Bigfoot sighted at Morgan County Library

We've all heard tales about the elusive Bigfoot, a giant hairy ape creature that lives in the woods, but have you ever come face to face with one? Patrons of the Morgan County Library may have found themselves being stalked by the Sasquatch from July 17 to July 19. The library understands the importance of hosting an individualized activity for tweens, teens, and adults during the Summer Reading program. This year, the library decided to do something different and attempt a bigger project: organizing an escape room to provide patrons with a more immersive activity.

The escape room was located in the library's community room (large conference room) and the project was overseen by Betty Rothschild, the youth services librarian. She organized the game, created the storyline, and puzzles, and set up the room to make it as immersive as possible. Multiple librarians assisted the project by providing items/props for the room as well as resetting the game. Rothschild would like to thank Jill Fackrell, Crystal Nelson, and Erin Bott for their support.

The official title of the escape room was "Cabin in the Woods." According to Rothchild, the storyline involves fictional characters, specifically about a man named Augustus "Gus" Whitlock. The storyline hints at the former "cabin" inhabitant, Gus, who has moved into his family's cabin in 2002 to study Bigfoot--but unfortunately becomes obsessed with his research. He moves in by himself while his wife, Maggie, is back at their original home. In letters and clues inside the escape room, you learn that Gus becomes desperate to come back home to his wife and save himself from Bigfoot and leave his research behind.

Her inspiration for the escape room came from Pinterest. She’s been interested in trying an escape room for about a year and she was very excited to finally make it happen. Along with Pinterest, a lot of the ideas were original. “When it came to creating the theme, it was mainly selfish on my part,” said Rothschild. “I have an odd obsession with cryptic creatures and conspiracy theories, so making an escape room about Bigfoot was a no-brainer. I really wanted an excuse just to learn more about Bigfoot and make the character Gus into a conspiracy theorist because I knew it would make things a lot more fun for me!” 

It was difficult to make an escape room that was creative and difficult enough to entertain patrons for at least an hour, but Rothschild managed to pull through. “I had never experienced an escape room myself, so I guessed on a lot of things and crossed my fingers for the best,” Rothschild commented. “Making the clues and the order of things was the most challenging part. Ideas from Pinterest were my heaviest inspiration. Thanks to that crafty website, I was able to take some ideas and twist them into something that worked for me… Thankfully, our wonderful patrons loved the activity and I'm determined to make next year's event memorable!” 

The library has future plans for an escape room and is possibly making the event into a yearly activity. The staff doesn't know the details yet, but they would love to put together more events like this and hopefully make the escape room a full week event. λ