Andover Youth and Family Treasure Hunt

Treasure Found on Day Three

 The 1st Andover Treasure Hunt took place from June 14th through June 22nd, with the prize of a real gold snowflake for discovering a hidden treasure along one of Andover’s many trails. Inspired by Project Skydrop—a real-world treasure hunt for a gold object hidden in the woods—the Andover hunt provided daily clues and a shrinking map to help participants pinpoint the location. Andover Trails teamed up with AVIS and Project Skydrop winner Dan Leonard to offer this fun outdoor activity for local youth and families. The event was designed to teach children how to problem-solve and to learn more about nature.
 
The hunt was open to any child age 12 or under, accompanied by their family. A total of 130 kids participated in the free event. Organizers hid a gold-colored token to represent the treasure a few feet off the ground near a well-established trail listed in the Andover Trails Guide. Clues and an updated map were distributed daily to registered participants.
 
“Once the token was found, they had to take a photo on the spot and contact us,” said Amber Brand, the event leader. “I received an email and a photo on the third day showing two young girls with huge smiles holding the token.” For the rest of the week, the hunt continued with keepsake tokens placed in the same location as the original.
 
Reagan and Nora Doherty, ages six and four, found the token in the AVIS Hammond Reservation with their family. They later exchanged it for the real gold snowflake treasure —valued at approximately $150—during an award ceremony. At the ceremony, the Doherty family shared the story of their discovery. “The girls thought they saw something gold and sprinted up the trail,” recounted Brendan, their dad. “My wife and I followed and saw them dancing around, screaming, holding it like it was the Stanley Cup. We were very lucky.”
 
The Dohertys expressed their support for the educational value of the event, which gave parents an opportunity to spend time with their children after the school year ended, doing something that sparked curiosity about the natural world. “I thought it was a great idea when I first saw it,” said Brendan. “You’re encouraging families and young kids to get out in the woods and explore the trail networks, with the chance to find a real gold snowflake. If this continues next year, we would definitely sign up—hopefully, it’s not us who finds it again.”
 
The idea for the treasure hunt came from a previous Andover Trails event in February that told the story of Project Skydrop, a real-world treasure hunt for a $26,000 gold statue and an $87,000 Bitcoin wallet. Dan Leonard, a meteorologist at the Weather Channel in Andover, recounted his adventure of finding a hidden treasure on public land within a 500-mile radius of Washington, D.C. to New England. Daily aerial photos and a livestream of the forest floor, along with real-time temperature data, provided geographic clues.
 
Founded in 1971, Andover Trails is dedicated to promoting access to our treasured outdoor resources. The organization works to support the town and other conservation organizations by hosting events, doing volunteer work, and advocating on behalf of townspeople. To learn more about the Doherty family's story of discovery, visit andovertrails.org.

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Finding the Gold Snowflake Treasure             
Interview with Brendan Doherty on Andover Trails Treasure Hunt

Q: How did your family come to live in Andover?
 
A: We were living in Everett, we had one child at the time, and knew that it wasn't ever going to be a permanent place for our growing family. One day we got a call from my father-in-law, who basically said his friend was looking to sell a house and did we want to come see it. We pulled in the driveway, saw that it had a great backyard, and was walkable to downtown. We said let's do it. It was early 2020. We signed our papers right before COVID then everything shut down. You couldn't do anything in person anymore. So the first year in Andover was a little weird where we didn't get to see a lot of people and meet a lot of people, but it's been five years now, and we love the town, our neighbors, and everything about raising a family.
 
Q: Can you talk about your children and their interests, and how old they are?
 
A: We have three kids. Reagan is the oldest. She's six, going on 13, maybe. But she loves building fairy houses in the backyard, and running around town, on the common, taking walks in the woods. Nora is our middle child. She's four. She's still in preschool, and has a big imagination right now, which kind of was helpful on the treasure hunt. And then we have Kellen, who's 11 months and he was in a backpack. He gets dragged along on our adventures.
 
Q: How did you hear about the Andover Trails treasure hunt?
 
A: I heard about it in an email newsletter from Andover trails and it mentioned Project Skydrop.  I'd seen some of that on the news, and I clicked through the link and said, “You know what? This sounds fun.” My wife and I try to encourage our kids to be a little bit outdoorsy and get out and explore. So we thought this would be a perfect little activity on a Father's Day weekend to start off our adventure.
 
Q: How did day one go? What happened?
 
A: On day one, we got the map and the radius was the entire town of Andover! So we said, “oh, this is going to be interesting”. And I believe the clue was, “bring bug spray” or something along those lines. So the thinking was, it'll be somewhere near a water source. And then my wife and I were just kind of discussing some of the trails we've done. We're like, I think a lot of them are near water sources. Since we had dance recitals that day, and it was a bit rainy, we decided to cancel our adventure that day. So we said, “first thing tomorrow, when the next clue comes out, let's look at that and make a choice about where to go.
 
 
Q: You set out and what happened?
 
A: Day two, the clue was about ferns. And it was basically plants that reproduce with spores, but aren't fungus and mushrooms. We had to teach the girls about how plants reproduce, and my oldest is learning a little bit about that in kindergarten. We looked at the Andover Trails Guide saying, “it could be this place or it could be this place”. We tried to start narrowing it down. The map radius took away 10% of the town, but there were still a lot of places to go explore. We were originally going to do Skug River, because we had done that walk at least once, maybe a couple times. My wife and I were looking at the map and kind of pointing out to the girls, “this means there's water, and this means there's wetlands.”
 
Q: So you changed your course and did a different trail?
 
A: We saw across the street that it was heavily wetlands. This followed the clues more. We knew what lives in wetlands are mosquitoes, and there's definitely ferns there. So let's go do this trail, because we had never done it before. So we started off and we went on a big clockwise loop. We saw birders that were looking for a Virginia Rail, so that was pretty neat. We got back onto the trail, saw a few water snakes. Girls didn't love that, but I thought it was cool. And then we kind of headed towards the back of the loop, and the girls saw something gold. It ended up being a golden oak leaf that had fallen pretty early but a 100 feet later, on the trail, they rushed ahead and spotted something. So we got Reagan and Nora together, and said let’s go check it out. And as we kind of came up the hill to where the snowflake was, my wife turned to me and said I think that might be it. Pure chance that we chose this trail. And the girls started screaming, running around, and holding it like it's the Stanley Cup. It was pretty awesome. We then sent the pictures in with their big smiles.
 
Q: Over like 120 people signed up. You should count yourself very lucky!
 
A: That was what my wife and I kept saying to each other. We didn't expect to find it that day. We were planning to look all week at my wife's home with the kids and I was planning to get up early before work. It was definitely happenstance. They were very excited to have found it.
 
Q: What do you think of having a treasure hunt for young kids?
 
A: I thought it was a great idea when I first saw it. And having something for kids where you're encouraging families and younger kids to get out in the woods and explore is something that my wife and I love doing and encouraging our kids. I think it's a great thing to have around town to get people out exploring the trail networks. There's so many that it's impossible to see them all. If this were to continue next year, we would definitely sign up and hopefully it's not us that finds it again.