Finding History In Canada by Funky Nassau
Many in the Maritimes know about the first cache in Canada. In fact I can still remember the time I drove 40 km out of the way simply to go and grab a find on it, simply because it’s the closest thing to a pilgrimage geocachers have.
Personally I myself have found the first cache in 3 provinces. Each one had a particular mystique about them which I will reveal to you now.
New Brunswick’s first cache was placed by the illustrious Inspector Gadget and is located in a place known as Flatlands, which is a good 16 km west of Campbellton in northern New Brunswick. While attending an event in this fine community, FarSideX and I had the opportunity to scoot off to this cache during the event day, finding caches as we traveled. We could have stayed in town to go after the larger numbers, but it was the lure of the first cache in NB which called to us. Indeed, FSX and I took a moment when we found the cache, which in retrospect was quite easy to find, but back then when these first few caches were place, it was more the adventure of finding rather then the actual finding itself. Although it’s something we no longer really do, we both traded at this cache and indeed, rehid it better then before.
After this find I wanted to go after some of the other caches which were the first placed in a particular province, so I started to make a list which require quite a bit of digging due to the fact that some of these caches have long been archived.
After completion of this list my next “provincial” first find was actually done without me cognitively knowing about it. It was during the Red Dirt Dash, an event which was part car rally, part caching race, which was held all over the province in a manner of speaking. So while daBiker68, Johnny.Cache and I went ripping though Charlottetown, we barly took the time to notice we had just found it. It was only after I returned home and started logging the finds did I realize that the first cache in PEI was one of the ones collected on that day.
Nova Scotia’s first cache shares the distinction of also being the first cache in Canada. This one I remember quite well, as it was found on the same day Dragoon and I were interviewed for the television show “Breakfast Television”. It was after caching on a cold morning which Dragoon and I made the aforementioned decision to drive an additional 40 km to the first cache in Canada, as we would rarely be afforded this opportunity again.
I now present the finding of my research. In the cases of where a cache has been archived in a province, I have included the next oldest cache still around.
In alphabetical Order:
Alberta’s First Cache
GC19D - Building42 - Rad River Valley One by Neotek, PTEPaul (Archived)
Placed: Jan 21st, 2001
Oldest Still around
GC21B - Strathcona Wilderness 1.1 by Michael Houle
Placed: Feb 3rd, 2001
British Columbia’s First Cache
GC1DD – Treehugger by Todd & Chikako
Placed: Feb 2nd, 2001
Manitoba’s First Cache
GC21C - C1BUA - cache 1n a builtup area by Brian Drader
Placed: Feb 5th, 2001
New Brunswick’s First Cache
GC760 - Beginners Luck? by Insp. Gadget
Placed: Apr 21st, 2001
Newfoundland’s First Cache
GCE1C - The Lookout by Roger Green, Zachary, Alastair, Andrew, Elizabeth
Placed: Jun 30th, 2001
Northwest Territories’ First Cache
GC1280 - Yankee/Doctor Bay Cache by The Grampian Armada
Placed: Jul 13th, 2001
Special Note: FTF still available!
Nova Scotia and Canada’s First Cache
GCBBA (Originally GC41) – Geocache by Ken Kane
Placed: Jun 18th, 2000
Nunavut’s First Cache
GC5803 - As North As It Gets! By Iceshelf 2002 Research Team
Placed: May 5th, 2002
Ontario’s First Cache
GC2B4 - Deer Bait by Peter Ferguson and kdkk17
Placed: Feb 17th, 2001
Prince Edward Island’s First Cache
GC1A17 - Charlottetown Memories by maryu
Placed: Aug 28th, 2001
Quebec’s First Cache
GC1B5 - Meech Lake Pressure Cooker by Some ACAC Charter Members (Archived)
Placed: Jan 25th, 2001
Oldest Still Around
GC78F - King of the mountain by 300mag
Placed: Apr 22nd, 2001
Saskatchewan’s First Cache
GC14F - Sask-cache-one by Donovan Onishenko
Placed: Jan 7th, 2001
Yukon’s First Cache
GCA13 - Scout Lake Road cache by maphew
Placed: May 20th, 2001