By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
Three artifacts of the highest level of significance have been stolen from the Museum of American History in Washington D.C.
Are you up to the challenge of recovering them?
If so, then you’ll want to visit the Ransom District Library between Friday, Feb. 18, and Monday, Feb. 21.
Library staff members Analiese Mattson and Erin Marsh have been busy preparing an escape room that will provide patrons the opportunity to locate the missing items: Abraham Lincoln’s top hat, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s pipe and, most importantly, the Declaration of Independence.
Groups of up to six people will have 30 minutes to uncover hidden clues and solve different puzzles in order to find the missing artifacts. Preregistration is required and can be done at the library’s circulation desk or online at https://ransomdistrictlibrary.setmore.com.
According to Mattson, the escape room will be fun for all ages.
“A lot of the preparation is just figuring out what puzzles would work to guide the participants to the next stage,” she said. “We have to make sure that each one will make sense to any age group, but are also challenging enough to make it fun.”
The final day the escape room will be available happens to be President’s Day, hence the historical theme of this year’s room.
“We came up with the theme for this year’s escape room through a bit of brainstorming,” Mattson said. “The weekend we wanted to host it is right before President’s Day, so we wanted to have a presidential tie-in. We thought that making the puzzles to lead to stolen presidential artifacts would be a fun way to incorporate a few different historical presidents.”
Ransom hosted its first escape room in 2018 and have done so each year with the exception of 2020.
“Escape rooms have been a big hit for libraries over the past few years and we have had the same experience in Plainwell,” Mattson said. “People have always enjoyed the past escape rooms at Ransom and we hope that continues this year.”
This year’s escape room is the first to be hosted in the new library building.
“We are excited about having it in the new building,” Mattson said.
In addition to the escape room, Ransom offers various free programs for all age groups throughout the year. To learn more about those programs, visit ransomlibrary.org.