Stockton University has long prided itself on being an eco-friendly institution, leaving much of the natural biodiversity intact among the Galloway campus. Stockton students have noticed this, and have taken the initiative to make Stockton’s trails more interactive through a GPS oriented game called Geocaching.

“We want to give students a safe place to come together and get outside,” Erin Stamm, record keeper of the Stockton Geocaching Club said. Stamm began geocaching a couple months before joining the club.

Geocaching is a game that allows individuals to hunt for containers, labeled “geocaches” through GPS services. Websites such as “geocaching.com” allow users to pinpoint their caches on a map for others to find. In each of these containers, there is a ledger for explorers to write their name, date of discovery, and occasionally, trinkets to trade. 

The Stockton Geocaching Club is a new addition to the university, forming in December of 2023. The club’s first event involved members searching for geocaches throughout the Galloway campus, focusing on the trails and Lake Fred. 

The officers of the Stockton Geocaching Club all have different levels of familiarity with the hobby, and have implemented their mixed experiences into the club. Students of all experience levels are welcome to join. 

“I’ve been geocaching since I was little,” Forrest Jennings, President of The Stockton Geocaching Club said. “I’ve found over a thousand caches now, and have wanted to start a geocaching club since freshman year.”

Events planned for the club take full advantage of the open-ended nature of geocaching. The Geocaching Club recently just returned from a trip to New York City where they visited the Statue of Liberty and hunted for caches.

Their next planned trip is a visit to Ringing Rocks County Park on March 30. Ringing Rocks is a large boulder field in Bucks County, PA in which the rocks are lithophonic, meaning the rocks ring like a bell when struck. 

The Stockton Geocaching Club meets biweekly in room F-111, and specific meeting dates and times are found on their OspreyHub and Instagram page: @stockton_geocaching_club.