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Geocaching and Small Museums

General Chit-Chat.
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deepdish23
MGS Director
Posts: 323
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2010 1:26 pm
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Geocaching and Small Museums

Post by deepdish23 »

I am speaking at a Small Museum Conference about the impact of Geocaching and Small Museums. I would like some feedback from geocachers on their experiences on geocaching at small museums. Here are the questions I have.
1. After finding the geocache, have you ever gone through the museum, take the tour, pay admission, ie. spend more time than 5 minutes there. If so, which museums (geocaches) have you done this for.
2. Have you ever bought something at their visitor center? If so, which ones.
3. Have you ever returned to the museum at a later date to go through the museum? If so, which museum.
If you do not wish to respond here you can contact me through Groundspeak, Any experiences I would use for the presentation will be done anonymously.
If you would like to share your experiences with caching and small museum, please by honest. Being a geocacher myself, I have many time visited one of these museums for a geocache, found the geocache, checked out the historical markers near parking, and then went on my way. Even though I will mention in the log that I had never been there before and thanks for taking me there, I have spent less than 5 minutes there. But there are times I spend more time at the museum and do return. Thank you in advance for your help.
dillicache
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Re: Geocaching and Small Museums

Post by dillicache »

ive stopped into quite a few museums in my travels because of geocaching. some are 5 min stops and others are longer. two of my favorites are the life saving museum in ocean city md and the smith island center on smith island. I guess you would consider them small museums even though one is in O.C. if I do go in the museum I gladly pay admission or make a donation and usually buy something in the gift shop like books and magnets or t-shirts and hats. last year on the cam trail we stopped in all of the museums or nature centers that were open after finding the caches that were there. I find myself revisiting some of these small museums when I'm in the area many times. that's another great thing about geocaching, all the great history of small towns and the way of life from years ago that isn't taught in school and is slowly being forgotten.
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ZippyFinn
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Joined: Sun Mar 18, 2012 7:12 pm
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Re: Geocaching and Small Museums

Post by ZippyFinn »

I'm almost sure that I've visited museums based on caches, but the only one that is coming to mind is the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force in Savannah, GA. I spent over an hour and a half there and did purchase items in the gift shop.

The virtual cache located on the grounds is : https://coord.info/GC3C8E
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PatientRock
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Re: Geocaching and Small Museums

Post by PatientRock »

I never go for a geocache unless I can also make time for the museum, historical site, or can hike the park in a meaningful way. There are plenty of other geocaches to go for if time is an issue. One of the stages of the recent Cache Across Maryland competition brought us to the Hampton National Historical Site where spending the proper time exploring the property was a self-imposed requirement of the trip.

So long as the geocache is officially endorsed by the organization I always buy something from the gift shop and even if it's something small like a magnet or pin I try to loudly declare to the staff that the geocache is what brought me there! (Then usually explaining what a geocache is since the people who staff the gift shop usually don't know that it exists or has been authorized by the site.)

Revisiting the site usually depends on the site itself-- some smaller places don't offer enough to warrant multiple visits, geocache or not.

Hope that's helpful!
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portlywalker
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Re: Geocaching and Small Museums

Post by portlywalker »

Dear Mark,
If the museum is open, I take the time to visit. If I am with uncouth philistines who don't want to stop, I try to at least get postcards. I mail 12 postcards to my core list and sometimes many more.
If you ever wonder where authors are finding new "facts" it is often the newly digitized sources from these small museums. Geocaching is a good driver to get out from home and become exposed to these places. Hampden as part of the 2016 CAM a great example.


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