Groups share bureau treasure

Allegheny Ridge Corp. sought treasure, found it and, as a result, will be dispatching area visitors on treasure hunts of their own.

The corporation was one of 10 applicants for funding from the tourism grant program of the Allegheny Mountains Convention and Visitors Bureau.

On Friday, eight of them received shares of the $23,000 budgeted for the program, including Allegheny Ridge, which got $3,500 to start "geocaching" along the Main Line Canal Greenway.

Geocachers hide containers with information and trinkets outdoors and post the containers' locations by geographical coordinates on a geocache website - challenging others to find the containers using handheld GPS devices.

"It's kind of a cross between a scavenger hunt and an orienteering program," said Karl King, greenway coordinator, who accepted the funding at a ceremony in the Mishler Theatre.

Allegheny Ridge will be setting caches along the 320-mile route between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, which traces the old Main Line Canal. It will stock the containers with tidbits of information and trinkets related to Blair County sites, King said.

Those who find caches can register their finds on the website of the founding geocache organization, which is international in scope. Cache finders can also exchange trinkets from the containers with trinkets of their own.

Likely cache sites include the Railroaders Memorial Museum, Horseshoe Curve, Baker Mansion, Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Canal Basin Park, Mishler Theater, Fort Roberdeau, trailheads along hiking and biking trails and marketplaces along the heART of the Alleghenies Art and Culture Driving Tour, bureau Executive Director Mark Ickes said.

The geocache program will help establish partnerships among organizations that distribute funds, those that administer sites and those that run events, Ickes said.

While the corporation will create and maintain cache sites along the greenway, there's nothing to prevent others from placing their own cache containers, although etiquette requires they get permission from property owners or managers, according to King and the geocache website.

Most of the money distributed to the grant recipients will go for printing and distribution of brochures or advertising on billboards, radio and in print. Part of the Blair County Arts Foundation grant will go for restaurant placemats.

The tourism grant program money comes from the county's 3 percent hotel tax, Ickes said. The hotel tax generates about $425,000 a year, most of which goes for marketing by the bureau, Ickes said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.