Aggieland's Secret Scavenger Hunt: Clue 1

By Andrea Porter

Good news! Clue 1 of Aggieland’s secret scavenger hunt has been located, thanks to undergrad student Jonathan Bjerken. If you’re interested in joining the hunt, here’s a picture clue to the first plaque.

Since my first post about Aggieland’s secret scavenger hunt, I have received emails from four people who are also searching for the elusive clues. Unfortunately, my blog post is, as of this writing, the only online information about the scavenger hunt, so the originator and purpose are still a mystery.

Also a mystery: the clues at site 3 and 11. Plaque 3’s location is unmistakable based on clue 2, but hours of hunting at the third location have turned up no further clues. Several hunters have had similar luck with plaque 11. The short poetic verses are quite specific, but despite thorough searches at site 11, we’ve found nothing.

The missing plaques at location of 3 and 11 leave gaps in the hunt to find, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 12. My guess is that plaques 3 and 11 may have been removed by groundskeepers or fallen off (they wouldn’t have been stolen, of course.) If you have found one of these, please email me so we can keep going.

A few of us have been looking for plaques in places that seem a logical placement. We’ve combed the the clock tower area, skirting between the bushes and the limestone feeling the tower wall in places we couldn’t see. That’s true commitment, by the way, considering all the bugs and spiders love those cool, dark, damp places that the bushes provide. We also searched around the library, which took quite a while considering its size. The library seems an optimum place for a plaque, but we just couldn’t find one. Hopefully someone will find a clue that precludes us from searching blindly.

Lastly, would the mastermind of this hunt, please stand up?! Based on the people I’ve met on this search and others I know who enjoy puzzles like this, I’ve created a persona of the author in my mind. I’m betting the author is a male undergraduate engineering student who wanted to leave his mark on campus when he graduated. Given the prices for naming things on campus, he decided to go a nontraditional route and leave a legacy only students would find. That’s my guess. However, if the author reads this and wants to remain anonymous, would you replace plaques 3 and 11 for future posterity, please? Most all, though, thank you for all the fun you’ve given us!