Educational Director at Maine’s Department of Marine Resources Elaine Jones said she came up with the idea after she realized that “questing” was gaining popularity amongst the general public.

“I though maybe we could do a little quest. Then I thought [about] marketing the quest to get more people to come out to Burnt Island,” Jones said.

She employed the poetic prowess of Deborah Clark and Helen Williams. The three of them created rhyming clues that direct the questers around Boothbay. Each destination has historical significance and the quest pamphlet reveals interesting facts for the locations.

The first clue in the booklet states:

Travel to Southport the bridge you will cross,
Keep your eyes open and don’t get lost.
Go past the school and past the store,
The beach is not too far – just a mile or more.
Look towards two (2:00) for a roof of red,
And there you will discover Hendrick’s Head.
Look toward noon and IF it’s clear,
You may see Seguin Island Lighthouse, though not very near!

LETTER – The fourth letter of the distant lighthouse is your letter clue.

Each location has a necessary letter in it, which spelled out a scrambled message. Once unscrambled, it led participants to the Maine State Aquarium, where they entered their name to win a prize.

“It’s a nice, family oriented activity. Even locals will learn about their region,” Jones said.

Co-owner and Director of Guest Services at the Ocean Gate Resort Cheryl Gaynor completed the quest on her day off, along with Ocean Gate employees Joshua Edwards and Edvinas Lupieka. 

“I’ve been here for three years and Josh has lived in Wiscasset and been here for quite a few years, and we never really explored Southport. When we saw the literature that came to us, we thought it would be fun to go on an adventure,” Gaynor said.

Gaynor speculates that the adventure will take most people about three hours to complete, but it took her and the rest of her “quest” team five and a half hours because they stopped to enjoy each location. The weather was “just beautiful,” Gaynor said. “We went to places we didn’t even know existed.”

By the time the three team members completed the quest, they had gained a lot of insight about the area that they call home.

“We didn’t realize there was so much around,”  Gaynor said. “You know, you live here and you don’t take advantage of it. It was exciting to be able to recognize that there were so many things around us, adventures that we didn’t know existed. It was such a cultural experience. We thought about it and talked about it for weeks.”

Pick up your Questing booklet to begin the adventure at the Boothbay Region Information Center on the corner of Route 27 and Adams Pond Road in Boothbay, or the Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce at 192 Townsend Ave. (next to Hannaford's) in Boothbay Harbor.