We invite you to create your own Quest. You may create a Quest in your backyard for your friends and family-or you can create a Quest as an offering to the greater community. For more information on creating a quest you might want to look at Questing:A Guide to Creating Community Treasure Hunts.

1. Pick a spot that is a special place for you. Perhaps a unique natural or cultural feature of your town.
   
2. Find out who own or manages this property and request permission to make a Quest there.
   
3. Make a few trips to the site to uncover its details, and to begin to think about the best approaches to making a Quest on your site.
   
4. Find people in your community who can teach you more about your site-community elders, members of your towns historical society or conservation commission. Invite them to take a trip out on the land with you.
   
5. Take good notes!
   
6. Decide on your Quest strategy: a detailed map Quest; a map-less Quest; a jumble Quest (collecting words); a pict-o-Quest (no words-only following pictures!). Or any combination. Use your imagination and creativity-it's up to you!
   
7. Draw rough maps of your site. Also sketch or note the unique features that would make good clues.
   
8. Make a rough draft of your Quest Map and riddles or accompanying text.
   
9. Test your Quest with as many different people as you can get to try it out-and make appropriate changes.
   
10. Create a written description of what makes the site special. This should come from your research and should only be a few paragraphs long--small enough to be laminated and glued inside the cover of the Quest Box. You can focus on whatever you think visitors to the site will be most interested in. Depending on the site, possible things to write about include: the historical significance of the site to the town; a true story about something that once happened at the site; the natural history of the site--trees to look for, special rocks, plantings, etc.; why people in your town love this site so much; fun or interesting things to do; amazing-but-true trivia facts about the site (height of steeple, age of building, number of orchid species, number of granite blocks and where they came from, etc.)
    
11. Draw final Quest Map
    
12. Design a logo for the stamp for the site and carve it into a plastic eraser or make a stamp out of rubber and wood.
    
13. Get a waterproof box to use as a Quest Box. Waterproof the introduction to the site and attach it securely to the inside cover of the box. Place in the box: a log book; pencil/pen; stamp; ink pad; pencil sharpener.
    
14. Hide the box.
    
15. Make sure you have someone adopt the box for long-term monitoring.

If you live in the Upper Connecticut River Valley (click here to view a map of our service area) and would like to have this available for other Valley Questers (either in our next book or online)

1. Fill out the Valley Quest Submission Form and send your Quest in to us.
2. Label the outside of the box with a water-proofed copy of the Valley Quest label (included with the Submission ).

Related links:

Stamp making instructions

Book making instructions