Boosting tourism through "geocaching": high-tech treasure hunts luring "e-fluentials" to Indiana sites.

• Position: Last Word - 1,023 geocaches in Indiana

At first, I was skeptical. It seemed like just another scheme to give technophiles an excuse to buy a new toy, a GPS unit. And besides, there surely couldn't be many folks visiting this odd Web site and playing this newfangled scavenger hunt. I have been proven wrong on both counts, but maybe more important, I did not recognize the tourism potential inherent in geocaching.

The pastime known as geocaching is popular among a demographic that Burson-Marsteller has labeled the "e-fluentials," a group of online users who often shape the opinions and attitudes of the Internet community. They are early adopters, they are intensely curious, they are persuasive, and most important, trends that bloom into mainstream activities or beliefs seem to pass through these folks in the early stages. And here they were, playing this new hybrid online yet real-time game.

Geocaching involves people hiding ammo boxes, Tupperware tubs and pill bottles, most with a logbook and some trinkets inside. The cache is given a clever name--the title for the box hidden at Mounds State Park was "Not Quite an Almond Joy"--some clues and the GPS coordinates, which are posted at a central Web site.

Searchers then set out to find these boxes, take some of the items, add new ones and post a note about their adventure at the central Web site. Travelers willing to adjust their route and families looking for a kid-friendly adventure seem to be eagerly joining the hardcore treasure hunters in this pursuit.

It was in reading the "discovery notes" posted on the Web site that I realized the geo-tourism potential. The newly dedicated McCloud Nature Park in Hendricks County already has a geocache. One "finder" commented, "Two really cool things that I saw: 1.) A big, bushy-tailed squirrel porpoising through semi-tall grass, and 2.) A HUGE carp in Big Walnut Creek--could have pushed 20 pounds." A visitor to the "Veterans' Salute" cache near Columbus noted, "Eighth find of...