Geocachers Go Gothic

Last Thursday I had every intention of writing the newsletter. I had sat down to my computer at lunchtime (when it is usually fairly quiet this time of the year) to begin writing when one car, then another, then another, then ANOTHER pulled up outside. This continued until the parking lot was full and I was leaping to the phone to call some volunteers for backup! I quickly found out where they all came from—or rather where they were going. The carloads of visitors were on their way to Moravia, Iowa to attend MOGA (Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure). For those that don’t know, geocaching is a game where people hunt for “treasures” using GPS devices. One visitor said that about 1500 geocachers were set to attend the event in Moravia over the weekend!

So how does the house fit into this? The American Gothic House happens to be a “virtual cache” that has been here for around 10 years. Geocachers must take a picture of themselves holding their GPS in front of the house to log that they found the cache. The gentleman who placed the cache even stopped by on Friday and took this picture (or rather two pictures he combined). 

He placed the cache before the Center was open, and said he had realized something had been built since he last visited as many people donned costumes in their photos and talked about the visitor center, so he had to come see for himself!

I looked on the geocache site to see pictures visitors have logged at the house. You can see all of them (255 geocachers have logged their visit!) here: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=cfc4142c-9bf9-4af5-a58f-eedc92331b03

All of the geocachers who stopped by were great to meet and visit with…and definitely kept us busy through the weekend! On Monday some of the final visitors with MOGA stopped by and showed me their event logo, which featured their mascot in front of the American Gothic House! So thanks to all of the MOGA attendees for stopping by! 







Upcoming events:
May 5: "American Gothic in Your Face: Grant Wood Up Close"--Presentation by John Duggleby at 2:00pm May 18: New exhibit opening, 6:00-7:00pm
June 8-10: American Gothic Days-Art Contest, 5K Run/Walk, Bike Ride