Tulsa Sudoku Challenge Mystery Cache

Note: The Tulsa Sudoku Challenge and the associated Tulsa Sudoko Given caches (17 in number) are having a good run as a cache series. I have decided to retire the series and the challenge cache on 12/31/2010. As individual caches develop problems, I will retire the individual caches, and post the corresponding "given" numbers for the retired caches here. Note that you cannot get a unique solution for this puzzle without all of the 17 given values, so if you are missing a given value that you need, please contact OxFoxes. Enjoy the series!

As usual for a puzzle cache, the published coordinates given for this cache are not where the cache is located. To find the coordinates for the cache, you must work out the puzzle below.

Over 100 years ago, planners decided how streets and avenues would be laid out in the city of Tulsa. Most metropolitan areas in the United States look like the streets were laid out by paving the trails taken by drunk cows meandering about in the pasture. If you don't believe me, grab an atlas, and look at the street maps of major cities. In contrast to the typical city, Tulsa has a rigid and logical street structure. Contrary to what it says here, the people who laid out the Tulsa street plans over 100 years ago were very forward-thinking people. They were thinking in terms of Sudoku grids, and in terms of geocaching. In fact, they had this very cache series in mind. We have waited over 100 years for the right technology, and for the evolution of Sudoku as a puzzle form. It all leads up to this conclusion. The city planners for Tulsa were way ahead of their time. Now you can experience firsthand the culmination of their master plan.

In order to find this Sudoku Challenge cache, you will first have to find 17 other caches. After that, you will have to solve a Sudoku puzzle. Each of the other caches contains a single digit from 1 to 9, at the top of the log sheet. Each of these single digits are known as "givens". That is the term used for the starting numbers given to you on the grid on a Sudoku puzzle. It will be up to you to figure out which square below to put each of the "givens" into so that you can proceed to work out the Sudoku puzzle. The proper place to write down the "givens" depends on the actual geographic location of the associated geocache. Here are the caches that contain the "givens". (Please note that NONE of the "givens" are in the highlighted squares with the capital letters in them. Those highlighted squares become important later, after you work out the puzzle.)

After finding all of the givens, the fun is just beginning. The next step is to work out the Sudoku puzzle. If you have been living entirely underground for the last couple of decades, and you never heard of Sudoku, you can begin to learn about it here, but after you get familiar with the idea, you need to go buy about five Sudoku puzzle books, work all the puzzles ranked from "easy" to "impossible", then come back here to work this one. It will require all of your Sudoku skills to solve it.

Do not use a computer program or other computing device to solve this puzzle. It is meant to solve using your own brain as the computing device. One woman decided to cheat on a puzzle like this one, and used a program she found on the web to solve the puzzle. The very next day, her husband withdrew all of their retirement savings, bought a first class plane ticket to Las Vegas, spent every penny they had on casino chips, and put the whole thing on the roulette wheel, on 00. He lost it all, of course. You should have seen the pile of chips before they spun the wheel. He was last seen wandering the streets of Las Vegas, telling complete strangers all about his "big day in the casino". This was all because this woman chose to cheat on a Sudoku puzzle. Don't let this happen to you!

Once you have worked out the puzzle, the coordinates can be found by taking the appropriate digits from the labeled squares above.

N 36° AB.CDE' W 95° FG.HIJ'

I will be adding a link to a coordinate checker very soon, so if you have worked out the puzzle, check back here in the next day or two to use the coordinate checker, or email me your solution, and I will tell you if you got it right. If the coordinates don't check out, I'll work with you to figure out where your solution went wrong.

On the way to the cache, you may encounter thorns, snakes, poison ivy, mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers, romantic teenagers, and other noxious and/or dangerous things. Please dress appropriately, use bug spray, and be careful. Most of all, have fun.

First To Find Prize   The first to find prize is a fascinating book, entitled Oklahoma Curiosities, about whimsical places that you can visit, sights you can see, things you can do, and history you can learn in the state of Oklahoma. Feel free to take the first to find prize if you worked out this puzzle on your own. Scout's honor. This is a very cool book. (You might even find a good idea about a new place to hide a cache!) If you are not the first to find here, you should be able to buy a copy of this book at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore on 71st Street near Memorial, in the Oklahoma / Local Interest section of the store, or you can order it from amazon.com by clicking on the photo of the book above.

I have stocked this cache with trade items that are above the usual level of quality. If you want to trade for something, plan to bring something to trade that has a value between $2 and $10. The cachers' creed is to always leave something with a equal or higher value than what you take, so that the next finder can enjoy the cache as much as you did. If you want to learn more about this idea, as well as the other great ideas that geocachers follow, visit the Geocachers' Creed website. This item is under the heading, "Be considerate of others...".

Remember, Mohawk Park's gates open at 7 am and close at 9 pm! On weekends, April 1 - October 31, you'll need to bring $2/vehicle to enter Mohawk Park, unless you are a member of Friends of Oxley Nature Center or Zoo Friends. Pets are not allowed on the Nature Center trails, but leashed ones can enjoy other parts of Mohawk Park.