Enchanted Mountain Challenge
Enchanted Mountain Challenge
A creative story packed with local history will lead you on a mystery adventure this summer
At 9 Pine Street in Franklinville sits a stunning Queen Anne-style Victorian house. With beautiful porches, multiple round towers and ornate woodwork, the home is an architectural gem, a surprising find given its age. It’s safe to say that the home’s original owner was a person of means, and while professions such as doctor, lawyer, or banker might come to mind, Simeon Robbins was none of these. In fact, his was a journey that was as surprising as it was prosperous, an anomaly that still captures the imagination of local residents and is the premise of the Enchanted Mountain Challenge.
Creators Shaun Thomson and Kristen Vanderwarker, co-owners of Proper Farms in Franklinville, are excited to introduce the First Annual Enchanted Mountain Challenge, which kicks off Memorial Day weekend on Saturday, May 28th and runs through Labor Day on Monday, September 5th. With elements of a scavenger hunt, an escape room, geocaching, and hiking, the Enchanted Mountain Challenge is designed to be a weekend-long adventure, although participants can begin on any day of the week and return to continue at any point through Labor Day.
While largely based on historical facts, the challenge involves a creative story line that takes participants on a journey into nature and local businesses in Franklinville and Ellicottville to uncover clues that lead to a fictional secret that has been guarded for generations. Thomson explained that this secret has to do with Robbins, whose actual life is no fiction. “In the 1800s, this gentleman traveled to the Yukon territory in Canada in search of gold and did really well for himself,” Thomson explained. “Very few out of the hundreds of thousands in pursuit of gold found anything, and he actually did strike it rich. He used some of the money and built his home on Pine Street in Franklinville called the Miner’s Cabin, and the architecture is beautiful.”
Built in 1895, the home is now under the ownership of the Ischua Valley Historical Society and played an important role in the idea behind the challenge. “We’ve always had a strong interest in local history,” Vanderwarker explained. “We started really focusing on the history of our own house. The property was part of a farm owned by one of the main people involved in the Underground Railroad here and helped transport escaped slaves via Ischua Creek. We took our love for history and creativity and our desire to help other people discover our little town and created this challenge!”
Each year, the theme of the challenge will change, as will the storyline and clues. “We have named this year’s challenge ‘The Heart of Sarah,’” Thomson said. “It’s this gold nugget, and Sarah was the miner’s wife. We’ve taken a lot of history and merged it into our own embellished story about it. Each clue is like a puzzle that needs to be solved, and while it’s challenging, it’s all very solvable.”
As participants make their way through Ellicottville and Franklinville, they’ll travel to different businesses that have partnered with the challenge creators to provide clues. “You might have to give the employee a code word, and if you give them the wrong one, they’re going to act as though they have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about,” Thomson explained. “But if you give them the right word? You could get a scroll, a map, another puzzle to lead you to your next clue!”
Approximately half of the clues are in each town, and there is not very much back-and-forth between the two, Thomson explained. However, it can be fun to make a weekend out of this challenge and stay in Ellicottville or Franklinville! While clues are not easy, they’re not impossible, and Vanderwarker said that there is always an option to receive a bit of help. Everyone who finishes the challenge will be entered into a drawing to win some impressive prizes, including cash and prizes from the challenge’s sponsors.
Those interested in the challenge can watch the introductory video on the challenge’s website at https://properfarmsny.com/pages/enchanted-mountain-challenge. There, participants can register individually or as a group of four, at a savings of $10 per person. Importantly, the challenge does not sell out and you can start and finish at your own pace. The answers to all clues will be revealed on the challenge’s website after Labor Day.
“Google will be everybody’s friend,” said Vanderwarker, who recommended a charged cell phone for the journey. “It’s also a good idea to bring comfortable walking or hiking shoes, a water bottle, and a jacket or umbrella in case you’re caught in the rain.” Most people of an average fitness level can easily complete the challenge, and for those with young children, there is a separate youth challenge. Geared toward children ages 3 to 10, the youth challenge involves the whole family and takes between three to four hours to complete. Because clues are located in both villages, an adult driver is still needed to complete the youth challenge.
Thomson and Vanderwarker know firsthand how much the entire family will enjoy it! Vanderwarker explained, “This idea for the challenge was born out of the fact that we had all four of our kids here at home in 2020. We don’t have good internet access here and needed creative things for them to do. We developed fake court cases, did some silly ‘Shark Tank’ stuff and developed some pretty epic scavenger hunts to get them using their minds and get outside. We thought this would be an epic thing to do in our town!”
Toward that end, the couple spent over seven months designing the challenge, including researching local history, writing clues, partnering with local business, and building the website and accompanying videos for the challenge. “We are donating a portion of the proceeds to the historical societies in the area,” said Vanderwarker. “We’re so grateful to the local historians who preserve the history in our small towns. We worked extensively with the folks at the Cattaraugus County Historical Museum in Machias and the Ischua Valley Historical Society, and we couldn’t have done this without them!”
For more information, visit https://properfarmsny.com/pages/enchanted-mountain-challenge or email enchantedmountainchallenge@gmail.com. For the latest updates and to countdown to the kick-off day, follow Enchanted Mountain Challenge on Facebook.