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An excerpt from the 2005 Tombstone Trail Rules:
You will receive a map, some questions and a scorecard. Each question is identified by a name and a number. The name is the name of a township and the number is the section number where you will find a cemetery on the map, marked with a symbol. You will answer that question at or near that cemetery.
The Mystery Tombstone
One question is different from all the rest. That question is asked at the mystery tombstone, a tombstone whose location is determined by answering other questions correctly. Here’s how to find it:
Part I
Questions A, B and C are how you determine which cemetery contains the mystery tombstone. Add up your three answers, subtract the number specified on your scorecard, and write down the result. That result is the number of a cemetery question that is found in the same cemetery as the mystery tombstone. For example, if the result of your A-B-C calculation is 24, you’ll find the mystery tombstone in the same cemetery where you answer question 24 (Walcott 8).
You must answer A, B and C correctly in order to find the mystery tombstone. If you don’t, you won’t be looking in the correct cemetery.
The mystery cemetery is one of the cemeteries marked on the map within 3 miles of the endpoint (see the big circle on the map).
Part II
Questions D - J give you the clues to the mystery tombstone. Your answers to questions D - J are all complete words, initials, numbers and phrases that you will find on the mystery tombstone. For instance, if your answers included “John”, “H”, “3” and “16”, the mystery tombstone might say “John H Smith Jan 3, 1920 - Mar 16, 1988”, or it could quote Mary H Abker’s favorite Bible verse, John 3:16. “16” would not indicate 1916 (16 isn’t a complete number, in that case).
You don’t need to collect all the mystery clues to find the mystery tombstone, but the more you have, the more likely they will uniquely identify it. You can skip any of the Part II cemeteries if you like, but you run the risk of not being able to identify the mystery tombstone once you get to the mystery cemetery.
Of course, we’ve set it up so the mystery clues are found at the most interesting cemeteries.
Return to the Rules Page.