*** Please note - because of the current Covid situation this event is being rescheduled (Again!!!) to September 25, 2021. Sorry for any inconvenience for people planning to attend the May date, Hopefully September will still work for you.
This Event is part of a limited release of Community Celebration Events to celebrate 20 years of geocaching and earns you not only a souvenir but also the rare 'Community Celebration Event' cache type. This event is being held outside, with the "home base" in a park shelter. Please bring a mask to wear when near others and bring your own snacks and drinks. Hand sanitizer will be provided. Everyone is welcome to stay in the shelter and chat, but we've come up with a game to let you spread out a bit and have chances to win a prize!
Welcome to Oregon, Wisconsin! Oregon Wisconsin has nothing to do with the Oregon Trail, but it seemed like a good tie-in for a caching event. Oregon WI was first settled in 1841 and was known as Rome Corner. In 1864, the North Western Transportation Company (Chicago Northwestern Railroad) came through the village. Their maps referred to the village as Oregon and so the name was adopted.
The Oregon Trail, on the other hand, was a vital link to westward settlement from the mid 1830s to about 1869, stretching 2,170 miles from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. Used by fur trappers and traders beginning about 1811, it saw the first organized wagon train leave Independence MO in 1836, at which time a wagon trail had been cleared as far as Fort Hall, Idaho. Trail continued to be cleared ever westward, and improvements made along the trail in the form of bridges, ferries, and roads. The cleared trail finally reached the Willamette Valley. Multiple trailheads from Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska territory merged near Fort Kearny, Nebraska. The Oregon Trail, with all its hardships, death and disasters, was used by about 400,000 people to reach the rich farmlands west of the Rocky Mountains. Use of the Oregon Trail declined after the first Transcontinental Railroad went through in 1869.
Here in Oregon Wisconsin we'll have you go on a virtual Oregon Trail, and since poker was such a popular game in the old west you'll be trying to make your best poker hand. There will be seven landmarks along the way:
- Independence, MO (Starting point),
- Alcove Springs, KS
- Fort Kearny, NE
- Chimney Rock, NE
- Independence Rock, WY
- Three Island Crossing, ID
- Oregon City, OR (endpoint )
At each landmark will be a container with envelopes, and each envelope will have a playing card. Take one envelope from each landmark - DO NOT OPEN THE ENVELOPE. After collecting an envelope from all seven landmarks return back to home base. In order to to put the kibosh on wild west poker tricks like card trading, all envelopes must be opened after returning to home base and having the envelopes verified. From your seven cards make the best five card poker hand you can. All poker hands must be in by 2:45, at which time the cacher with the best poker hand will win an unactivated geocoin. Prizes for second and third best poker hands will also be awarded. Cachers must be present to win.
As a side game - as pioneers were traversing the Oregon Trail they had to hunt game for food. There will be a set of coordinates and a white flag given to all participants. Write your caching name on the flag, and then plant your flag at your GPS ground zero. The flag closest to our spot is the mighty hunter who bagged the shot and got to eat along the trail - or in this case wins a prize. All flags must be placed by 2:45. If there are several flags all 'closest' we may have to draw a winner from them.
Meet, greet, have fun, but above all stay safe!
Community Celebration Events - 2020
This Event is part of a limited release of Community Celebration Events to celebrate 20 years of geocaching. Geocachers hosted events between May 2, 2020 and December 31, 2021. Learn more about Community Celebration Events on the Geocaching Blog.