RANDY HALL: "A gentleman left his calling card out on the moors and said, 'Anyone to find this also do the same or write a little note,' that sort of thing."
Hikers started leaving their cards in remote areas. Directions for finding them spread by word of mouth as one person would tell another. In time, stamps replaced cards. But for more than one hundred years, the activity was limited to a small number of people in England.
BOB DOUGHTY: In nineteen ninety-eight, a magazine story in the United States introduced letterboxing to many Americans. Its popularity grew with the Internet. The Internet has become the main method for letterboxers to share clues.
Randy Hall says clues in Britain often require people to use a compass to find a letterbox. But Americans often give directions in the form of a puzzle.
RANDY HALL: “It’s kind of like setting up treasure hunts. It is like a mental activity, a brainy activity.”
Mr. Hall is known for his complex puzzles. For example, the only clue he provides for locating a letterbox in North Carolina is a poem written like a Japanese haiku:
Roll’s pal in a noose
Sign marks his lupine brother
Pine tree to the north
RANDY HALL: “I like people to have an ‘aha’ experience when they figure it out. They feel ‘Wow, that is really cool. To create a sense of discovery. I do not like it when it is just ‘Walk down the path and look under a rock.’”
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25