June 2016 Event
Our 15th Anniversary and
Hall of Fame Celebration!
Join us at Fort Mountain State Park to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the GGA and also the induction of the second class of the Georgia Geocaching Hall of Fame! After 16 years of geocaching, it's time to honor some of those that have contributed to geocaching in Georgia.
The event will begin at 2pm to allow plenty of time for some hiking around this beautiful park in the morning and will end at 3pm. (And the finding of the great old virtual caches here.) At 2pm, we'll do a few announcements and then we'll honor our newest inductees to the Georgia Geocaching Hall of Fame. These geocachers have contributed tremendously to geocaching in Georgia and you should definitely come and help us honor them. Last, we'll give away some great prizes. Oh! And there will be cake!
Once we've finished all of the giveaways, honors, announcement, cake, etc. those that wish to hike up the hill to the CCC Fire Tower are welcome to join us and we'll get a bit of the local history from the interpretive ranger for Fort Mountain. If you have not been here before, the area around the tower is beautiful and is a great overlook on the valley below. And then there's that wall. There has been a lot of speculation about why the wall is there, but the truth is that no one really knows. We'll hear all about it.
If you are interested in camping for the weekend (Friday night or Saturday night or both, we have primitive campsite #3 reserved and will have a couple of events during the evenings. Please post a Will Attend on the Friday or Saturday night camping events if you intend to camp with us, but camping is not required to attend the events.
Below find the description of the origins of the GGA from the 10th Anniversary Event.
On May 2, 2000, at approximately midnight,eastern savings time, the great blue switch controlling selective availability was pressed. Twenty-four satellites around the globe processed their new orders, and instantly the accuracy of GPS technology improved tenfold. Tens of thousands of GPS receivers around the world had an instant upgrade.
For GPS enthusiasts, this was definitely a cause for celebration. Internet newsgroups suddenly teemed with ideas about how the technology could be used.
On May 3, one such enthusiast, Dave Ulmer, a computer consultant, wanted to test the accuracy by hiding a navigational target in the woods. He called the idea the "Great American GPS Stash Hunt" and posted it in an internet GPS users' group. The idea was simple: Hide a container out in the woods and note the coordinates with a GPS unit.
Within three days, two different readers read about his stash on the Internet, used their own GPS receivers to find the container, and shared their experiences online. Throughout the next week, others excited by the prospect of hiding and finding stashes began hiding their own containers and posting coordinates.
Slashdot, a popular online magazine for techies, reported the new activity on September 25, 2000, introducing a larger group of technology professionals to the activity. The New York Times picked up the story and featured it in its "Circuits" section in October, starting a domino effect of articles written in magazines, newspapers, and other media outlets around the world. CNN even did a segment in December 2000 to profile the new hobby.
The GGA was the first official geocaching organization. It was born out of an odd set of events. In 2001 two geocachers met on the trail one day. They talked about now interesting it would be to meet other cachers. They decided to list a new type of cache, an "event" cache. They listed it and others joined in to help organize a location and such.
The first meeting of Georgia geocachers was held on June 9, 2001. The idea was for Atlanta area geocachers to get together, share caching stories at a local park, and put a face with screen names.
Right before the event, GA Geocachers suffered a blow of sorts as caches were banned in GA State Parks. We suddenly had an actual serious agenda at this meeting. This gave the meeting a focal point and we spent most of the meeting discussing this issue.
Still, it was a great meeting. TJBowers' and LoCache's event went off great and the event cache is now a staple in geocaching.
Following the meeting an email discussion list was started which was used to develop what became the GGA. Over the next month, we discussed names and logos for our newly forming organization. At our next meeting we chose a name for our group. The Georgia Geocachers Association began the tradition of monthly event caches and became the first geocachers association. At our fourth meeting (Sept. 2001), several people who were working behind the scenes decided to form a management committee, or the Steering Committee (SC).
It was almost a year later in June of 2002 before the GGA convinced the GA State Parks to allow us to geocache in our parks. It is a limited policy, but at least we were able to place some caches back in the parks again.
Moving into 2003, March saw the first CITO events worldwide. Unfortunately, it was after Earth Day instead of before it so many parks across the world were pretty clean. The GGA saw the exception to that rule for sure. The GGA was proud to hold an event at the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. We had 26 members in attendance. In 2004, we completed two CITO events.
In 2004 and 2005, GA Geocachers were hit with a moratorium on geocaches in the Chattahoochee National Forest, run by the USDA Forest Service. 2006 brought us back into the Chattahoochee National Forest again. The GGA has obtained a blanket permit that allows caches back in the National Forest areas again.
In 2010, after much hard work behind the scenes, GA State Parks released the Georgia State Parks Geo-Challenge with 45 caches in 42 different Parks across the state. To date there have been over 9,000 finds logged by almost 2,000 cachers.
May of 2011 GA State Parks, spurred on by the success of the Geo-Challenge, released the Georgia State Historic Sites History Trail.