Hunt for Treasure is on in Indiana State Parks

If you're enjoying a fall afternoon in one of the many Indiana state parks and you see someone sneaking through the bushes while looking at what looks like a cell phone, don't be alarmed. It's probably just a treasure hunter participating in the "Fall into Geocaching" statewide scavenger hunt.

The giant hunt is under way and continues through the end of the year at more than 20 state parks and other Indiana Department of Natural Resources properties throughout the state.

To get in on the hunt, participants must have a GPS (which stands for Global Positioning System). These hand-held devices are about the size of a cell phone and communicate with satellites orbiting the earth to allow the user to know his or her exact location by latitude and longitude.

With GPS in hand, geocachers hunt for treasures that are hidden inside containers (known as geocaches) spread throughout more than 200 countries around the world. Many are hidden in parks, cemeteries, along greenways, some are even placed smack dab in the middle of major metropolitan areas. Thousands of geocache listings are available at geocaching.com.

The treasures available to successful hunters in the "Fall into Geocaching" contest include a $100 gift certificate to Indiana state park inns, four 2007 annual park passes, five sets of two-night camping reservations for 2007 and 10 free daily admissions to be used at any state park or reservoir in 2007.

The $100 gift certificate is the grand prize and goes to the first geocacher to find 10 of the 22 caches. All other prizes will be awarded at the end of the contest in a drawing that includes all who found at least 10 of the caches. The state also will give away 100 "Fall into Geocaching" T-shirts in a drawing for all contestants who found and reported at least one cache.

The Indiana DNR properties participating in the contest are:

· Brookville Lake
· Brown County State Park
· Fort Harrison State Park
· Indiana Dunes State Park
· J. Edward Roush Reservoir
· Mansfield Mill
· McCormick's Creek State Park
· Mississinewa Reservoir
· Mounds State Park
· Ouabache State Park
· Pokagon State Park
· Potato Creek State Park
· Prophetstown State Park
· Raccoon Lake State Recreation Area
· Salamonie Reservoir
· Shades State Park
· Shakamak State Park
· Spring Mill State Park
· Summit Lake State Park
· Tippecanoe River State Park
· Turkey Run State Park
· Whitewater Memorial State Park

To find out more about individual caches and contest instructions, go to geocaching.com and search by property name for the cache.

When a participant finds the geocache at one of the sites listed above, he or she must sign a logbook contained inside, record the word at the top of each logbook that tells each searcher something unique about that state property. The finder must then e-mail that word to the contest coordinator, whose contact information can be found at geocaching.com.
Happy hunting!