History
Samuel Loyd was born January 31, 1841 in Philadelphia and was raised in New York. He was a puzzle author, chess expert, and recreational mathematician.
As a chess composer, he authored a number of chess problems, often with witty themes. At his peak, Loyd was one of the best chess players in the U.S., and was ranked 15th in the world, according to Chessmetrics. "Excelsior" is one of Sam Loyd's most famous chess problems, originally published in London Era in 1861, named after the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Loyd had a friend who was willing to wager that he could always find the piece which delivered the principal mate of a chess problem. Loyd composed this problem as a joke and bet his friend dinner that he could not pick a piece that didn't give mate in the main line (his friend immediately identified the pawn on b2 as being the least likely to deliver mate), and when the problem was published it was with the stipulation that white mates with "the least likely piece or pawn".
By 1870 Loyd had become more interested in composing mathematical puzzles than chess problems. He had composed a famous problem consisting of three cards, two with the picture of a horse and the third with a picture of two jockeys. The puzzle was to rearrange the pieces so that the jockeys were riding the horses. He sold it to the showman P T Barnum and it became famous as P T Barnum's Trick Donkey.
An enthusiast of Tangram puzzles, Loyd published a book of seven hundred unique Tangram designs and a fanciful history of the origin of the Tangram.
Following his death, his book Cyclopedia of Puzzles was published in 1914. It contains 5000 puzzles, tricks, and conundrums (with answers).
The Cache
This is a six stage puzzle cache. Below you will find a link to your first puzzle. Once solved, it will take you to the first physical stage (stage 2). From there, simply proceed until you have the log in hand. As always, please be very careful with each stage, treating them as though they were your own, and replace them exactly as found.
This cache will take a bit of time to complete. Each stage is a field puzzle, though you shouldn't need any of your own equipment. Everything has been provided for you.
Also, be aware that the location of these stages follow the 'from dawn until dusk' hours of operation and is closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
The Puzzle
The link will work with flash enabled PC's and Mac's. It may not work with all mobile devices.
