Quad Cities - Beyond all the fun exhibits and events happening during the first annual Quad Cities Museum Week, June 13-21, there will also be a new Geocache for everyone to enjoy.
What is geocaching? Geocaching is a treasure hunt that can be as fun for the hider as it is for the seeker. Any given treasure, known as a geocache, has specific coordinates of longitude and latitude to which seekers must travel in order to locate the treasure. Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or GPS-enabled smartphone and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world.
"By finding some or all of the Quad Cities Museum caches you will learn about the many great museums in the community," says Gretchen Small of the Butterworth Center and Deere-Wiman House. "A total of 11 museums are participating in the Geocache."
Ms. Small organized the geocache and the project was funded by the William Butterworth Foundation. According to Ms. Small, all the museum caches are located outdoors.
To get started on your treasure hunt during Quad Cities Museum Week, simply go to www.geocaching.com and see if you can collect a wooden nickel from all of the participating museum geocaches.
Participating museums in the Geocache include the Buffalo Bill Cody Homestead, Buffalo Bill Museum, Butterworth Center, Dan Nagle Walnut Grove Pioneer Village, Deere-Wiman House, Family Museum, Figge Art Museum, German American Heritage Center, Iowa 80 Trucking Museum, Putnam Museum and Science Center, and Rock Island County Historical Society.
For more information on the geocache and Quad Cities Museum Week, go to www.qcmuseumweek.com. More than 20 museums throughout the Quad Cities region are part of this year's celebration. The website includes geocache information, museum events and listings, and a downloadable brochure. The brochure is printable and lists all the events, museum locations, and a map.
