A Worldwide Treasure Hunt – Geocaches at the Cannery

What do the Louvre in Paris, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site in Steveston have in common? Other than them all being cool museums, they all have geocaches nearby! 

If you aren’t familiar with geocaching, think of it as a worldwide treasure hunt that can take you from exploring your neighbourhood, to places afar in search of geocaches. There are even geocaches in Antarctica! 

Geocaching.com is an international website that can be accessed for free (with a paid premium membership, you can access even more caches), and this is where geocachers can go to find coordinates and a descriptions of the caches they want to look for. 

Geocaching uses the Global Positioning System (GPS), which is a satellite-based radionavigation system that can pinpoint any location on Earth. Geocachers make their way to posted coordinates, and once they are there are at Ground Zero (GZ), the cache they are looking for will usually be within metres of where they are standing. 

Spotting the actual geocache can be tricky, especially if you aren’t sure what you are looking for. Some are hidden and some are camouflaged in plain sight. One of the Cannery’s former geocaches was hidden in this birdhouse that once hung from a tree (see photo). 

The Cannery owns two traditional geocaches that are posted on this website that highlight some of our history. They are both close to our site and are accessible day or night, but if you need help finding them, you will have to come during opening hours to ask us for a hint.