The History of MOGA

MOGA was started in 2004 as the Midwest Invitational Geocaching Competition (MIGC). The first event was held at Hawn State Park in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. The first year, the course was a series of serial multi's, meaning you had to find one tag to get the coordinates to the next. It was more of a race from waypoint to waypoint. From that event, we have learned a lot about what did and didn't work. Serial courses can be faulty since one missing tag can kill the whole course. We have found an alternative solution which we use today. The method we've found that works best is to simply place more caches than anyone could possibly find in 3 hours. By flooding the area with caches, we can eliminate the problem of missing caches because, if a cache comes up missing, then it can be bypassed and the competitor can move on to the next cache on the list.

The first event consisted of single, couples, and team courses. This is the same competition groups we offer today. The different competitions allow you to decide on your best caching practice and allows you to use that method to compete. If you are better working with one other person, you can compete in the couples (2-person team) event. This gives everyone who wants to compete, but doesn't want to compete alone, a good choice. The first year we had some parking issues, but the beauty of the park made up for the inconvenience.

The second year, we changed the format and the name of the event. We voted to call it MOGA since it had a nice sound to it. MOGA, Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure, sounded more inviting to those who didn't want to compete but still wanted to come out and just find caches. The competition changed to the format we have today, but remained challenging for those hardcore competition hounds.

The second event, in 2005, was held at Meramec State Park in Sullivan, Missouri. The first year, we had to use the local orienteering club to cover our insurance since their meet was going on in the same park as ours. We teamed up with them to avoid having to get our own insurance. At Meramec, we were on our own. This was a major cost for us and it almost killed the event. We had a person on staff from Jefferson City who had experience with event insurance, and he was able to get us a great price. However, it was still our most expensive cost. Our attendance in 2005 was 122 participants.

In 2006, we saved money by moving the event to Illinois. This allowed the event to be held using a "waiver only" clause. With each year the event is held, we learn more and more. In 2006, we put the money from the event into goodie bags for each participant. We also offered our first MOGA geocoin.The Illinois State Parks were very accommodating and did a great job supporting the event! Our attendance was 220 participants

In 2007, MOGA went back to Missouri and landed at Mark Twain Lake Recreation Area. We had close to 500 people attend the event. The US Army Corps of Engineers at Mark Twain Lake sponsored the event and provided the Indian Creek Recreation Area as the playground for MOGA. They offered half-price camping as well as free pavilions, free amphitheater and all 60 ammo cans for the event.

This was the first year that we placed permanent caches. Having 60 permanent caches in the Indian Creek Recreation Area meant that people long after the event will enjoy the fruits of MOGA. Also, in 2007, MOGA obtained our own website and incorporated as a non-profit organization in the State of Missouri.

MOGA 2008 was a great event. This was our first year to be a MEGA EVENT. We had well over 500 in attendance once the participants, family, and staff were counted. We placed another 60 permanent caches and even managed to add a few puzzle caches to the team competitions. The competitions were well represented as we had many people compete in each age bracket, with the exception of only one 4-person team in the over-50 bracket.

We had people come from 26 different states and 1 Canadian province. It was a great mixture and several geocaching organizations were well represented at MOGA. I saw many smiles from children and parents on the kids' caches we placed.

2008 was to be our last year. Brawny Bear had indicated that he would not continue and MOGA would come to a close. A lot of encouragement and some good feedback changed his mind. He committed to one more year.

MOGA 2009 - The year of the coin! WOW! What a huge success with the coin designed by Brawny Bear. It allowed the new organizers of MOGA, L Frank and Denmother (John and Laurie) to have some seed money for next year's event in 2010. Thanks to all those that bought the coins.

MOGA 2009 was sponsored by Missouri State Parks and the US Army Corps of Engineers. Both helped put this event together by donating resources, real estate and time. A big thanks goes to Ben Sapp and Allen Mehrer for their hard work to make MOGA a success! Several others kicked in items to donate as well from GPSCity to Compass, Inc. A big thanks to all our sponsors!!

While 2009 was the biggest in terms of registrations, it was also the wettest we have ever had. It poured buckets of rain all day Saturday. I guess when 5 years of dry MOGAs comes to an end, it really comes to an end! The rain didn't dampen the spirits though. Competitors still took to the field to find the most punches in the time given. People still cached in the rain and several comments indicated they loved it! Others, not so much!

The Wild West theme was loved by all, and the caches were all named in honor of Indian tribes, outlaws and Wild West towns. We hid park-and-grab caches this year with easy terrain but with a high difficulty level. This too seemed to be a hit among the cachers attending. In all, there were more than 100 caches hidden for the event.

Food was once again served by Rustic Oak Cabin Steakhouse. They did an excellent job considering the weather and the crowds they had to please. The facilities for the meals were top notch. We had the entire group camp area at Si Colborn in Mark Twain State Park. This included the dining hall, which could easily seat 160 people. It had an awesome kitchen too. The final feast was held here on Sunday evening.

There were over 600 who came to the event. We had 552 registrations including 48 walk ups. There were people from 22 states at the event. In 2010, we are hoping to get even more states represented.

2010 will be a great year. The theme will be space, meaning Deep Space and the wide-open spaces of Mark Twain Lake! It should be the best MOGA ever. We will have another unique geocoin, and we have a great design for the T-shirt. We look forward to seeing you there!

The Future of MOGA

The St. Louis Area Geocachers Association (SLAGA) has staffed MOGA all six years. Our goal is to see other caching organizations take the reins and run MOGA for a year or two. The current MOGA staff will assist the organization in getting started and would supply punch and other "event" resources. This would give the current staff a break and allow many of the staff people to compete or just participate.

If your group is interested in taking over MOGA, please contact the MOGA staff via the "Contact Us" link. We will gladly walk through the planning cycle. We are willing to go to any state within the Midwest to participate, and this would bring it closer to home for some of the groups that travel far distances to get here.

There are only a few basic rules for hosting the event: 1) It must be named MOGA. 2) It must contain the basic competitions, namely, individual, 2-person and 4-person team events. The rest is up to you.

We will loan out our punches so you will not have to incur that cost. Please let us know if you or your organization would like to host MOGA. We would like to see it travel from group to group.