About Valley Quest

Questing is a place-based education model of creating and exchanging treasure hunts in order to collect and share your community's distinct natural and cultural heritage -- your special places and stories.

Questing was born out of a 150-year old tradition in the region surrounding Dartmoor National Park in southwest England. "Letterboxing," as this tradition is called, has become a hugely popular past time, with thousands of boxes hidden in both natural and cultural locations.

Vital Communities built upon this tradition on this side of the Atlantic by developing the Valley Quest program. In the early to mid-1990s, Vital Communities was concerned about the future of the Upper Valley region, and was hoping to develop a program that might: (a) foster sense of place; (b) strengthen relationships between schools and the natural and cultural heritage of their communities; (c) build bridges across the generations, partnering children with community adults and civic groups; and (d) build relationships between new-comers and old timers.

The result was Valley Quest, with "Valley" referring to our place and "Quest" referring to a treasure hunt-made by children and adults working together-leading to a treasure in the community. This treasure might be a natural site (wetland, town forest) or perhaps a cultural site (abandoned mill site, historic cemetery, etc.). Each Quest would be made up of three parts: clues, which teach visitors how to see or read a community story; a map guiding them along a specific route; leading to a particular "treasure" and treasure box, complete with a story about the site, a sign-in book, and a hand-carved stamp featuring a symbol for the site.

Over time, the Valley Quest program has grown. More than 1,500 children, adults, families, scouts, students and historical society members contributed to the creation of the Quests found in the Valley Quest books and online.

Teachers are incorporating Valley Quest into their classroom curriculum; parks and museums are using Questing as a compelling interpretive tool to educate visitors; and communities are using Questing to engage citizens, partner schools and civic groups, map precious community assets, and build social capital.

The fun and learning of discovering special places can happen while you are making a quest or going on a quest.