Museum escape room gave a chance at Tillson fortune

Kathleen Watkin displays one of the bars of Tillson gold participants in Oscar’s Puzzle can receive for successfully completing all the challenges. (Jeff Helsdon Photo)

Jeff Helsdon, Editor

Imagine E.D. Tillson had a hidden will, and there is a chance to gain a portion of his fortune in gold if you find it.

This entirely imaginary premise is at the center of Oscar’s Puzzle: A Museum Escape Room. E.D. Tillson, who built Annandale House and is the son of town founder George Tillson, had a passion for Oscar Wilde and incorporated many of his concepts into the house’s decor.

The house's paintings and designs are integral to Oscar’s Puzzle. The concept challenges participants through a series of clues to gain a brick of Tillson gold.

The story, which Annandale House curator Kate Bakos presents while posing as the Tillson attorney, is that E.D. had a will other than the one naming his son Benjamin and wife Hattie as heirs. Sleuths have 45 minutes to solve the clues.

Participants are divided into two groups and must solve a series of puzzles, riddles, math problems, mazes, and use their powers of observation to earn subsequent clues and progress through the event. Each clue reveals a code that, if correct, lets the amateur detectives move on to the next one. After solving all the clues, each group is presented with half of the will, which they then piece together to reveal the fortune.

“I hereby bequeath to this fortunate finder all the gold, riches and treasures concealed within my library, along with the honour of being the person clever enough to uncover my final secret,” the will read. “To Benjamin and Hattie, I leave my fondest regards, but no claim to the fortune described herein.”

Kathleen Watkin, Culture and Heritage Program Coordinator at Annandale, started the escape room concept last year and wrote this year’s.

She said the concept is designed to: “Get people in the museum, get them behind the stanchions, get people to enjoy a part of the museum you usually don’t get to see, and get people out to have fun.”

Last year's feedback was that participants wanted to get behind the stanchions and ropes, and closer to the artifacts in the house without touching them. This year’s concept did that.

Oscar’s Puzzle sold out, and Watkin already heard there was interest in a murder mystery next year. The answer to whether it will happen will be the next puzzle for the people of Tillsonburg.