People come to ND for a lot of reasons.
Well, no they don’t.
But if you were making a list of the few people who do vacation here, it would first include “traveling through to someplace else” and then would have Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Medora, the Norsk Høstfest, misplaced enthusiasm for the movie Fargo (which was set in Minnesota), mistakenly thinking Mt. Rushmore was here, wanting to complete their list of visiting all 50 states of which we were the last…and geocaching.
Geocaching in Gilby, North Dakota, to be exact, which is fondly known as the “Disney World of geocaching” drawing people from all over the nation and world. Lurking out in the shelterbelts of Northeastern North Dakota (with permission from landowners) sits geocaching heaven.
Geocaching is a “real-world, outdoor adventure that is happening all the time” in which participants use an app or GPS device “to navigate to cleverly hidden containers called geocaches.” It is its own culture with understood rules, jargon, and acronyms.
Only once did we have a bad experience in which someone must have thought we were leaving drugs or bombs, and threatened to call the police. Admittedly, a few years ago, there was a “suspicious object” called into the Aberdeen, South Dakota police because of a geocache someone saw and didn’t realize what was going on.
But geocaches are everywhere, and you’ve seen people doing them even if you didn’t realize it.
Geocaching has a funny way of taking you to places you never would have gone. Sometimes, because of water, mosquitoes, or wood ticks, you probably shouldn’t have gone. But often you end up at hidden gems, little points of interest that the locals know about but no one else does.
But Gilby, North Dakota is the pinnacle in geocaching. After Gilby, it’s all denouement.
Gilby has the most concentrated number of off-the-charts creative caches anywhere. Yes, you’ll find clever caches elsewhere, but not so many in one spot, all thanks to a fellow who goes by Trycacheus, as well as a few others who wisely put their clever caches in a location bringing people from all over the world. Trycacheus’ handiwork is often found elsewhere in the state thanks to smart towns that ask him to contribute a cache. Fargo had a nice geocaching series (some of which were made by the guy from Gilby), but they are not all there anymore.
There is an annual “Gilby Gone Wild” event for geocachers, too. I’ve not gone, but my hardcore caching sister and her husband have.
Ask any serious geocacher, and they know about Gilby, a town that is like many tiny North Dakota towns losing their population with just a handful of buildings and scant services left in it, a town with no famous actor or artisan market.
Yet the North Dakota Tourism repeatedly chooses to put Josh Duhamel on the covers of their material, an actor I vaguely remember. They are keen to showcase photos of Fargo, sunflowers, general outdoors activities you can pretty much do in any state, and generic farmer market art fair shindigs.
But no Gilby.
I’ll grant you that Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Medora, the Norsk Høstfest are legitimately unique, but the folks with tourism are absolutely missing out on a literally world-famous Gilby.
I placed a micro geocache in my micro hometown of Hampden and I think it’s still 100% of people who have signed it mentioning they are going to or from Gilby, people from Canada and out-of-staters.
They’d never have gone through Hampden otherwise
Gilby’s famous geocaches put them in the area, and they note it when they log the cache.
They drove miles out of the way just to stop by and sign the log (and hopefully stop into the cafe for something to eat or drink).
Geocaching is gold, for tourism. Or nerd tourism, whichever you consider it. But nerd tourist money spends like any other dollar, amirite?
Geocaching gets people to every tiny corner of the state if you do it right.
Next year I’d rather see the giant Swiss Army Knife cache on the cover of the North Dakota Tourism magazine rather than Duhamel. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but my understanding is that when he decided to become a bit of a prepper and build a bugout cabin…he built it in Minnesota.
When push comes to shove, Gilby isn’t banking on Minnesota.
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