You might also find beauty and adventure, maybe even romance.

That's what Eric Weeks discovered when he was poking around in the dirt on a date three years ago with Susan Henrie.

Today, Susan and Eric are married, and they share a love of letterboxing - the hobby of hunting for small boxes containing tiny art treasures and hidden around Utah, the United States and the world.

"Ever since then, we've always done it together. I wouldn't give all the credit to letterboxing, but it's a fun thing to do," said the Bountiful man.

Imported from England several years ago, the hobby has taken hold in the United States and in Utah. "Boxers" follow a list of clues to find waterproof containers hidden in beautiful, remote and often unexpected places. Inside the box are a journal, an ink pad and a stamp, usually hand-carved.

Hunters take along their own stamp and journal. When they've located a box, they "stamp up" - leaving a short message and an image of their own stamp in the box's journal and vice versa - as proof of their discovery and a souvenir of the adventure. Then they carefully hide the box again so the uninitiated cannot see it.

The sport began in Victorian England when a gentleman placed a calling card in a small jar and left it hidden where others later found it and inserted their own cards, according to Smithsonian magazine. A century and a half later, stamps have replaced the cards.

In England today, the hobby has become an obsession, with some clues obtainable only by talking to the right person at the right pub. Here it's a bit easier, with clues posted on Web sites.

There are some 200 boxes hidden throughout Utah, including a delicate fairy stamp at the foot of an Indian rock art panel outside Moab; beautifully carved ducks and fish in a Sandy wetlands; and a tiny car parked among a shelf of books in Holladay.

To many, letterboxing sounds like just another version of geocaching. But don't say that to an avowed boxer.

"Letterboxing is more personal," said Kenna Watkins. "Someone has taken the time to sit down and carve their own piece of art."

With geocaching, finders will take a trinket from the container and leave a new one behind.

"It can be anything from a McDonald's toy to a key chain. It's not very memorable or thought-out," said the Moab woman.

Judy Wagnon was a geocacher until she stumbled upon a letterbox.

"There are all kinds of different artistic things that appealed to me. I thought it took a lot more care and commitment to create a letterbox than it did a geocache," said the Ogden retiree.

Letterboxing has also spawned new offshoots, such as postal letterboxing, in which boxers mail each other a stamp and journal.

Wagnon said the hobby has given her new friends around the country, including a group of women spanning three generations who met up in Chicago recently to hunt for boxes. One was hidden in seedy part of the city.

"It was kind of skanky," said Wagnon, with a laugh. "Here we were, all walking around with our backpacks full of markers and our compasses out. It was a hoot."

Watkins said it's a great hobby for families. It gets kids outside and hiking, excited about finding hidden treasure. Many of the stamps are fun for kids, too, including "The Lord of the Rings"-inspired stamps and she and her LB friends hid on "Mount Doom" near Grand Junction, Colo.

There are many things to love about the hobby, said the Weekses, who spent their honeymoon scouring the Oregon coastline for boxes: getting out into the sunshine and fresh air, finding a secret treasure, making artwork and enjoying the art made by others. Plus, it's cheap.

"Basically, it's just an excuse to go out and take a walk in the park," said Eric Weeks.