The Golden Ticket: Museum features scavenger hunt, prizes throughout town

    FORT LUPTON — The hunt is on, and everyone is invited.
    Visitors to the Fort Lupton Museum over the next couple of months may find themselves being a bit of amateur sleuths, courtesy of a citywide Treasure Hunt Challenge. The idea, brainchild of museum coordinator DebraRay Thompson and others around town who can’t be named without giving up clues, is to host a fun adventure for participants while showing off some of the city’s notable assets.
    “I really like the idea of geocaching, and wanted to come up with a way for everyone to join in whether they had a computer or GPS,” Thompson said. “Everyone is welcome to participate, and it will run till the second week of March.”
    People joining the fun will receive a packet at the museum consisting of a free gift, a ticket for a final drawing in March and a clue pointing them towards the next stop on the hunt. Each stop along the way will also have a gift, clue and ticket for each treasure hunter. Completing the entire hunt is critical to ensuring the best possible chance at the grand prize.

Photo by Gene Sears

Realistic displays featuring period lesson books and readers illustrate life in a 19th century schoolhouse.

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    “You will get a ticket at each place you visit. Then all of those tickets will be entered in the grand prize drawing,” Thompson said. “So the more places you get to, the better your odds.”
    The hunt itself is an odyssey capable of completion by anyone of reading age with a healthy dose of curiosity, and is entirely free of cost.
    “A treasure isn’t always something you can hold in your hand,” Thompson said. “There are wonderful places in the city of Fort Lupton that are treasures that I think all of us can benefit from. And you can go to all of these places for free.”
    While at the museum picking up your packet, interested students of Fort Lupton history may take a few minutes to browse this quarter’s featured exhibit. On display until the end of March, a retrospective of area schools leading up to the current consolidated district is on display, featuring pictures and artifacts related to south Weld County’s educational system.
    “We have had schools here since 1862, so there is quite a bit of information to go through,” Thompson said.
    Notable are pictures and memorabilia featuring the Butler family, early pioneers in the educational system in and around Fort Lupton.
 
Contact Staff Writer Gene Sears at gsears@metrowestnewspapers.com