The "Uncharted Lancaster" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Picked up the morning paper and there on the front page was a collage of nine small photographs in a square format.  Held it up so my wife could see it and she said, "Looks like someone enjoys the same things you do!"  Over half of the photographs displayed were about stories I have written about in the past ten years.  

Start of the story in the newspaper.

Story was titled "Uncharted Territory" and was about a fellow Tech Education teacher who creates scavenger hunts that explore county history.  That's actually a great idea.  Why didn't I think of that?  Teacher's name was Adam Zurn and as of now has about a half-dozen self-guided scavenger hunt-like experiences as well as many articles about local history.  For those that participate in one of his treasure hunts, he rewards them with items such as an ancient Aztec death whistle or maybe an Egyptian artifact or perhaps a gold coin.  And, how does he do that?  He uses a 3D printer, which he teaches about in his classroom, to produce duplicates of these rewards.  I can remember a few years ago when I went back to the school where I taught for almost 35 years and watched the tech ed. teacher show his class how to use the 3D printer that they had just purchased.  Not only where the student's fascinated, I was in awe of what I was seeing.  Since then I have visited and watched them make miniature race cars that they had designed on paper and transferred to a computer program and then made on the 3D printer.  Seems like Adam is using both his tech knowledge as well as his love of local history to create his adventures for anyone whom would like to try them.  He creates links to find the location of the Lancaster County historic spot that he has researched.  Once there, they are rewarded with a small token for their efforts in finding the place.  Adam sometimes makes 3D printed plastic cases to hold clues at some locations to keep his adventurers on the right path.  

The headless horseman

Well, I pulled up his website on my computer and read about the adventures.  At the end of the site was a place for comments.   I sent him a comment and before long we had sent a few emails back and forth.  Fellow much like myself in that we both taught the same subjects in school and we both have a love of Lancaster County history.  If you think you may enjoy a scavenger hunt in Lancaster County, pull up https://unchartedlancaster.com and see what Adam has to offer you.  I know I'm going to give it a try in the near future.  That "Headless Horseman' is intriguing.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.