Jump to content

Ghost Town TB's, Do you wanna play?


tsunrisebey

Recommended Posts

Hey all,

 

I am working on my next geocache hide which is going to be a Ghost Town theme. Montana has tons of ghost towns from the gold mining days. In Helena alone, there are about 5 that are relatively close within 35 miles, some with very few visible signs and others that are kept up by ghost town restoring organizations.

 

I've been researching which ghost town I'd like to place a cache at. I have not worked out all of the specific details yet because I need to scope out the areas to see which one will work best for my idea. I'm not even sure if I will do a multi-cache or traditional yet but it will be at least a difficulty of level 3.

 

Here is where my invite to all of you cachers to join me. I am looking to fill this cache with "Ghost Town TB's". It would be nice to get at least one TB from each US state and Canadian Province to go in the cache. Attached to your TB by way of plastic bag or laminated card, should have the name of the Ghost Town, and state it resides in. You should also include some sort of printed material about that ghost town to go with that travel bug. The idea here is to learn about our history in the process of getting the TB ready to go, and sharing that history with others.

 

The printed material about your ghost town will stay in the cache, but the TB can be removed to travel. The goal of your TB will be to travel back to your state where hopefully you can one day be brought back together again at which time you can retire it or keep it going.

 

When I am finally ready to post the cache, it will have all relevant information about what the cache is meant for etc. You will need to buy a TB for this if you are interested and you will have to mail the ghost town info. with the TB to me. The cache will be a neatly organized one that will have partitions to seperate each state/province so people can look at your ghost town accordingly. You can reply here or email me if you are interested and as I continue my research and develop more of my plan, I will keep you posted. I am looking to have this ready to roll sometime in late May/early June. (Some of these mountain roads don't clear off for awhile). Each discoverer of the cache will be instructed to release 1-2 TB's of their interest.

 

I will also probably get in touch with some local kid organizations (BBBS/YMCA/small schools) to give them an opportunity to look at our North American ghost town history.

 

This is a big undertaking, so if you are interested, just be patient with me as I try to keep everything organized and work out any problems.

 

Thanks, tsun :laughing:

Edited by tsunrisebey
Link to comment

This is a pretty cool idea, but you should be aware that many ghost towns have a severe buildup of rodent feces, which can contain NASTY hantavirus. When it comes to ghost towns, I look from afar, but do not approach too closely. I have seen buildings packed with what appeared to be hundreds of pounds of rodent feces.

 

Your best bet, I think, would be to contact one of the restoration groups about putting a geocache in one of the restored/cleaned up ghost towns.

Link to comment

This is a pretty cool idea, but you should be aware that many ghost towns have a severe buildup of rodent feces, which can contain NASTY hantavirus. When it comes to ghost towns, I look from afar, but do not approach too closely. I have seen buildings packed with what appeared to be hundreds of pounds of rodent feces.

 

Your best bet, I think, would be to contact one of the restoration groups about putting a geocache in one of the restored/cleaned up ghost towns.

 

Well that was going to be part of the FTF prize, hantavirus. :lol:

 

I was not planning on hiding the cache in an actual building or remnant be it restored or in shambles, better chance of being muggled. More along the outskirts, woodline, type hide. There has been no interest in this anyhow so unless this idea picks up in the next couple of weeks, I'm going to have to just do history on the ghost town I place it at. Less work for me if I end up going that route.

 

Thanks for your comment though.

 

Tsun :D

Link to comment

Your best bet, I think, would be to contact one of the restoration groups about putting a geocache in one of the restored/cleaned up ghost towns.

 

Here in Texas quite often the only thing left is a cemetary and usually there is a group maintaining it. That might be a way to help with local interest.

 

I have thought about Ghost towns but not for a while. Now you got me thinking again. A TB wanting to travel to a ghost town is just as interesting as most.

:lol:

Edited by txoilgas
Link to comment

Here in central Ohio we don't really have what most people think of as ghost towns. About the closest we get are towns that, over the years have lost their post office, or towns that have been incorporated by the bigger cities and suburbs. There are a few more "traditional" ghost towns further down in southern Ohio. Either way, I'd be in for this. Without going into too much information, there is a small town (really nothing more than a general store, and a prison) by the name of Rathbone, where I have placed a cache. It used to be the site of a mineral spring/day spa sort of place, and where President Hayes met his wife. Since that cache is a micro I can have the TB head back to another cache I own just about 1/2 a mile north of there.

 

Shoot me an email with the info and I'll work on getting a TB and information together.

 

edit: for clarity.

Edited by Mr. 0
Link to comment

Come on geocachers, where's your spirit? Get it? lol. Ok, so my sense of humor is one only I could enjoy :( I need a few more people to make this fun, there's hardly any work involved here. Just a little googling and printer work.

 

Please.............

 

Old addage Start It and They Will Play...... or something like that :anicute:

 

Ok , so exactly how do you want this to go down.....

Link to comment

Come on geocachers, where's your spirit? Get it? lol. Ok, so my sense of humor is one only I could enjoy :( I need a few more people to make this fun, there's hardly any work involved here. Just a little googling and printer work.

 

Please.............

 

Old addage Start It and They Will Play...... or something like that :anicute:

 

Ok , so exactly how do you want this to go down.....

 

Well my first post gives the overall idea of the whole thing. The only part on my end is which ghost town I'm going to use to place the cache in and if I want a traditional or multi-cache. Right now, we're buried in about 1-2' of snow and way more in the mountains (where the ghost towns are located), so I can't give a specific ghost town placement yet. I'm just looking for other geocachers from other states to volunteer (1st post) a TB and Ghost town paperwork for their state. I have 2 people interested so far. I guess if I could get 10 different states, I would be happy.

 

Let me post this idea also, would more people participate if I did not request a TB? What if I left that part optional and asked for information on a ghost town of your interest from your state? I could include your geocaching name on that file but there would be no TB to try to get back to your home state.

 

Comments/ideas are welcome.

Link to comment

I personally like the TB idea. It's an interesting tie in, and place to start out bugs to showcase ghost towns around us. But I'd say if there isn't enough interest in that, then yeah, just request info from folks to put in the cache. That way the folks finding the cache there in Montana can have a ghost town encyclopedia of sorts to look through if they wish.

 

My bug is ready to go. I just need to find a suitable hitchhiker, and finish up throwing the info together to go into the cache.

 

As soon as the cache is live I plan on adding a link to the TB page as well. Most likely it'll go on my watchlist/bookmarks so I can follow the logs and keep it in mind to find if I ever get up that way.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...