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Thread: Arkansas Cache Stats

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Russellville
    Posts
    925

    Arkansas Cache Stats

    I was reading the Groundspeak forums and came across a thread that was interesting. The subject was mainly about virtuals but I thought it had some interesting stats for our state.

    Stats as of 5/26 at 6:26p.m.
    Total state caches: 592
    New caches since 1/1/04: 252
    2004 cache growth:74.1%

    Looks like we led all other states for the percentage of growth.
    This just gives us another perspective on how geocaching is growing in our state and another reason to get this site organized.

    Keep those caches coming.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Conway, AR
    Posts
    1,392
    WOW! I knew we were growing quickly, but that number is surprising. I'm sure that I'm biased, but I've always said that geocaching is custom made for Arkansas. Unspoiled natural landscape, glorious mountain views, a great state parks system, caves and crevices galore, breathtaking waterfalls, and good hometown people, to boot!

    Can you imagine how this number would skyrocket if every geocacher placed at least three caches? We would probably see the total number of caches in the state triple. Also, when there are several caches in a small area, people tend to be more open to making the drive to find them. (By the way, this is the reason that we've gone back to Clarksville again and again. We've taken weekend mini-vacations there twice, and made a few more day-long trips and STILL haven't found all of the caches there!)
    I get my directions from above.
    View my profile

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Fort Smith, AR
    Posts
    846
    I saw this when the cacher put it up on the Groundspeak forum and thought OMG this can not be right the highest number hidden in the first few months of the year. Its about time ranked number 1 in something lets keep the stats going up. I've got about a dozen caches getting ready to go up.
    If your not living life on the edge your taking up too much space!!!!!!


  4. #4
    GEO Guest

    TIGGR AND CACHES

    I am gonna have to get TIGGR busy hiding some more and maybe talk SWMG into a few across the line.Got a few neat ones up my sleeve.
    I think that if we make some(not a majority) easy to get to we will have more hits.
    I have found that the ones that are hard to get to with no mapping do not get hit very often around here.

  5. #5
    RuffRidr Guest
    I got 4 caches ready to go myself. I'm pretty much finalizing on where I want to place them. Two of these I expect to be pretty difficult to find. I got a ton more ideas for caches also. Its great to see more caches and cachers popping up in the NWA area.

    --RuffRidr

  6. #6
    southdeltan Guest
    One thing I've noticed is almost no activity in the Southeast part of Arkansas.

    Check out http://www.geocaching.com/map/AR.asp to get an idea of what I'm talking about. There are 13 or14 counties that are fairly empty. I think in those 14 - I counted 9 caches total!

    We have a thread called "Counties without caches". There are 82 caches in MS, we have the list down to 5 or so - when we started it was 20. A lot of those counties that had none now have multiple caches.

    I don't know anybody there, so I can't suggest anything. No caches pretty much means no geocachers. That part of Arkansas looks like the southern part of the MS delta looked not to long ago - and how the Northern part of the MS delta looks now - empty. It'll fill up with time though.

    I can't beleive there aren't any caches in Pine Bluff - I can understand the larger part of SE Arkansas - there just aren't a lot of people there - and less people means less chances that one of those people will be a geocacher.

    southdeltan

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Fort Smith, AR
    Posts
    846
    Most of that land is swamp land or land used for duck hunting.
    If your not living life on the edge your taking up too much space!!!!!!


  8. #8
    LongDogs Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by arkansas_stickerdude
    Most of that land is swamp land or land used for duck hunting.
    Yeah, there are two parts of Arkansas I would avoid placing caches in, or at least consider archiving them for part of the year: the popular Duck hunting areas, and the popular Deer hunting areas!

    I'd hate to hear about a cacher who got shot because he went caching in the wrong part of the woods during hunting season. It is a much bigger risk during deer season, of course. Most duck hunters don't shoot just anything that moves in the bushes - most are watching the skies. Still, a cache near the water during duck season just isn't worth the risk in my opinion.

    Still, it seems there could be opportunities for semi-urban caches in those counties that would be safe year around.

  9. #9
    southdeltan Guest
    Hunting season is only a few months out of the year. (Duck season is fairly short here - I can't imagine it being much longer there, with federal laws etc...). The geography (and geology) of Southeast Arkansas is pretty much the same as the Mississippi Delta (since it's just on the other side of the river). It's flat and most of it has been cleared for agriculture.

    Caches in woods even during hunting season are WAY safer than urban caches in my opinion. Everybody in my family and community hunts - I don't buy into the beleif that going into the woods is dangerous just because of hunters. I'm much more afraid of city drivers or drive by shootings. Besides - over here people just post a note "This cache is in a hunting area" and people either go after it or not. There are lots of caches in National Forests here - which is the bulk of public hunting land.

    I just looked at a map with the Arkansas State Parks on it. I am well aware of rules and I know some of these are off limits to caches - but the part of the state south of the I-30/I-40 diagonal (I-30 from Texarkana to LittleRock, and then I-40 to West Memphis) has 15 state parks. There are also a few National Forests and I'm sure some Game Areas (and hunting is only roughtly 1/4 to 1/3 of the year). Probably some state lakes, local parks, etc - and that's not counting the urban settings.

    There are hundreds if not thousands of places that are away from hunting and swamps that would offer great settings for caches, either micros or traditionals - but there just aren't geocachers there to hide them.

    I'm positive that the reason there aren't many caches there is mainly based on population. There aren't as many people in that area - less people means less geocachers - plain and simple

    sd

  10. #10
    Rusty_da_dog Guest
    First of all I think its great that we have so many caches now in Arkansas. I can remember when there were less than 100 in the whole state and I thought wow thats not enough. Now it is pushing 600 I think its pretty cool.

    One question that I have, and I hope no one gives me grief over asking, its just my opinion and would like to know what others think. What do you think the ratio of finds to hides should be? Or should there be one? When I first started geocaching. I waited for a good long time before I put out a cache. I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing, and was able to maintain the cache as well as have it in a good location.

    I have seen several cachers over the course of the couple of years that I have been caching, where they find one and hide one and then the one they hide, is not maintained, you can't contact the person or anything. I think you should find at least 10/20 caches before you put one out, and I also think that you should maintain somekind of managable number so they can be maintained. Once again this is my opinion and was just wondering what everyone else thought........
    Cya on the trails,
    Rusty

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