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Geocachers from across the nation will soon be able to hunt for geocaches in Smothers Park in downtown Owensboro. Visit Owensboro is partnering with AFKgeocaching.com to offer an official Geocaching.com GeoTour in the park. Containers known as geocaches will become available throughout the park for geocachers to find via the Geocaching App downloaded to their cell phone. A geocacher uses the app which works with GPS to locate the geocache, then they sign the logbook inside.
“We must create unique opportunities to visit Owensboro. This is an inventive way to attract a whole new customer base to visit our city. I worked with this organization at my previous CVB in Greater Cincinnati and found geocaching to be a great resource for boosting leisure travel,” said Mark Calitri, Visit Owensboro President & CEO.
“The City is excited to partner with the CVB on this unique new opportunity to bring visitors to Owensboro to showcase our Riverfront. In light of the restrictions currently in place, this is an innovative way to bring visitors to our community without having a major crowd all gathering at one time. Bringing families to our riverfront is why the park was built and geocaching is another avenue to bring new visitors,” said Tim Ross, Director of Public Events, City of Owensboro.
The Official Geocaching GeoTour “Barbecue, Bourbon, and Bluegrass” will start with a soft opening on August 15 with a larger event to follow in 2021.
“Geocachers spend lots of money traveling all over the world to find geocaches. After a site visit in Owensboro, I couldn’t think of a better location than Smothers Park to build this attraction. It’s very walkable and offers a beautiful view of the Ohio River,” said Jesse Tuttle, of AFKgeocaching.com.
In addition to this initial GeoTour, geocache locations will become available outside of popular tourist attractions like different BBQ restaurants, the O.Z. Tyler Distillery, and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
“Think of geocaching as modern day treasure hunting. Each hide is different and some even have small trinkets that you can take with you or for you to leave behind for the next geocacher to find,” said Calitri.
“I think Owensboro has the potential to eventually attract larger geocaching events on the scale of thousands of attendees in a weekend,” added Tuttle.
Geocaching Information:
- There are nearly 500,000 active Geocachers in the United States (1) and more than 1,000,000 around the world! (2)
- Geocaching is a healthy outdoor recreation. (3)
- Geocaching promotes STEM education (4) and has scouting merit badges. (5)
- GeoTours are the top global attraction for the Geocaching community.