Scores and Solutions for The Great Petaluma Treasure Hunt 2009.
Please take a moment to give us your feedback regarding the clues and your overall experience on this years hunt!

SCORES 

SOLUTIONS 

1. Answer:  Lewitter.
Starting location:  Walnut Park.
On the South side of the park there is a restroom block that has a large depiction of a squirrel munching on a nut facing to the East.  Turning and facing in the opposite direction and walking about 30 paces, there is a tree that is dedicated to Ed Lewitter.

2. Answer:  Herold.
Starting location:  The Apple Box café at the end of Second Street.
Entering the Great Petaluma Mill through the double doors to the left of the Apple Box entrance there are some old weighing scales and a staircase going up.  Passing these and taking the first left, passing a wagon wheel there is an old freestanding bank safe.  Next to the safe, on the picture of the Petaluma downtown is the dependable druggist Herold.

3. Answer:  Foghorn Leghorn.
Starting location:  The Cinnabar Theater Downtown rehearsal space located at 5 Petaluma Blvd. Ste E.
At the rehearsal studio there was an advertisement for the Petaluma Valley Athletic Club, which contained words in bold type that were to be crossed out of the word search.  The remaining letters revealed the message “On Dempsey’s porch ask an athletic man in a straw hat if he keeps his feathers numbered.”  At Dempsey’s, Rob Domont of PVAC sat and when asked this question (referencing the cartoon,) he gave out a card with the answer written on the back.

4. Answer:  Nelson.
Starting location:  The Petaluma Museum located at Fourth and B Streets.
The museum, which used to be a library “free to all,” contains historical information about Petaluma and it’s dairy and egg industries.  Upstairs, near a kitchen display, is a placard that lists the tools that are displayed in the exhibit.  Doing the math problem by pairing each tool with the number associated with it gave the number 11.  This number was associated with the Single Tree.  Looking on the map, the tree icon is right outside the museum back door.  Around the tree are memorial plaques listing different levels.  One of the two Violet Levels is made in memory of a woman named Rose Nelson.

5. Answer:  Got To Get Good Eggs.
Starting location:  The Brass Knob posts on Water Street between Washington and Western.
The clue sheet depicted a bird’s eye view of the sixteen posts located at the clue site, and gave sixteen letters.  A search showed that each of the sixteen posts is adorned with one of six different sculptured post heads.  Noting each one, and assigning one of the six letters to its counterpart post head, all of the letters are used only once.  By then following the arrows on the clue sheet the ‘eggy’ message is revealed.

6. Answer:  Wrist.
Starting location:  Washington and Petaluma.
This is an anagram of the two downtown street names.  One can rearrange the letters of the phrase “Mean Pigs Want To Hula” into the streets “Washington” and “Petaluma.” Near this corner is a sculpture of two arm wrestlers locked in combat.  Beneath them is a plaque dedicated to Bill Soberanes.  The words “One booster” are above the ‘often watched’ word “Wrist.” 

7. Answer:  Seven.
Starting location:  Putnam Plaza.
The decoder that must be used to solve this clue is the telephone.  Each of the numbers corresponds to the letters assigned to those digits on a phone.  By writing down the combinations, they can only be deciphered to one downtown location - Putnam.  Nearly every tree and bench is graced with a plaque.  Solving the clue involved locating the plaques indicated here, writing down the correct letter asked for, and then retranslating those letters back into the associated digit on a phone.  When the number is called, a message asks for the “number of windows on the red house with the crooked chimney.” – found on a mural in Putnam plaza.

8. Answer:  R
Starting location:  The Petaluma Art Center.
The limerick left a blank for the street name, which in following the natural rhyme sequence was Lakeville.  The Art Center located between ‘D’ and Washington on Lakeville is showing an exhibit on trains.  In one corner of the exhibition is a unique rickshaw with a birdhouse affixed on it’s top, where a wooden block has the letter ‘R’ carved in it.

9. Answer:  Liza Hall
Starting location:  Boulevard Cinemas.
The clue asked for the last names of Seven Oscar® winning actresses.  (Foster, Taylor, Winslet, Minnelli, Hepburn, Cher, Lange.)  To decode the message – the first number refers to the number of the actress on the clue sheet, and the second to the corresponding letter in that actress’ last name.  (e.g. 1:1 would be F; 4:2 would be I; 2:3 would be Y; etc.)  The message asks “Which shining star shares her name with actress number four?”
In front of the theater are stars with the names of seven young women.  One of them is Liza Hall who shares her name with Liza Minnelli.

10. Answer:  Bakery
Starting location:  American Alley
The state abbreviations of Nebraska (NE), Arkansas (AR), Michigan (MI) and California (CA) can be rearranged to ‘American.’   In this two block alley are a series of murals.  Five planes are painted on one wall here, and directly behind them is a doorframe on which are the words US Bakery.

11. Answer:  4
Starting location: Where ‘B’ Street ends at the riverbank.
By doing the correct folds in the clue sheet a shape is revealed in the curving patterns, which depicts the same sculpture that can be seen across the water channel in the distance.  Walking out to the sculpture, by way of the boat landing areas, there is a small yellow box on which is painted three red fish being chased by a larger toothed one.

Got Feedback? Click here!