Wear your best ghost costume!
Bring some food to share
be ready to participate in PARANORMAL GEOCACHING AND LETTERBOXING ACTIVITIES!!!
Flashlights, glowsticks, UV lights, PKE Meters (GPS) and Proton Packs will come in usefull as well [:-)]
Upon arrival at the Pavillion you will have to contact six ghosts and get them to tell you where the treasures are hidden. Solve their puzzles and get your coordinates and instructions to start your search after dark!. Meet back at the pavillion afterwards. Please note that the restrooms may or may not be open at the park and plan accordingly.
THE STORY BEHIND THE HAUNTED WOODS
One would never suppose, looking at the lovely, green woods that
are here today at the event site, that this was once the site of the Happy
Wood Sanitarium for the Mentally Confused. From 1866 to 1953, the
facility housed those poor, unfortunate souls with various psychological
abnormalities, such as double-brains, inappropriate obsessive behavior,
potential harmful antisocial tendencies, defective social screening skills,
etc. All underwent psychological evaluation by experts in the field, of
course and were consequently diagnosed as "incurable and unfit for
society.
Such was the purpose of the Happy Woods Sanitarium, to provide
protective containment from the general populace by keeping its inmates
under lock and key, which key, by the way, was literally thrown away into
the woods, never to be found.
While, by today's enlightened standards for treatment of the mentally
ill, this would seem a cruel, heartless, unfair punishment for people who
are incapable of being anything other than what they were, surprisingly, the
inmates, themselves, were, on the whole, were perfectly content to be in
their own little space where, as there were no interventions provided by the
doctors or staff on the grounds such would be a waste of time as all the
cases were "hopeless," the residents were allowed to be as insane as they
wanted to be. No shock treatments or lullaby injections or shackles were
employed. In fact, the staff were instructed to "give the inmates whatever
they need to be happy." Thus, behind the bars of each cell,-- excuse me, I
meant "containment safety unit", one could observe its occupant busily
engaged with all manner of paraphernalia, tools, resource materials, etc.
with which they could gleefully express their insanities.
As the Administrator's Motto, written on a plaque above the front gate
read, "Happy Woods is a sanctuary for the troubled mind, a haven for the
cloudy soul." That sounded pleasant enough, until one read, in small
letters at the end: "Visitors enter at their own risk."
Thus, cheerfully and conscientiously, the Happy Woods Sanitarium
continued to provide its valuable community service until one peaceful
evening in October when one of the inmates, a previously-retired high
school science teacher, playing with his chemicals, caused an explosion
that blew every brick, padded couch and iron bar in the place to
smithereens, including the doctors, staff, and every single inmate. All that
was left was a portion of the sign above the front gate and a row of sturdy
steel urinals in what was, moments before, the main hall restroom (sadly,
the sinks didn't make it).
In the aftermath of this horrendous incident, the city council, in an
effort to avoid, literally, dwelling on unpleasant memories, decided to build
a replacement facility in an entirely different location, with, perhaps, a
slightly stricter policy on what activities would be allowed inmates in the
future "to keep them happy," A fine location was found and approved and
a new mental health hospital was soon erected atop a hill with its back to
what was left of Happy Woods. Over the years, the place was left to grow
wild. Today the site is totally abandoned. Only animals dare pass through
its winding, dark paths thick with thorns.
But the truth is, the woods are not totally abandoned, for all the
ghosts of the sanitarium's poor, deceased former occupants still inhabit the
place. That it is indeed haunted is born witness by restless moanings
coming from within the dark glades at night. But they are not angry,
tormented moans. Oh no. The ghosts seem quite happy to still be there,
and have good-naturedly renamed their home "The Haunted Woods
Sanitarium for Happy, if Slightly Wacky, Spirits." (By the way, they do
prefer being called Spirits, as opposed to Ghosts...just in case you meet
one of them and have a chance for conversation. One does not want to
offend an immortal.)
WHY YOU WANT TO COME TO THE HAUNTED WOODS SANITARIUM
...just in case why you were wondering why you would.. is
because, as rumor has it, one of the residents, a elderly old miser named
Paddylock McQuire, who used to work for Well Fargo Bank, was known to
have hoarded a secret fortune away in his cell...pure gold coin, enough to
fill a witch's cauldron, they say. When the explosion took place, the gold
coins, along with Paddy and everything and everyone else, were scattered
high and low throughout the woods. But Paddy, having nothing but time on
his hands as is true for most immortals, persisted in tracking down each
piece and restoring it to his keeping. By now, he has reacquired most of it.
Who is to say, if some mortal were smart enough and brave enough to
enter the Haunted Woods and stare down a ghost or two, they could not
claim Paddy's gold and keep it for themselves. Why, every school boy in
town can tell you they've gone looking, though none have found more than
a random coin here or there. Still, those coins are proof of the story.
Which is why we feel it is time there be a more serious investigation.
We are proposing to round up every geocacher we know, (because, after
all, who is better at finding a hidden cache than geocachers?) and go for
the gold!
You might expect to meet a few "Spirits" along the way, of course,
and they would be much more inclined to share their knowledge with you
IF YOU ARE DRESSED AS A GHOST YOURSELF. If you are
unperturbed in the presence of certain ethereal phantasmic phenomenon,
don't turn green at the site of a pool of spectral ectoplasma and are
radically keen on treasure-hunting (as most geocachers are), then please
consider yourself invited to attend this event.