Geocaching – the history of the hunt

Twenty-five years of adventure: how a box hidden in an Oregon forest became a worldwide hobby.

Geocaching began in May 2000, when the United States government turned off Selective Availability on the GPS signal. A few days later, Dave Ulmer hid a black plastic bucket in the Oregon woods and posted its coordinates to Usenet. The world's largest treasure hunt had started.

Today Geocaching.com lists more than 3.4 million caches in over 190 countries. This page brings together the phases of the hobby, the history of each cache type and the beginnings of geocaching in Finland.

The phases of geocaching

The story falls into six chapters: birth, community, consolidation, growth, digitalisation and the 25th anniversary.

  1. 2000

    The birth of geocaching

    GPS became accurate enough for a treasure hunt, and the first cache was hidden.

    • 2 May 2000 The United States ends Selective Availability on GPS. Civilian receivers become roughly ten times more accurate.
    • 3 May 2000 Dave Ulmer hides the first cache in Beavercreek, Oregon. The bucket contains a logbook, a pencil, CDs, a videotape and a can of beans.
    • May 2000 Mike Teague becomes the first finder within three days and starts collecting other cache coordinates in one place.
    • 30 May 2000 The name geocaching is adopted: geo (earth) and cache (a hiding place).
    • 2 Sep 2000 Geocaching.com launches with around 75 listed caches.
    • 3 Nov 2000 Jeremy Irish, Elias Alvord and Bryan Roth found Groundspeak, now known as Geocaching HQ.
  2. 2001–2004

    From game to community

    New cache types and shared events turned the game into a community.

    • 15 Jan 2001 The first Letterbox Hybrid (GC190) combines geocaching with letterboxing.
    • 24 Mar 2001 The first event cache is held in Austin, Texas (GC389).
    • 24 May 2001 The first Project A.P.E. cache is published as part of the Planet of the Apes campaign.
    • 12 Sep 2001 The first locationless cache: find a described object rather than a physical container.
    • 11 Oct 2001 The first webcam cache (GC21DF) starts in Houston.
    • 26 Apr 2003 The first CITO event brings geocachers together to clean up the environment.
    • 10 Jan 2004 The first EarthCache (GCHFT2) opens in Australia, created with the Geological Society of America.
    • 2004 Geocaching HQ's own cache GCK25B opens in Seattle.
  3. 2005–2009

    Consolidation and experiments

    Some early types were closed to new hides, while new formats appeared.

    • November 2005 New virtual and webcam caches stop being published. Existing ones become legacy types and remain findable.
    • 2005–2006 Locationless caches are archived and moved to Waymarking.
    • 27 May 2006 The first Mega-Event, GeoWoodstock 4, is held in Texas. A Mega-Event requires 500 attendees.
    • 2 Jun 2007 The first GPS Adventures Maze exhibition opens in Indiana.
    • December 2007 The 500,000th cache is published.
    • 9 Jan 2008 The first Wherigo cache (GC18FP7) is published in London.
    • October 2008 The first official Geocaching app is released. Richard Garriott takes a cache and a Travel Bug to the International Space Station.
  4. 2010–2015

    Millions and mega-events

    The hobby grew to millions of caches and large community gatherings.

    • March 2010 The millionth cache is published.
    • 2010 Lost and Found events mark the tenth anniversary and later evolve into the Community Celebration Event type.
    • August 2011 The first Geocaching HQ Block Party and International Geocaching Day are held.
    • February 2013 The two millionth cache is published.
    • 17 Aug 2013 The first Lab Caches are tested at the Geocaching HQ Block Party. They later grow into Adventure Lab.
    • 16 Aug 2014 The first Giga-Event, Project MUNICH2014, is held in Germany. A Giga-Event requires 5,000 attendees.
    • 21 Apr 2015 New challenge caches must include an online checker. Older challenges become legacy caches.
  5. 2016–2020

    Digital caches and a new generation

    Virtual caches returned in limited numbers, and Adventure Lab brought geocaching to the phone.

    • 24 Aug 2017 Virtual Rewards begins: selected geocachers can hide new virtual caches for the first time since 2005.
    • 2017 Challenge cache guidelines are overhauled, and moving caches are archived.
    • 2019 Adventure Lab expands worldwide, and Virtual Rewards 2.0 takes place.
    • 2020 Adventure Lab gets its own app, geocaching turns 20, and a geocaching trackable code travels to Mars.
  6. 2021–2026

    Twenty-five years

    The hobby celebrates its milestones with a record number of caches.

    • 18 Feb 2021 NASA's Perseverance rover lands on Mars carrying a geocaching trackable code.
    • 2021 The GC8NEAT locationless cache encourages environmental action.
    • 1 Mar 2022 Virtual Rewards 3.0 takes place.
    • 2023 More than three million active caches worldwide.
    • 17 Jan 2024 Virtual Rewards 4.0 takes place.
    • 2025 Geocaching turns 25. More than 3.4 million caches are available, and the GCA2025 locationless cache invites players to find the number 25.

Cache types

Geocaching.com has several official cache types. Some are still active, some are limited and some belong to history.

Core cache types

The four types most caches are built on.

Traditional

Active

First on 3 May 2000

A single container at the posted coordinates, with a logbook and often trade items. The original cache type.

Multi-cache

Active

First on 11 Jun 2000

At least two stages. Coordinates or clues lead to the next stage and eventually to the final container.

Mystery / Unknown

Active

First on 30 Oct 2000

A puzzle or riddle cache. Solving it gives the final coordinates. Challenge caches are also listed as Mystery caches.

Letterbox Hybrid

Active

First on 15 Jan 2001

Combines geocaching with letterboxing. The container holds a rubber stamp that stays in the cache. The posted coordinates may be only the starting point.

Virtual and special caches

Caches where a physical container is not the whole story.

Virtual

Limited

First ones in 2000

No physical container. Finders complete a task, answer a question or take a photo. New virtuals are released only through Virtual Rewards.

EarthCache

Active

First on 10 Jan 2004

A geological teaching site. Finders answer Earth science questions on site. EarthCaches are developed with the Geological Society of America.

Wherigo

Active

First on 9 Jan 2008

A GPS-driven adventure played with a Wherigo cartridge. It usually ends at a physical container.

Adventure Lab

Active

Lab Caches 17 Aug 2013; Adventure Lab 2019

Location-based adventures, usually with five stages. There is no container; stages are logged in the Adventure Lab app. The Lab Caches experiment began at the 2013 Block Party.

Challenge cache

Limited

Earliest known 2004

A Mystery cache that can be logged only after completing a geocaching-related challenge. New challenge caches require a checker and the Challenge attribute.

Geocaching HQ Cache

Limited

2004

The official cache at the Geocaching HQ Visitor Center in Seattle. It has its own icon.

GPS Adventures Maze

Active

First on 2 Jun 2007

A travelling GPS and geocaching exhibition and maze. It has its own icon and often appears alongside Mega- or Giga-Events.

Event caches

Geocaching is also something people do together.

Event

Event

First on 24 Mar 2001

A gathering of geocachers at a set place and time. Attendees log their participation.

CITO

Event

First on 26 Apr 2003

Cache In Trash Out: an environmental cleanup or care event, such as collecting litter or restoring trails.

Mega-Event

Event

First on 27 May 2006

An event with at least 500 attendees, often with days of activities, vendors and side events.

Giga-Event

Event

First on 16 Aug 2014

A rare major event with at least 5,000 attendees, drawing geocachers from around the world.

Community Celebration Event

Event

2010 / current name 2020

A community event for anniversary years. It grew out of the 2010 Lost and Found events, and the current name was introduced for the 20th anniversary.

Geocaching HQ Block Party

Event

First in 2011

A celebration hosted by Geocaching HQ in Seattle. The HQ Celebration brings together the ten-year anniversary events.

Legacy and retired types

Historic types that can still be found but are no longer normally created.

Webcam

Legacy

First on 11 Oct 2001

A public webcam used by finders to capture themselves. New webcam caches were no longer published after November 2005.

Project A.P.E.

Legacy

First on 24 May 2001

Fourteen caches tied to the Planet of the Apes film. Two remain, in Brazil and Washington.

Locationless

Legacy

First on 12 Sep 2001

Find a described object and report its location. Archived in 2005–2006, with special releases in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2025.

Moving / Traveling

Legacy

Early 2000s

Finders moved the cache to a new place and updated the coordinates. All moving caches were archived in 2017.

There are also variants and attributes that are not official cache types of their own: for example night caches (an attribute), reverse Wherigo, Chirp/wireless beacon caches and bonus caches.

Geocaching in Finland

Geocaching arrived in Finland in autumn 2000. The country's first cache, Sun Gear (GC72), was hidden in Kerava on 30 September 2000 by Kalle Reunanen. It was the 92nd cache published on Geocaching.com.

The first finders did not sign the logbook until January 2001 – they came all the way from Seattle. Sun Gear is still active and remains Finland's oldest cache.

The Finnish name for the hobby took shape over time: early players spoke of geokassittaminen, later geokätkentä, before geokätköily became established.

Did you know?

The original can of beans

The first cache's contents survived remarkably well: the original can of beans travelled for years and is now a trackable item.

The first finder

Mike Teague found Dave Ulmer's cache within three days. He began collecting cache coordinates before Geocaching.com existed.

A cache in space

In 2008 Richard Garriott took a cache and a Travel Bug to the International Space Station. It was first found in 2013.

A cache on Mars

NASA's Perseverance rover carries a geocaching trackable code. It landed on Mars in February 2021.

A worldwide hobby

There are more than 3.4 million caches in over 190 countries. Finland's first cache can still be found in Kerava.

Sources and further reading

This page is based on milestones published by Geocaching HQ, official cache-type descriptions and independent historical sources.