Yahoo group message board, “S/E Wisconsin Geocachers”, a private message board.

[This message has been edited by GrouseTales (edited 07-07-2004).]

[Miata]

You mean April 4, 2001 right?

I am listed as being a member since Sunday, September 23, 2001….a late comer!

You guys are right in that there was very slim pickings for caches out there back in the earliest days of the sport! I seem to be back in the drive 100 miles for 5 cache finds mode again though.

[EnergySaver]

quote:

---

Originally posted by kbraband:
[*]April 2000. I bought my Garmin eMap GPSR, which is what I still use today.

---

Only thing better than an eMap is an eMap with a school bus yellow rubber rain coat … http://www.gpscity.com/emapprotcvr.html

[jthorson]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Miata:
You mean April 4, 2001 right?

---

He must. The only reason caching is possible as we know it is that on May 1, 2000, the president at the time signed the order to remove SA (selective availability). SA intentionally made GPSrs less accurate, except for the US government/military. Literally overnight new applications were possible.

Someone posted a specific request for new games to play with a GPS.
Geocaching was just one.

My favorite of the proposals was this:

Stand in an open field with plenty of room, like the fifty yard line of a football field.
Turn on your GPSr.
Create a waypoint where you are.
Go to that waypoint.
Continue chasing that waypoint (ground zero) until you get bored or have a heart attack.

This would have been fatal pre-May 2000.

[This message has been edited by jthorson (edited 07-07-2004).]

[WISearchers]

quote:

---

Originally posted by jthorson:
….Go to that waypoint.
Continue chasing that waypoint (ground zero) until you get bored or have a heart attack.

This would have been fatal pre-May 2000.
[This message has been edited by jthorson (edited 07-07-2004).]

---

Prior to May 2000, you might have been better off with a sextant and a compass!

[GrouseTales]

Yes I meant 2001. I fixed my post.

Of course I was an active GPS user going back to 1993. Back then I would find locations on a topo map and determine their lat/lon using a plastic scale ruler. Once I knew the position of the object, I would try to find it with my GPS. That’s how I found the location for my Muskellunge Tower cache.

[This message has been edited by GrouseTales (edited 07-07-2004).]

[Miata]

I figured it was a typo Brian. I was just having a good time with a typo is all!

I bought my 1st Garmin in 1999 and am on my 3rd, but never pushed them to the limit. At least not until the last year or so.

[This message has been edited by Miata (edited 07-07-2004).]

[kbraband]

I thought it might be fun to bump this topic, since this month is the 3-year anniversary of the WGA. Woo hoo! (sound of noise-makers, firecrackers, champagne corks popping)

[This message has been edited by kbraband (edited 02-12-2005).]

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