Tourism Grant for Geocaching Breathes Life into Badlands' Ghost Towns

If you are like most Calgarians chances are you’ve never seen a live theatre production at the Rosebud Opera House, had a sarsaparilla at Sam’s Saloon in Rowley or swatted mosquitoes at Alix Lake. These communities along what is known along the Boomtown Trail in Alberta’s Badlands are slowly turning into ghost towns. A $270, 760 grant to the town of Three Hills from the province to promote geocaching in these areas hopes to bring visitors from surrounding major centers.

Because of most of the communities are located a distance from the TransCanada Highway, travelers tend not to view a hamlet such as Standard as a destination. The game of geocaching changes this perspective. Beyond collecting cache finds, geocachers are generally more interested in history, geology and geography than a ‘regular’ tourist. Check out any group of geocaches on www.geocaching.com and you will discover these players are invested in knowledge.

By being purposeful about bringing geocaching to the Boomtown Trail, tourism is sure to improve. Geocaching is the world’s most cooperative game with players traveling across countries just to collect one cache, such as GeoWoodstock VIII in Seattle, Washington recently. The geocaches make the destination, the cache logs promote globally and dollars are sure to be spent.

With a well-attended kick-off event held May 29th, 2010, the Badlands Association plans to hold Western Canada’s first Mega-Event in the summer of 2011. Let’s raise a glass of sarsaparilla at Sam’s Saloon to toast the rise of tourism along the Boomtown Trail!

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