2013 Tombstone Trail

38 cars entered the 36th annual Tombstone Trail, but one had to withdraw due to illness, and two got stuck in road construction traffic so bad that they couldn't make the start in time. 35 starters was the lowest we've had since 2004! 7 cars entered the just-for-fun class, leaving 28 cars in the scored results.

The event used the same format as the past couple years, with multiple, increasingly difficult questions at each cemetery. The questions this year were deceptively simple, being quite difficult to answer correctly while appearing quite easy. This was one of the most, if not the most, difficult Tombstone Trail ever to score well. While several cars were actually able to answer all the questions, only the overall winners Clarence and Kate Westberg answered more than 75% of the questions correctly, scoring 83% accuracy.

Since the questions were so hard, the winning strategy was all about accuracy, with the chosen route and mapping skills not playing a big part at all. Here are some of the trickier questions and their solutions, listed in question number order. I'll keep the locations vague for privacy reasons.

The first cemetery was the easternmost, so we made it pretty hard to pass up, being the only 5-point cemetery of the evening. Since the cemetery was parallel with a road running southwest to northeast, the first four questions asked about the person buried farthest north, east, south and west. North was easy, east was a little more difficult in the dark, and south and west were actually the same person. The fifth question required competitors to look for a water supply, which the rules states was for the watering of plants in the cemetery. Many people found a gnome with a bowl that had collected some rain water and mistakenly answered that the gnome was the cemetery's water supply. Only 6 cars correctly answered all 5 questions, guaranteeing that they would not lose a tiebreaker in the first round. Fortunately for everyone else, no class positions were broken by ties in the first round.

The first 4-point cemetery was the hardest one of the night, with not a single car answering all 4 questions correctly. In fact, only two cars answered 2 of the 4 questions correctly, and only one car answered 3 of the 4 correctly, Mary and Mark Utecht, who had accuracy problems of their own, but won the best costume award for their Pac Men costumes. As often is the case, the costumes were not elaborate, but the attitudes and sound effects were perfect.

The four questions asked about which Danielsons were buried farthest north or farthest south, with no two questions offering the same answers. All the Danielson's are located in a long, single line, but in order to answer all four questions correctly, you had to recognize that Jayne was not Jane, Sara was not Sarah, Elisabeth was not Elizabeth, Sofia was not Sophia, that Clarence Danielsen was not a Danielson, that Rodney and Margaret are not yet buried, and that Ingeborg is buried with a different family.

The next 4-pointer was easy though interesting, requiring contestants to find the four men in the cemetery who are each buried with their two wives.

The third 4-point question was answered in a very small cemetery. No one answered all four questions correctly, and only three teams answered three questions correctly. The questions involved finding who or what was nearest the four corners of the cemetery. To get them right, teams needed to figure out that: In the northwest, the wishing well planter was not a water source and Pete was not the same as Peter; in the northeast, you needed to notice a very small limestone marker in the Monson family plot; in the southwest, there's a marker actually in the back yard of the adjacent house; and in the southeast, the old flagppole is tipped over in the trees, and its base looks like a concrete tombstone.

The first 3-point cemetery had a triple-speller with Klaus vs. Claus, Benjaman vs. Benjamin and Margareta vs. Margaret vs. Margaretha. The next involved a couple spelling traps (Nilsen vs. Nielsen and Henrek vs. Hendrek), finding a flat but easy to read marker closest to the northwest corner, and finding a very small limestone marker after finding a medium small limestone marker.

The next 3-pointer was pretty straightforward, but the third was tricky with two spelling traps and an exercise involving finding the kiosk with the cemetery roster and plot map, interpreting it in the dark to find an empty sector, and figuring out who was buried nearest that sector. Almost every team missed one of the spelling traps in question 28, .

The final 3-point cemetery was decorated and haunted by the Diercks family, who set up lots of cool creatures with creepy red eyes to distract you while they snuck up from behind a tree. Only Utechts and class AA winners Ryan Hammond and Preston Jordan answered two correctly, and only Utechts got all three right. The first question, the marker farthest north, was easy enough, except that the farthest north marker was flat and sunken and often covered with leaves. I assume anyone who found it brushed the leaves back over it. The second question required finding the wife's flat marker a short distance from the family marker, and the third was a killer. George's headstone indicated he lived 48 years, but the family marker showed that he died before his 48th birthday, so he was only 47, despite that very same marker stating that he lived "48 years".

The 2-point cemeteries were slightly easier, but one of them tripped up the rallymasters, who mistook a frost-free faucet for a pump, due to it's pump=shaped handle. The question was scored so that either answer was accepted. Nearest that faucet was a tricky double-speller, Winnie vs. Minnie and Helen vs. Helene.

The single-point cemeteries proved surprisingly difficult. Instruction 39 was a double-speller, with Sophia vs. Sofia and Gustav vs. Custav. Question 40 was at the cemetery only a block from the starting point, and it got 2/3 of the field off to a bad start, leaving the first cemetery with a negative point total due to Rosmina not being Rosamina, and Thedore not being Theodore.

Question 43 was another frost-free pump where we accepted either answer. Question 48 was easy enough, but humorously one team chose answer d, even though only choices a - c were on the scorecard. They cast a write-in vote for d.

Question 49 surprised the rallymasters as one of the hardest questions of the event, I think fitting that "deceptively simple" description. Only 8 teams recognized that "speed limit 30" was not the same as "30 M.P.H." Of course, the correct answer was "10 M.P.H.", the sign that stared you in the face as you sat parked across from the church.

Thanks to all who made this another successful event. We hope to see you all again next year.

Mark Larson
Rallymaster

You can see the event results here.

Read the 2012 report.