The Gold Country Communities Society, who represent a large area including Ashcroft, Cache Creek, Clinton, Lillooet, Logan Lake, Lytton, Merritt, and several electoral districts of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, have entered into the second phase of the highly successful Gold Country Geotourism Program.
The Gold Country Geotourism Program involves the identification of key sites related to history, culture and natural history. Under this project, once a geocache site is determined by Gold Country Communities Society, a 'site page' is written that details the history or significance of the site. Along with the historical information, GPS coordinates and treasure hunt clues are added to each page. A box containing a log book and identification stickers is 'cached' at each specified location throughout the region. All site pages are related to a given theme and placed in a Field Guide that is published and placed on the internet.
Tourists and residents can download a single page, the entire field guide or pick up the printed field guide and day sheets at Info Centers and Museums within the Gold Country region. When they find the box at each site, visitors sign the log book and collect a sticker to show they have found the location. Once they have found a set number of locations, they can present their completed pages to collect a prize.
The experience has proven to be fun, recreational and educational for people of all ages. Most importantly, it continues to draw tourists into the Gold Country region and acts as an important incentive to retain tourists in small communities and to visit areas that are 'off the beaten track', helping to inject tourism spending into rural communities throughout the region.
This project is part of a multi-year program expansion that has been supported through a previous investment by Northern Development:
