Scavengeroogle: A Google Maps Scavenger Hunt To Waste More Of Your Time On

My last bounty for the holiday weekend before I’m off to the parent’s for a little much needed barbeque action. I am not sure at all what this actually is, but I believe it’s on top of a building and not accidental. It actually reminds me of the beginning of the old Spirograph game that I’ve talked about before. It looks like an octagonal building with two rotated rectangles on the top.

This image might be a little difficult to find because it is visible only at 17/18 and above unless you have really sharp eyes I’d guess. The continent that it’s on is: Asia.

I’m going to reach into my magic bag of old postcards again for the prize for the Spirograph. At stake is a postcard of the city of Jackson, Wyoming. Look at that fanstastic scenery! The back reads: “Southern entrance to Grand Teton National Park, Jackson is supply point for ranchers of the Jackson Hole country. This colorful resort town caters to the vacationists.”

One interesting fact I found on Wikipedia: Jackson contains the world’s largest ball of barbed wire. I didn’t know you could roll barbed wire in a ball. Jackson has around 9000 people living in the town.

I’ve been to Grand Teton Nat’l Park when I was really young, I believe it was on a combination camping trip to Yellowstone National Park. I also used to have some friends at my old workplace who always used to talk about going home to “Jackson Hole“. I’d like to make another visit to the area one of these days.

Ok, so there you go, plenty of bounties for now… I will probably return late this week with a daily clue.

Bounty Name : “Spirograph”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Collected by: Aaron B
Time Elapsed: 2 hours, 33 min
Word Hint : NONE
Continent Hint : Asia
Magnification Needed: 17/18

Reward: Jackson Wyoming Postcard from the 70s

Continue reading “Bounty: Spirograph” …

You asked for bounties so here’s another one. I am not going to guarantee the solvability of any of these though… you get what you get!

This clue is one that I found a long time ago before bounties existed, but I just couldn’t come up with suitable word hints for a daily clue. So I recently pulled it out of the archives. It is a depiction of what looks like a pleasant-looking, wise face made out of the banks of a river.

I guess that’s an additional hint, that you know to look for a river… well, I couldn’t call the clue River Spirit if I didn’t mention “river”. But anyhow, the face can be seen around 15/18 and as for a continent you are again in North America.

The prize for whoever collects this bounty is an old postcard of Montpelier, Idaho. The postcard shows what looks like the main street of a charming little town in the 70s. My first impression when I picked up the postcard was that it was labeled wrong because I thought it was supposed to be Montpelier, Vermont which is of course the capital of Vermont.

Turns out there is also this small city called Montpelier in the southeastern corner of Idaho. From Wikipedia, I learned that the city has less than 3000 people in it, and it’s the largest community in the Bear Lake Valley which is a farming region north of Bear Lake very close to the border with Utah. Apparently, it flourished early on after being discovered by Oregon Trail travelers in the mid 1800s because it had a terminal on the railroad there until the 1970s. Other than that, there wasn’t much info on the town, but it was apparently important enough to have a postcard made for it! So magic bonus points to anyone who can tell us more about the town and area.

Bounty Name : “River Spirit”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Open
Word Hint : NONE
Continent Hint : North America
Magnification Needed: 15/18

Reward: Montpelier Idaho Postcard from the 70s

Ah, nice long weekend = me getting to work on more Scavengeroogle. While everyone is out barbequeing, I am posting scavengeroogle clues. Interestingly enough, I am still PC-less. I seem to be getting by other than the fact that nearly all my important files were on the windoze machine that is now collecting dust.

Anyhow: Cluemaster B, or as you may know him as Aaron B had sent me a bunch of clues and some were meant to be bounties. Here is one of them: I am at a loss what to call this, it’s sort of a circle inside a square and since I’ve just seen a Discovery Channel special on Area 51, I think I will call this clue “Crop Circle Square”. It is not enormous like some of our other ones, but still can be seen at about 16/18. I am going to give the continent hint for this one: North America

I am crossing my fingers (many times) that this bounty will last a little longer than our others, but not as long of course as the dastardly Compass bounty that remains unsolved to this day. In any case, today I went to the Pasadena City College Swap meet to look for some prizes. I picked up 8 postcards for a quarter a piece so these are going to be your bounty prizes for now. I would have picked up more but it was just too blazingly hot standing in the sun flipping through them so I had to finish up and pay.

First up is this cool postcard from Fairbanks, Alaska that looks like it’s from the 70s with those scalloped edges. The front of the postcard depicts a mile marker that says Mile 1523 End of the Alaska Highway which I guess is in the middle of Fairbanks. There is mileage to other place including: 527 to Point Barrow, 558 miles to Juneau, 529 miles to Nome, and 10,316 miles to the South Pole.

Bounty Name : “Crop Circle Square”
Submitted by: Aaron B
Status : Open
Word Hint : NONE
Continent Hint : North America
Magnification Needed: 16/18

Reward: Fairbanks Alaska Postcard from the 70s

Hey there Scavengeroogle Bounty Hunters. This was a weird looking series of paths or roads that have been carved into the shape of what I am going to call for lack of a more interesting term - Arrow Man.

Turn your head about 45 degrees clockwise and you’ll be able to see him better. His arms look like arrows, hence the name. His feet look sort of like the feet on the V.I.N.CENT robot from the 1979 movie “The Black Hole”. Don’t ask me how I know that, because the answer will be that I have the little robot plastic toy from 1979…

Anyhow, I’m not sure what this figure is, if it’s intended to be a man-like depiction or if it’s just a random series of paths that look like a man. Maybe one of you can tell me. This feature requires 16/18 magnification to see it which is pretty close in… the contrast is also quite light which may give some difficulty. The continent we are in is: South America.

I just got a “prize” in the mail that I sent away for, so I’m offering it up here. It is the Las Cruces, New Mexico Official 2005-2006 Visitor’s Guide. Now while a lot of people think of New Mexico as just a big desert or perhaps the home of the Trinity Atomic Test Site, there is a lot to like in this vast and complex Southwestern recreation area. I just like the wide open spaces in general which is why it appeals to me. I’ve been to the state a few times and it is pretty magnificient.

Las Cruces is located about 225 miles south of Albuquerque and near the border with Mexico. Some of the area attractions include Aguirre Springs, The Bicentennial Log Cabin, Fort Selden State Monument, White Sands National Monument, and the Historic village of Mesilla. You might also be interested in The Whole Enchilada Festival in downtown Las Cruces in Sept 23-25 where they’ll make the world’s largest enchilada. Yeah. Yum.

OK. Enough enchilada talk, get crackin on the bounty!

Bounty Name : “Arrow Man”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Collected by: Aaron B
Time Elapsed: 5 hours, 4 min
Word Hint : NONE
Continent Hint : South America
Magnification Needed: 16/18

Reward: Las Cruces, New Mexico Visitor’s Guide

Continue reading “Bounty: Arrow Man” …

Found this sort of cool configuration of buildings and swimming pools(?) that sort of look like a honeybee. Or perhaps it’s a paper wasp instead. I’m not sure, the only thing I know for sure is that this is going to be your latest bounty.

This feature requires about 14/18 magnification in order to see it. I’ll give a continent hint again: Asia.

I’ve been a little short of prizes but Judy B came to the rescue the other day with a Scavengeroogle Bounty care package. I should have some more scavenger hunt prizes coming up soon but this will definitely hold me over for awhile.

Judy’s in Indiana, specifically near Notre Dame and has thoughtfully sent over a bunch of geographic prizes from there. Unfortunately, one of the main things I’m sure that you’d all like to talk about is Notre Dame football, Fighting Irish and whatnot… but I actually know zilcho about football, so… er, anyhow. Well, I do know that Notre Dame has a pretty long history, established in 1842 according to the postcard. The first up are going to be a set of nice postcards. Postcard one is of the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore and postcard two is of Notre Dame Stadium.

I know a lot of you are in college (or work at colleges) so you probably can tell me much more interesting things about Notre Dame than I can look up on the web. Thus I’ll refrain from any long winded descriptions. All right, luck and leprechauns be with you, fighting irish and all that…

Bounty Name : “Honey Bee”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Collected by Mike M.
Time Elapsed: 13 hours, 38 min
Word Hint : NONE
Continent Hint : Asia
Magnification Needed: 14/18

Reward: Notre Dame Postcards

Continue reading “Bounty: Honey Bee” …

Whew, hello there again. If you are new to the site, thanks for visiting. There were quite a few new people coming here the past 3 days. Anyhow, I decided to start putting up more Scavengeroogle Bounties … I am still not sure about whether this works to have no word clue, but we will keep doing it that way for now till I get more prizes, and more time to work on the site.

This may be a lame one because it’s not really distinctive… I’ve called it Square Rivers, but perhaps it should have been called Right Angle Rivers. It is actually visible quite far up, at 12/18 magnification.

I’m going to experiment with something that Mark L had originally mentioned… give a VERY general description of where on the planet the clue is. I think I will go with the standard “Seven Continents” structure of Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. For the time being at least you will get a “continent hint”

The continent hint for this one is: Asia.

On that note I am also thinking of changing the terminology of “word clue” to “word hint“. It was a bit confusing because the graphical clues that are given are called “picture clues”… so I’ll call them Word Hints from now on.

Ah, the prize. Of course. This is a quickie, just a postcard, but a pretty cool one of the little town of Solvang. You see old fashioned Danish style windmills in the picture which is not that unusual except that Solvang is located just north of Santa Barbara, California.

I have been here several times, it’s a stopover for a lot of folks heading up the California Coast. But some hard-core Solvang fans make trips exclusively to there. A bit of a tourist trap. The back of the postcard reads:

Numerous Danish styled windmills, homes, store buildings, bakeries, foods, and Danish customs give this quaint village the old-world charm that has earned Solvang the title “Danish Capital of America”.

Okily dokily. Now remember, don’t spend the rest of tonight, tomorrow and this weekend on this bounty. They are meant to be something just in the back of your mind, just leisurely incubating there while you solve daily clues or ‘Roogle around for fun. I keep saying it, but don’t stress over these things!

Bounty Name : “Square Rivers”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Collected by Mark L.
Time Elapsed: 2 days, 9 hours, 27 min
Word Hint : NONE
Continent Hint : Asia
Magnification Needed: 12/18

Reward: Solvang, California Windmills Postcard

Continue reading “Bounty: Square Rivers” …

I’m back at it with Bounties folks. The idea with Scavenger Hunt Bounties are to let you all “roogle” on your own time. Of course, as we’ve seen they don’t seem to last that long which is contrary to the reason I created them in the first place!

Well, this might last a little longer I hope… because I’m not including any word clues! At least initially. I may add some later… This building or feature that reminded me a bit of a compass rose. You need 15/18 magnification to see it.

You want to know the prize for finding it of course. First, please note that if you win the prize, I will need to ask you for your physical address if you want to receive it. Because some people either don’t want to give their address, or don’t really care for the prize, I am going to start REUSING prizes that aren’t claimed for whatever reason. So if you, see the same prize it’s not necessarily because it is a duplicate… someone probably didn’t claim it on an earlier bounty.

Ok, the prize for the Compass Bounty is a Petersburg, Alaska Viking Visitor Guide & Vacation Planner. I actually sent away for this because I had been thinking of visiting Alaska one of these days. Petersburg is also known as “Alaska’s Little Norway” because of its Norwegian heritage. It’s located in the heart of the Tongass National Forest, which I didn’t know is actually the largest National Forest in the U.S!

Petersburg also shelters one of Alaska’s prime fishing fleets, and the town actually started off as a fish camp for Tlingit natives before the Norwegians started to build canneries there.

I know the Petersburg Viking Guide is a free publication, but it might be cool to have… if you’re interested keep an eye out for this Compass clue while you’re roogling!

[Edit: 8/04/05 - There is a continent hint for this one…]
[Edit: 9/11/05 - 1st Clue released…]

Bounty Name : “Compass”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Collected by Jeremy H
Word Hint : NONE
Continent Hint : North America
1st Clue : Southeast U.S.
Magnification Needed: 15/18

Reward: Peterson Alaska Viking Visitor’s Guide

Continue reading “Bounty: Compass” …

This is actually an old Mike Z. clue from a ways back in early May. Interestingly, this is NOT the clue that he sent in but is very close to it. (Mike, sorry that means ya can’t solve this one!) It resembles a wineglass being tipped over with the contents spilling out. Hm… do you say “spilt wine” or “spilled wine” or are both OK? Whatever…

You can see it at 14/18 and the word clues for this one will be “Minus Our Minotaur”. Hm… ponder that for a bit.

Of course you are interested in your reward, right? Up for grabs is a cool National Park Service map that I got when I visited the Devil’s Postpile near Mammoth Lakes, California. I think it is actually downloadable on their site, but this is the real printed one I got from there.

I used to be a regular in the High Sierras, going there every single year. Sometimes twice in a year. What for? Why, mostly fishing and camping and hiking. Luckily, my parents were the type of people to spring for a motorhome as opposed to a luxury sedan… It surely saves on lodging when going up there. I don’t do much skiing, but I’ve also been to Mammoth for that. The more popular areas of Mammoth are hell of crowded at times though. I think certain areas are like Yosemite where you need to be bussed in if you don’t get there before a certain time of the day.

I’ve been to the Devil’s Postpile several times… very cool hexagonal rock lava structures. You should visit if you get the chance.

Bounty Name : “Spilt Wine”
Submitted by: Mike Z.
Status : Collected by Chris Re.
Time Elapsed: 10 minutes
Word Clue : “Minus Our Minotaur”
Magnification Needed: 14/18

Reward: Devil’s Postpile Park Map

Continue reading “Bounty: Spilt Wine” …

I couldn’t decide whether this looked like a pencil stub or whether it looked like a rocketship. In the end, I decided it looked more like a pencil stub but that “Rocket Ship” just sounded plain better as a name for a Scavengeroogle Bounty!

The ship can be seen from fairly far out at 14/18, though I’d say 15/18 to be safe. The word clue for this bounty is going to be: “He had a stroke when he was 24″. I think this will probably be tougher than the earlier clue. Watch your herrings… note that anything goes with bounties. I’ll definitely start to make them harder should people solve them too quickly!

Like I said, I am still experimenting with difficulty. I would, however, like for the average Bounty to last at least 2-3 days. The whole point of them after all is to give everyone something to chew on for a bit, and give me a bit ‘o breathin room to come up with clues! I hope to build up a surplus of 2-3 open bounties. This weekend I’ll try put in a few extra hours to find some. Also, I may be using some of your old clues that you sent in that were too difficult as Bounties!

The prize for this bounty is a Colorado / Wyoming AAA map circa 2002. I know, I know… these things are basically free. Well, actually you DO have to be a member to get them and there IS a price on it of $3.50… I have good memories of planning trips on AAA maps though, they are kinda cool in that respect. You can destroy one by writing on it and not worry about it at all.

But anyhow, this kind of brings me to an idea that I’m going to write more about in another post. Judy B, winner of the very first Scavenger Bounty, suggested that we have geographical “prize” donations. I think this would be very cool. It would be optional of course. If you have some inexpensive old maps, postcards, souvenirs, anything basically that you think someone else might find interesting, I’d ask that you send it in so that it could be used as a Bounty Prize… Like I said, I’ll write more about that soon, but just letting you know as a heads up. What do you think?

Ok, I’ll be quiet now while you try to find that rocket ship… good luck!

Bounty Name : “Rocket Ship”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Collected by Chris R.
Time Elapsed: 7 hours, 5 minutes
Word Clue : “He had a stroke when he was 24″
Magnification Needed: 15/18

Reward: 2002 Colorado / Wyoming AAA map

Continue reading “Bounty: Rocket Ship” …

All right folks. Here is our first attempt at a Bounty! If you haven’t already done so, please read the post that explains what a Scavengeroogle Bounty is since they are a bit different than our normal clues.

I found this little feature that reminded me of an antique key while just surfing around Google Maps. I think this is a good starting one because it is very well defined and quite visible. You can see the key from about 14/18. Word clue for this bounty: “144 Seq”

The prize for this particular bounty is a 1999 copy of the Sonoma Valley Visitors Guide. I have another one of these so I decided to make this the first prize. It is from 1999 because that’s when my wife and I went on our honeymoon. We took a trip up through San Francisco and then through the wine country, staying in Sonoma for a little bit. The wine country was really nice… although at the time they were already starting to charge for wine tasting at many vineyards which I think is pretty sad.

Although the price on it says $5, I believe you can actually get this free buy requesting it through one of the Sonoma city visitor guide sites. Although, you won’t be able to find this “out of print” 1999 version though, hehe!

Like I said, this first one is an experiment… I am hoping that the bounty is not collected for at least a few days. In particular, I know clues have to be more difficult, but I am not sure how diffciult…

[Edit: I can’t believe how fast Judy solved this one… according to her it only took 1/2 an hour (though she did mention she had to use a dictionary of abbreviations to get “Seq”)! I’m going to have to investigate how to make the clues more difficult. I wonder if not putting any word clues might be too hard?]

Bounty Name : “Antique Key”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Collected by Judy B.
Time Elapsed: 16 hrs, 7 minutes
Word Clue : “144 Seq”
Magnification Needed: 13/18

Reward: 1999 Sonoma Valley Visitor Guide

Continue reading “Bounty: Antique Key” …