UK Geochaching since 1854??

[Guest Hobbyhorse]

Hi

I was facinated to fall over your modern way to go "letterboxing". Hiding a chache and giving clues to find it have been around on Dartmoor in Devon in the UK since 1854 when a local guide left a visitors book in the centre of the north moor. There are now 21000!!! dead letter boxes hidden on this small secion of England. You would think they are easy to find and you would be tripping over them everywhere but you would be wrong. They are very well hidden and very difficult to spot.

The system has settled down from leaving messages and cards for others to just having two to three things in the box. Which are A visitors book, a Rubber Stamp (often highly decorated and usually celebrating something special about the area) and ocasionaly the good owner of the letterbox leaves an ink pad to stamp up with. This means you end up with a great album of ink stamp impressions to mark your treasure hunting trips.

Letterboxers now also have their own personal stamps rather than signing the book with their names. (a sort of letterboxing handle)

Dartmoor is so full of history from Pehistoric ruins, standing stones, tin mining and other mineral extraction the letterboxes are a great way of leading you to little known places and telling you about the history.

There is a strong code of practice to prevent dammage to the environment and historical sites (you may be interested in taking some of these on board to prevent problems in the future of geocaching).

http://www.plympton.org.uk/Dartmoor/dartinfo.html

http://www.plympton.org.uk/Dartmoor/dartrule.html

The rules seem to have kept the peace between letterboxers and the Dartmoor National Park people.

Here are some of the "letterboxing " ideas people have used to extend the system.

Boxes only out on certain Days

Easter Boxes

Christmas Boxes

April Fools day boxes! yes it is worth searching for them

The Dartmoor Cuckoo - the first traveling box - when found it was moved onto the next box visited.

Madness Trails - find the first box then carry on from clues in that box to find up to seven more near by.

Boxes linking various areas to make a collection of stamps with a common theme (Dartmoor Tin Mining, Dartmoor Railways). At one time you could walk to the end of the Rainbow. Infact there were both ends (the North End and South End) with two stamps whose images linked together. Perhaps you should have a West Coast end and an East Coast end??

 

I think having to use a compass and a bit of old treasure hunting skill makes for increased satisfaction when finding these boxes. I have on more than one occasion backpacked in the pouring rain into the same area of bleak moorland seeking out an illusive well hidden box. A box called "Navigators Nightmare" was the worst 1700 paces on a bearing from "a mound near a bend in a stream". It took some time to find out that the paces were for a 13 year old and which of the mounds on various streams was the correct starting place. The finishing place was always a blank hillside with too many peat banks to hide a small box in.

 

Good treasure hunting

 

Dave

[Guest Hobbyhorse]

Having just surfed around a bit more it seems that 900+ letterboxes are already in place in the USA - try

http://www.letterboxing.org/

Dave