Valley Girl Views: The Original Can Of Beans

As if this hobby wasn't weird enough, meet the holy grail of geocaching -

a rusted & dented can that once held black eyed peas.

It all began in 2000, with the end of Selective Availability.

Selective Availability was an "intentional degredation of public gps signals, implemented for national security reasons". On May 2 2000, Selective Availability was disabled, and gps units could, overnight, much more accurately pinpoint exact locations.

The very next day, May 3rd 2000, Dave Ulmer, a computer consultant, took a bucket of somewhat random items into the woods to test the new navigational accuracy. He called his experiment "The Great American GPS stash hunt", and on that day, the game of geocaching was born.

Dave documented his hide in a video you can view on youtube - he shows exactly what was in the bucket - including software, a tape recorder, cash, and a "can of food".

In his video, he also shows the first log book, with the game instructions, and an inventory of what was in the container. Item #1 - 1 can black eyed peas.

" In the bucket Dave placed a Delorme Topo USA, 2 CD Roms, a cassette recorder, a "George of the Jungle" VHS tape, a Ross Perot book, four $1 bills, a slingshot handle and the now notorious, original can of beans (now the O.C.B. trackable). The coordinates were then listed on the internet and modern-day geocaching was born. The first one to find the cache was Mike Teague who took the money and left some cigarettes, a cassette tape and a pen." https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCGV0P_original-stash-tribute-plaque

The original bucket stash was hit by an Oregon land crew lawnmower, and was damaged beyond repair.

Three years later, a group got together to commemorate this very first geocache with a tribute plaque. While digging for the plaque placement, the shovel struck metal - the original, rusted, dented, and leaking, can of beans. You can see the find in the youtube video here:

"Dave Ulmer, at the site for the Plaque ceremony, immediately confirmed that it was indeed the Original Can of Beans from that very first geocache. Another cacher, RomadPilot, just happened to be running video at the exact second the O.C.B. was found.

Although it was damaged from being partially buried and exposed to the weather of the Portland area for several years, the can was very carefully straightened out and thoroughly cleaned, then treated with several coats of rust stopper/converter and u.v.-resistant polyurethane. During attendance at Events, it's in a clear display case for all geocachers to enjoy. " https://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=83154

"The OCB has even made it to the small screen when it was featured on the Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum. The episode was called ‘The Birth of Geocaching’ and aired in April 2016." - The geocaching Junkie (The poster shown on this site states that the episode was season 10 episode 3, but the travel channel shows is at season 9 episode 9. Either way, I cannot find the episode online to view)

The Original Can Of Beans has been traveling the world, visiting geocaches and geo events for the past 15 years, but this year, 2019, it is set to retire. You can follow the cans adventures on it's very own facebook page, here: https://www.facebook.com/Original-Can-of-Beans-OCB-154649191691212/ A message on that page, by the cans owner, states:

"It's been an honor to present it to the geocaching community over the years but as usual, life gets in the way and doesn't allow me to continue OCB displays, or even geocaching so much anymore. Thanks to everyone, it's been great to see so many enjoy the Original Can of Beans, the Last Remaining Item from the Worlds First Geocache."

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