LATEST UPDATE:
July 13, 2009 The Elephant Trunk has been placed and approved! So, anybody who wishes can visit.

[link]

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I want to celebrate the Waco and Gault mammoth discoveries. To do this, I am going to place a Geocache.

Geocaches are Tupperware-type or ammo-can boxes hidden on public lands. They are part of a game that anybody may play, a sort of international treasure hunt. They are not buried, so the land is not disturbed. They may be hidden amongst rocks, bushes, and so forth. They may be cleverly camouflaged as rocks, stumps, etc.

To find a Geocache, you need a GPS (or somebody who HAS a GPS). If you have an iPhone, you can get a GPS application for it, so that the iPhone functions as a GPS. It can bring you to within 20 feet of the coordinates.

When you find the box, there is a log book with a pen and you should sign it. (You also note later that you found it, at Geocaching.com.)

Geocaches are to be filled with brick-a-brack. Never anything too valuable (no money), and no food. It's like secretly looking through somebody else's kitchen drawer! Here is the best part: You may take any one trinket, but you have to also leave one trinket.

So, what will I put in this Geocache, to start it out?

Well, many mammoth tusks are being mined in Siberian permafrost. The bodies are not so well preserved as to be worth studying. Artisans make their tusks into carvings, pistol grips, knife handle "scales", and so on. When they do that, they cut off a lot of little scraps.

These little bits should not go to waste! I'm going to attach them to small educational cards, and turn them into Geocaching paleo-prizes.

So, the first N people who find this Geocache will have the option to take a fragment of actual mammoth ivory home with them, to keep (or, when they get tired of it, place in an entirely different Geocache!)

More info to follow, as I work on acquiring an ammo can. When it is ready, I will post the GPS coordinates both here, and on Geocaching.com.



PREVIOUS UPDATES:
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UPDATE: Monday, June 22, 2009
Mammoth ivory arrived by mail.

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UPDATE: Tuesday, June 23, 2009
I've cut the scraps into neat little pieces:
[link]

The Geocache now has an official name: The Mammoth Trunk

UPDATE: Thursday, June 25, 2009
Went to N.S. Army/Navy Surplus on N. Lamar in Austin, Texas. Finally got an "ammo can" for $7.95.