People love hidden treasure – success of films such as “Sahara,” “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “National Treasure” is proof of this.

For those who have always wanted a treasure hunt of their own, there is an adventure game called geocaching – an activity that combines global positioning technology with old-fashioned treasure hunting.

According to geocaching.com, the game began in 2000 with the improvement in GPS technology. It originated in Oregon, though now caches can be found around the world, including four located on the SIUC campus.

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Sara Johnson, a graduate student from Brookville, Penn., studying geographic information systems, began geocaching in November 2007.

“It’s kind of like an adventure sport … where you use GPS technology to locate objects that are placed randomly throughout our world,” Johnson said.

Geocaching, pronounced “cashing,” is a pastime everybody can enjoy. All that is needed is a GPS device and a sense of adventure.

The goal of the game is to locate a cache – a hidden container of any size- using GPS coordinates, which are primarily found online. Smaller caches may contain only a logbook, which is used by cachers to record the date they found the cache. Larger caches may contain multiple items, which are mostly cheap trinkets.

Some caches contain trackable items called Geocoins and Travel Bugs. These items are given a destination by the cacher who started them, and are tracked online as they travel around the world to their destination.

“[Travel Bugs] are dog tags that you can find online … and before you send them out to the world on a mission, you register them so you can track them,” said Rachael Urbanek, a graduate student from East Greenville, Penn., who works in the Cooperative Wildlife Research Lab.

Most Travel Bugs are attached to items as they travel. Urbanek said she and her boyfriend found a Travel Bug attached to an alien necklace that was on its way back to the east coast from California.

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When a cache containing items is found, cachers typically exchange one item for another, which means the contents of the container are constantly changing. However, some people play the game just for the sense of accomplishment of finding the cache, and they may “TNLN”: Take Nothing Leave Nothing, in geocache-speak.

“It’s easier to leave a card and not take anything … I don’t really need a bunch of junk. To me, it’s more fun to just see what’s there, see who’s been there and see the area than collect it,” Urbanek said.

Though geocaching was developed to incorporate GPS technology, it is possible to find caches without a GPS device, though it’s more challenging.

“It’s just a way to be outside, kill a few hours and feel like you’re actually doing something,” Urbanek said. “It’s a feeling of accomplishment.”

Audra Ord can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 275 or at [email protected].