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Hello all – I’m wondering if the dams of Wisconsin qualify as a possible locations for caches. I’ve seen a few out there but I’d really like to do something along the lines of Lil Otter’s 52 pickup – but using dams. Obviously I would not want to place the caches in dangerous areas – that would not be the intent at all. In fact, my idea would be to place them NEAR the dams so that people can at least see the marvels of these structures from a SAFE distance. Where does this land qualify as public/private?
quote:
Originally posted by Johnny U-Boat:
Hello all – I’m wondering if the dams of Wisconsin qualify as a possible locations for caches. I’ve seen a few out there but I’d really like to do something along the lines of Lil Otter’s 52 pickup – but using dams. Obviously I would not want to place the caches in dangerous areas – that would not be the intent at all. In fact, my idea would be to place them NEAR the dams so that people can at least see the marvels of these structures from a SAFE distance. Where does this land qualify as public/private?As one of the admin cache approvers for Wisconsin, I can tell you that ever since 9/11 the rules for placement have tightened. If you place caches near dams they may not get approved unless you place them far enough away that if anyone found the cache by accident or observed geocachers looking for the cache there would be no concern that this was a terrorist activity. To quote the Cache Listing Requirements/Guidelines:
“Caches will be quickly archived if we see the following (which is not inclusive):
Caches on National Park Service maintained lands
Caches that are buried – If a shovel/trowel/pointy object is used to dig – in order to hide or find a cache – it’s not appropriate.
Caches hidden by active railroad tracks.
Caches near or in military installations.
Caches under public structures deemed targets for terrorist attacks.
Caches placed on vacation.”Personally, I would suggest that you choose good individual locations for a select number of caches instead of a whole series of caches premised on a single theme. However, if you really want to do a bunch of dam caches, I recommend you place each cache at least 100 feet from the dam so that the geocacher can see the dam from the cache but does not have to get near it. This is my opinion. The other admins for Wisconsin may be posting here with their opinions too.
Thanks for the quick response! I never even thought about the terror threat – that’s a good point. I also agree with your second point – to cache individual caches vs. a single theme.
I have five (GEOCACHE STICKER LABELED) ammo boxes each loaded with a pencil, sharpener, notebad, GEOCACHE letter and various other trinkets ready to go in my basement. Look for some placed caches in the near future.
Johnny,
Looks like you’re from the Green Bay area… I think you should stash a couple of those up in Door County. Team Flushingrouse will be taking a little trip to the area sometime in early Oct…
Just an idea!
Team Flushingrouse
Snoshu – Sounds good. Our team might be heading up there in the near future as well. Hit a bunch of caches in Central Wisconsin this weekend. Big Falls/Marion/Shiocton area. Good stuff….
As the primary approver for Wisconsin caches, I agree with what kbraband stated above.
Most of the “dams” in Wisconsin are nothing more then earthened impoundments with a flood control gate.
I would suggest that you stay at least 100 feet from the actual gates of any dam. I’ve approved many caches that are near dams. In fact, there is a cacher in western WI that has already started a series of “Dam” caches. He’s up to #8 I believe.
I’m not real crazy about approving a large series of caches. It tends to bog down the approval process for people that just want to get one cache on-line. If you feel like creating a series of caches, please keep numbers small.
As another cacher to cacher, I tried placing a series of caches [Havenwoods 1-5] and intended to continue the series until I realized that they lose their distinctiveness as the series grows. I had to stop and think about which was which. This was starting to hurt.
Now we try to make our caches as distinctively different as we can. It’s a lot easier to keep track of them mentally.
BTW, two of our more recent caches are at dams. One is a micro perhaps 100 feet away. The other is a clear rubbermaid container right beside the dam [oops]. Fortunately, the second doesn’t have a very threatening appearance.
At this point, each of our existing caches is very different from the others. It makes it a lot easier for Trudy & I to discuss them.
quote:
Originally posted by Johnny U-Boat:
Hello all – I’m wondering if the dams of Wisconsin qualify as a possible locations for caches.Dear Johnny U Boat,
Having read the other responses to your question I wanted to share a different perspective. I work for We Energies and we have a resource you may wish to consider. Many of our dams in northern WI and the UP of MI have picnic and/or camping areas associated with them. While this is private land, it is open to the public for hiking, picnicing, fishing, camping, etc. Some are easy to get to and others require to carry everything in a few miles. Here’s a web link to a description of the program, called “Wilderness Shores”, including a map.
http://www.we-energies.com/environment/wsra.htmGood luck, lots of DAM neat places to visit out there!
Steve K
Thanks for all the responses. That “WE ENERGIES” camping sounds wonderful. I could easily see my wife and I taking advantage of that!
I have a second question. How do I get my cache approved? I planned on just posting my cache on GEOCACHING.COM. Is that still correct?
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Originally posted by skarolek:
I work for We Energies and we have a resource you may wish to consider. Many of our dams in northern WI and the UP of MI have picnic and/or camping areas associated with them. While this is private land, it is open to the public for hiking, picnicing, fishing, camping, etc. Some are easy to get to and others require to carry everything in a few miles. Here’s a web link to a description of the program, called “Wilderness Shores”, including a map.
http://www.we-energies.com/environment/wsra.htm
PS…if anyone plants a cache in one of the Wilderness shores areas, please let me know and I’ll get the web page changed to add Geocaching as one of the activities that can be enjoyed there and provide a link to wi-geocaching.com and/or the specific cache page on geocaching.com.
Steve K
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