Delaware’s Tourism Office has created numerous trails in order to lure tourists to the First State: The Beer, Wine and Spirits trail, the History trail, the Outdoors trail and the Culinary Trail.
But it all started with Delaware’s Geocaching Trail. It launched in 2009 with just 24 locations. In 2011, the state expanded it, hiding prizes in 50 more sites.
In this week’s Enlighten Me, Delaware Public Media’s Katie Peikes takes a closer look at the trail and the appeal of geocaching — a kind of treasure hunt that uses GPS coordinates to find hidden items.
Inside of a small blue ammo box carefully hidden in the courtyard of the Air Mobility Command Museum, there is a coveted trinket for people who are coming to the museum to geocache.
Air Mobility Command Museum Restoration Chief Les Polley and I are at a stop on the Delaware Geocaching Trail, looking for the small box filled with prizes and a book — part of geocaching etiquette so participants can log that they’ve been to the site.
“It says I’m 34 feet from it right now,” Polley said, the GPS on his phone indicating we were within range of the treasure.
Polley has been geocaching since 2011. The hunt has taken him through Delaware, California, Hawaii, and all over the East Coast and Midwest. He says he wants to geocache in all 50 states.
But the appeal of geocaching in Delaware, he said, is the mix of historic sites and nature preserves where geocaches have been planted.
“We’re a small state but we actually have a lot of history around here people don’t even realize,” Polley said.
It also brings people to the AMC Museum that might not ordinarily visit — one of the goals of the Delaware Geocaching Trail.
The museum has been a part of the Delaware Geocaching Trail since the beginning. AMC Museum Director Mike Leister said they’ve noticed a spike in out of state visitors at the museum, there to geocache.
“From time to time when I’m out and about I’ll see people in the area looking and it’s quite different from the people looking for Pokemon, so I can tell and I’ll go out and talk to them and oftentimes they’re people who aren’t from a local area,” Leister said.
Leister said some people might see geocaching as a precursor to Pokemon Go, the popular mobile app where users follow GPS coordinates hunting for Pokemon.
Delaware decided to create a geocaching trail after the state tourism office noticed geocaching was driving visitation in other states.
State Tourism Director Linda Parkowski said it also made sense as a way to highlight the First State’s diverse arts, cultural and historic attractions — such as The Hagley Museum and Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts.
“And it was so popular with the sites, we were getting requests over and over again that facility sites and attractions wanted to be included in this trail because it was driving visitation,” Parkowski said.
In 2011, the Delaware Tourism Office expanded the trail to include state parks, breweries and sports venues.
Data from the state tourism office shows there have been over 2,500 downloads of the Delaware Geocaching Trail’s passport since the trail’s inception.
But Parkowski said that number is not the sole way to measure the impact of the trail or geocaching in general. She said her office received feedback that geocaching was bringing people to sites, which sparked demand for the trail’s expansion.
“The tourism industry actually came to us and said ‘we’re seeing visitation, how can we get on the trail,’” she said.
The office continues to promote the trail, occasionally posting about geocaching on social media and handing out cards advertising the trail at events.
Parkowski said she believes geocaching has also brought a different type of visitor to the First State.
“It’s really piqued the interest in people to visit Delaware and to visit sites, attractions and facilities they never would’ve thought of visiting without the geocaching trail,” Parkowski said. “We get feedback all the time: ‘thank you for the trail; we went and had lunch in this lovely town, we never would’ve been there if we weren’t geocaching…”
The geocaching trail passport is designed to guide geocachers visiting Delaware. To complete it, a person must find caches at eight locations in each county. Parkowski said the geocachers don’t know what sites they are visiting - they just follow coordinates.
If a geocacher fills out their passport, they receive a coveted geocaching coin. This coin is sought after because it has a trackable number on the back.
Geocachers who type the number in on geocaching websites can see where the coin has traveled. Dominic Morrell, an avid geocacher in the Delaware Geocaching Association, said it’s a piece of memorabilia every geocacher wants.
“It’s a collectible,” Morrell said. “It’s something that proves you’ve completed the trail and explored Delaware through geocaching. Something you can hold to say you’ve had this experience.”
Once they’ve earned the coin, die-hard geocachers like Morrell can set their sights on a more advanced project — the First State Challenge — happening now through November.
Geocachers hide 20 to 30 caches around the state. Then, participants must find 11 caches both in the northern and southern halves of Delaware by the end of November to receive a coin.
And like the trail - the First State Challenge takes people to new places, to see new things.
“It’s something you could use traveling to learn about places you’d have no clue to visit otherwise,” Morrell said.
Making geocaching - Morrell said - your own personal tour guide.