Freeway Sign is Geocaching Clue

The mystery behind the recent addition to the freeway sign at the corner of Avenue 57 and Via Marisol that has both perplexed and delighted Highland Park residents has been solved.

While the average commuter won't find much meaning in the phrase "Cute as a Button," it's an important clue for members of the geocaching community.

Geocaching is a worldwide scavenger hunt through which participants search for geocache boxes using GPS coordinates provided online.

According to Patch reader Steve, the phrase "Cute as a Button" is a clue that a geocache is nearby.

"'Cute as a Button' is a series of geocaches," Steve said. "I love clues like this. As a geocacher, we so enjoy to put clues up in the open that only a select handful will understand."

Update: 

An email from a reader named Bob Kip informs us that the phrase Cute as a Button is not as widely used in the geocaching world as initially reported.

According to Kip, "yes, there are 10 Geocaches using that phrase ... out of 1,946,469 worldwide, but no it is not a phrase known or used by the typical geocacher."

Kip added, "generally, when caches are referred to as a "series" it indicates that they are all associated by some commonality (beyond simply the name)."