Many exciting things are happening in and around Durham Central Park! This page contains information on two such activities -- Historical Tours and Geocaching. Historical Tours The Historic Preservation Society of Durham (HPSD) has developed a series of walking tours that feature downtown Durham and the area surrounding Durham Central Park. These free guided tours are offered on a regular basis from April through November. HPSD's enthusiastic and well-informed volunteer tour guides use oral histories and photographs to make the historical information come alive. HPSD now offers three tours: Durham's Tobacco Heritage, the Civil Rights History, and Architecture and the Urban Landscape. Visit the HPSD website for more information: www.preservationdurham.org. Geocaching A volunteer for Durham Central Park who also happens to enjoy geocaching has hidden a cache at the park and has used our magnolia mural as a clue for finding another one. These geocaches add yet another way for people to enjoy the park and downtown Durham. Some basic information on geocaching (extracted from www.geocaching.com) is provided below, along with links to the geocaches involving the park. Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing, like cashing a check) is an entertaining adventure game for users of Global Positioning Systems (GPS). A GPS unit is a electronic device that can determine a person's approximate location (within about 6-20 feet) on the planet. Coordinates are normally given in Longitude and Latitude. A person can use the unit to navigate from one location to another. Geocaching aficionados set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. Other GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. A cache can come in many forms; at the least, a cache can be just a logbook and nothing else. The logbook contains information from the founder of the cache and notes from the cache's visitors. A logbook might contain information about nearby attractions, coordinates to other unpublished caches, and even jokes written by visitors. Larger caches may consist of a waterproof plastic container placed tastefully within the local terrain. The container will hold the logbook and any number of more or less valuable items. These items turn the cache into a true treasure hunt. Items in a cache could include maps, books, software, hardware, CD's, videos, pictures, money, jewelry, tickets, antiques, tools, games, etc. Information on the two caches involving Durham Central Park can be found at the following links: www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=103664 and www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=103666.