Waco Celebrates 175 years of History with Community Scavenger Hunt

Contact: Shelby Cefaratti-Bertin, 254-327-8012
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The history of Baylor University and Waco, Texas, is deeply intertwined and this history is being celebrated on Saturday, Sept. 7, in a creative way: through a community scavenger hunt. Baylor’s Institute for Oral History and Texas Collection – who jointly operate the popular Waco History mobile app – will join Greater Waco community partners to host a family-friendly scavenger hunt celebrating Waco’s 175th anniversary as a settlement.

The scavenger hunt will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, starting at the Waco Downtown Farmers Market, and will trace Waco’s early years by traveling around the city to locate historical sites. For the Baylor community, this event presents a fun opportunity to learn about how and where the University falls in Waco’s history and early years. Participation is free and can be entered by registering at wacohistory.org/175.

Stephen Sloan, Ph.D., professor of history and the director of the Institute for Oral History at Baylor, created and developed Waco History, a website and free mobile app on local history that will be used for the scavenger hunt. As a historian, he encourages everyone to participate as a way to learn more about local community history. 

“As a Baylor professor, I know there is a separation between how we think about the community of Waco,” Sloan said. “You can just live on campus for four years and not experience the city, but this offers an opportunity for Wacoans, Baylor students and really anyone to walk away with a deeper understanding for this place that they call home.

“You can more fully appreciate a place when you have a better understanding of its history. The 175th anniversary offers a good occasion to stop and do just that,” he added.

The Waco History app was created because Waco lacked a local history museum, Sloan said. The app offers a multimedia approach for users to see, read and experience the history of Waco, with the scavenger hunt providing an opportunity to use the content on the app creatively to learn more about Waco’s early history.

The app can be downloaded to use during the scavenger hunt and has everything needed to complete the hunt. Players will also scan QR codes to answer prompts and upload pictures to social media using the hashtag #WacoHistory175.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.