Grant Park Milwaukee - 100th Anniversary

[+Pawn-of-Chaos]

Brian Russart from Milwaukee County Parks forwarded an email request to me. Someone would like to set up a geocaching event for Grant Park's 100th anniversary. I started communicating with the contact, but I will be out of town and cannot help put this together. WOULD ANYBODY BE WILLING TO PUT THIS TOGETHER?

 

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Hello John, Thanks so much for getting back to me/us about geocaching. We are the Friends of Grant Park, and I began thinking about this as something that would bring people out into the natural world who might not otherwise do so. And, we would like to highlight areas of the park that have some historical significance as it will be a part of a 100 year anniversary celebration on July 18th, a Sunday. I believe I understand the guidelines about staying on trails and not locating in fragile areas. I organize the weed-outs in the park, and am involved in natural areas restoration, so I have great respect for Brian's guidelines. I have never participated in geocaching. nor in orienteering which also appeals to me in concept as it requires folks to open their eyes to their surroundings as well as to directions.

 

There are a couple of very old trees in the park that I'd love to id, a couple bridges, some nesting birds, some enormous downed trees (salamander hideouts) some wonderfully unique sculptures that are incorporated in the architecture of Shelter 5 and the Golf Course Clubhouse, an old stone spring (now dry) located in the woods off of a path... Anyway, I am so swamped with work right now, that I would very much appreciate your creative input, and if you wish, your management of the cache if you so desire. We are happy to go out with you to locate the "stations" (is that how they are described?) at your convenience. Thanks so much again, and I apologize for the tardy response.

 

Betsy Abert, Friends of Grant Park

414-764-9244

414-531-9249 (work cell)

 

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I’m still not exactly clear on what you’re looking to accomplish with a geocaching event.

 

You said you want to bring people out into the natural world who might not otherwise do so. I’m going to guess that this event would be aimed at the general public then, since geocachers already practice their hobby in the great outdoors.

 

You also said you’d like to highlight certain areas of the park. There are currently 9 caches already hidden in Grant Park. Chances are, we couldn’t hide any new permanent caches as there is a limitation on how close caches can be placed to each other. Besides, I wouldn’t want to show non-cachers where they are all hidden away, as it could lead to the vandalism / theft of the containers. However, we could create some temporary caches just for the one day event.

 

Next, how would the people find the caches? They’d need a number of GPS units. It is possible that we could borrow the loaners from the Wisconsin Geocaching Association, but I would have to check on that. On top of that, since much of the general public would not know how to use a GPS (and to make sure hundreds of dollars worth of equipment doesn’t grow legs and walk away on us), we’d also need the assistance of a few geocaching volunteers. I can send out an invite for help, but I can’t guarantee how many would respond. Some cachers will be putting on a similar event at the Gathering Waters Festival down by the lakefront on June 12.

 

You mentioned identifying a number of spots. Not sure how that would work. Typically, a cache is a hidden container with a log sheet / logbook for the finder to sign. How would the finder learn about what they’re seeing? Would there be informational handouts at each location? Or a rubber stamp that they could use to stamp a “passport” book at each spot? Problem is, if we have a limited number of GPS units and a person or group of people are using it for an hour at a time trying to track down all the locations, many other people might walk away because there is no GPS for them to use at the time. At the Festival I mentioned above, last year we had each volunteer help a person or small group find one hidden cache, taking only about 10-15 minutes before returning. The volunteers were constantly going back and forth because so many people wanted to try it out.

 

Now, I guess the question is, do you still want to pursue this as a possible activity. I will be out of town on that day, so I would have to hand over the request to someone else. It’ll take a bit of work to make the containers, obtain the GPS units, mark the coordinates where the containers will be hidden, etc. The sooner I know, the quicker I can see about getting someone to work on it.

 

John Storch

 

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Thanks John, for clarifying things. Must be a bit frustrating dealing with newbies like me. I'm forwarding this thread to the chair of our group, Don Lawson, who also would like to be involved so that he can get a better grip on what you're saying. My leanings would be to try to bring some volunteers to demo this for those new to the concept, though I will not be available for the Gathering Waters festival to observe/learn.

 

My sense is that for the day, we would have information about the element (tree, sculpture, bird, etc) at the site in a somewhat masked cache, and that they'd have a question to answer about it and a small rubber stamp attached with which to fulfill the "passport" idea. And, getting a hold of the GPS units (and making sure they stay in the park) will be a consideration, I agree. I am hoping that Don will be able to see some light in this and respond. Thanks again. More in a day or so.

 

Betsy Abert

[+Pawn-of-Chaos]

Although I couldn't help them, I guess they got something figured out...

 

http://www.southmilwaukee.org/grantpark100th/

 

includes:

 

Geo-Caching with the Friends of Grant Park

Tennis Court Lot • 12 noon - 3pm

 

...although I don't know who's running it.

 

John