Collecting/'Treasure hunting' activities?
May 30, 2024 8:48 PM Subscribe
I've started using Seek/iNaturalist/eBird to log my various neighborhood plants/critters, and am really enjoying it! I've also recently started trying to research/find specific rocks/minerals at nearby locations, and am having a wonderful time just poking along the beach cliffs. It's the entire collecting/research/identifying/checking off lists that appeals to me, and it occurred to me that it's a little like treasure hunting...so, what else is like this?
So far I've come up with geocaching, which I haven't tried yet but seems like it would fit the bill. Also coin hunting, but the coin knowledge required to identify anything special seems a little overwhelming to spot anything in the tiny amount of change that I use in daily life. I feel like there could be some kind of photography scavenger hunt that fits the bill, but also...that's sort of just taking photos of whatever catches my eye which happens anyhow. Also a 'run (collect) every street in the neighborhood' project sort of has the same feel to me. So, what else should I start searching for/collecting?
So far I've come up with geocaching, which I haven't tried yet but seems like it would fit the bill. Also coin hunting, but the coin knowledge required to identify anything special seems a little overwhelming to spot anything in the tiny amount of change that I use in daily life. I feel like there could be some kind of photography scavenger hunt that fits the bill, but also...that's sort of just taking photos of whatever catches my eye which happens anyhow. Also a 'run (collect) every street in the neighborhood' project sort of has the same feel to me. So, what else should I start searching for/collecting?
Best answer: Pokémon Go scratches this itch for me. I have a probably-unattainable goal of getting a badge from every gym in my city. The possibility of a new badge has occasionally convinced me to run errands or otherwise get outside when I really didn’t feel like it.
I also recommend trying to go to every branch of your public library if you live in an urban area.
posted by ActionPopulated at 9:20 PM on May 30 [3 favorites]
I also recommend trying to go to every branch of your public library if you live in an urban area.
posted by ActionPopulated at 9:20 PM on May 30 [3 favorites]
Best answer: I've been on a decade plus quest to visit every California Historical Landmark. It's nothing I'm trying too hard to accomplish. They're mostly boring, and mostly just a plaque in the middle of nowhere. I also have no big interest in the actual history. It just gets me away from the usual places I road trip to, and I usually find far more interesting things to do. I'll often wind up planning to find, say 6 plaques, and only find 3, because I stumbled across far more interesting things. It's totally a treasure hunt to me.
More recently, I've been taking lunchtime walks downtown, and taking pictures of cool murals and graffiti art. There's quite a bit to see, and it always feels like a miniature adventure. Sure, I only walked three miles, but I found a cool mural of The Goonies and took a picture of it! Success!
posted by mrphancy at 9:26 PM on May 30 [5 favorites]
More recently, I've been taking lunchtime walks downtown, and taking pictures of cool murals and graffiti art. There's quite a bit to see, and it always feels like a miniature adventure. Sure, I only walked three miles, but I found a cool mural of The Goonies and took a picture of it! Success!
posted by mrphancy at 9:26 PM on May 30 [5 favorites]
Best answer: coin hunting, but the coin knowledge required to identify anything special seems a little overwhelming to spot anything
might also be thought heretical: "Fun Fact! Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome, was the first known coin collector."
stamp collecting's less controversial
posted by HearHere at 9:54 PM on May 30
might also be thought heretical: "Fun Fact! Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome, was the first known coin collector."
stamp collecting's less controversial
posted by HearHere at 9:54 PM on May 30
Best answer: Book scouting? Looking for rare or collectible books.
posted by NotLost at 10:07 PM on May 30 [1 favorite]
posted by NotLost at 10:07 PM on May 30 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I've been working on trying every apple on applerankings.com as well as any other unlisted apple I can get my hands on. I made a checklist on a spreadsheet and also include my own little reviews and rankings to see how we compare. And then I've also been putting the little fruit label stickers in a chart/checklist on a physical journal I already carry around.
I get a little thrill visiting grocery stores I've never been to just to see if they have an apple I haven't tried.
posted by simplethings at 11:09 PM on May 30 [10 favorites]
I get a little thrill visiting grocery stores I've never been to just to see if they have an apple I haven't tried.
posted by simplethings at 11:09 PM on May 30 [10 favorites]
Best answer: Thrifting for treasure in thrift stores. Ceramics and crockery, books and valuable vintage clothing... Give yourself an item budget of $2 or $5 or $10 and see what treasure you can find. Once you have too many things, start ebaying the ones you don't want to keep long term. But you have to know what you are buying - that's where the learning and development of expertise will come in to it.
posted by Thella at 12:06 AM on May 31 [2 favorites]
posted by Thella at 12:06 AM on May 31 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Depending on your beach geology, you could trying collecting an alphabet in stones N = 26. But any beach should have driftwood which you could gather up until you can assemble a human skeleton N = 206. For easier, I've been collecting man-buoys.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:07 AM on May 31 [2 favorites]
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:07 AM on May 31 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I take your point about coin hunting, but: If you were in the UK, I'd be pointing out that there are lots of different designs issued for the 50p and £2 coins, which require zero specialist knowledge to spot; and it's fun to pay attention to your change and collect them (either physically or in photograph form) irrespective of whether any of them are particularly special. Perhaps there's an equivalent coin in your local currency.
Art? You could pick an artist you like, and go in search of their publicly displayed works. Or you could pick a place (a nearby town centre or city neighbourhood), and hunt down all the public art (statues, sculptures, murals).
You've mentioned rocks and minerals by the shore; what about tidepools (and the creatures that live in them), or shells, or (if you have suitable optical equipment) trying to spot the names on the ships that pass?
And you might like to look through the lists of Observer's Books and I-Spy books for more inspiration. (If you were in the UK, you could additionally collect the books themselves, but I imagine they're less easily come by elsewhere.)
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 1:45 AM on May 31
Art? You could pick an artist you like, and go in search of their publicly displayed works. Or you could pick a place (a nearby town centre or city neighbourhood), and hunt down all the public art (statues, sculptures, murals).
You've mentioned rocks and minerals by the shore; what about tidepools (and the creatures that live in them), or shells, or (if you have suitable optical equipment) trying to spot the names on the ships that pass?
And you might like to look through the lists of Observer's Books and I-Spy books for more inspiration. (If you were in the UK, you could additionally collect the books themselves, but I imagine they're less easily come by elsewhere.)
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 1:45 AM on May 31
Best answer: You could reach out to your local land conservancy/nature center/conservation organization and see if they have any citizen science photo point monitoring projects you could participate in. They have specific photo stations set up for folks to take photos at regularly so they can track changes over time. I bet it would scratch the “scavenger hunt” itch and would provide a real service (I am on the board of a small local conservation org, and if someone volunteered to set one of these projects up I’d be over the moon). Here’s an example.
posted by Empidonax at 4:50 AM on May 31 [1 favorite]
posted by Empidonax at 4:50 AM on May 31 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I am a volunteer photographer for FindAGrave. People will request a picture of a specific person's stone & then I explore a local cemetery until I find it. I think of it as geocaching for dead people. (I also take & upload photos of any other stones that aren't yet photographed for the app. It's my personal goal to completely photograph a couple cemeteries that I visit regularly.)
Zooniverse has web-based citizen science projects that might interest you.
posted by belladonna at 5:15 AM on May 31 [13 favorites]
Zooniverse has web-based citizen science projects that might interest you.
posted by belladonna at 5:15 AM on May 31 [13 favorites]
Best answer: I get what I call the "happy hunter gatherer" feeling from browsing thrift shops. And if I know I can resell something (like on Poshmark), there's the added dopamine of making money off it later.
When I travel - even just to a suburb in my own city - I also like to try to find an amazing restaurant without using the internet. I'll pop into banks, or little shops near suburban strip malls, and ask the tellers, or ask cab drivers or random people, where the good food is. I've found some absolute gems this way - the best BBQ I've ever had, deep in Tennessee, and some absolutely outrageously good Pakistani, Hakka, and Turkish food from random strip malls in the Toronto suburbs.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 5:16 AM on May 31 [4 favorites]
When I travel - even just to a suburb in my own city - I also like to try to find an amazing restaurant without using the internet. I'll pop into banks, or little shops near suburban strip malls, and ask the tellers, or ask cab drivers or random people, where the good food is. I've found some absolute gems this way - the best BBQ I've ever had, deep in Tennessee, and some absolutely outrageously good Pakistani, Hakka, and Turkish food from random strip malls in the Toronto suburbs.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 5:16 AM on May 31 [4 favorites]
Best answer: Oh, also, if you don't already have it (and you're not an expert on birdsong, which I realise you may be!), do add Merlin Bird ID to your set of apps. Then you can start collecting the birds you hear as well as the ones you see. It's startlingly good at its job.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 5:47 AM on May 31 [2 favorites]
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 5:47 AM on May 31 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Mosses. You can identify many in the field or with a lens but if you get serious you need to take a sample home and use a microscope. This guy travels the world in search of mosses.
posted by vacapinta at 5:52 AM on May 31 [2 favorites]
posted by vacapinta at 5:52 AM on May 31 [2 favorites]
Best answer: If the mods will forgive me a self-link, I've written several essays about extraordinary treasure hunts of the past, such as Edwardian Britain's Treasure Hunt Riots, Kit Williams' Masquerade, and The Elusive Lobby Lud.
posted by Paul Slade at 5:58 AM on May 31 [4 favorites]
posted by Paul Slade at 5:58 AM on May 31 [4 favorites]
Best answer: Metal detecting! I don't metal detect myself, but still like to poke around the Reddit group because I like seeing what people find :)
posted by Eyelash at 9:05 AM on May 31
posted by Eyelash at 9:05 AM on May 31
Best answer: Magnet fishing. There are lots of YouTube videos. Check your local laws though.
posted by FencingGal at 9:26 AM on May 31
posted by FencingGal at 9:26 AM on May 31
Best answer: During Covid lockdown I walked every street in my town and a few nearby towns and I would highlight the street on the map after I walked it. It felt like I was collecting each street as I walked it.
posted by PurpleNico at 11:55 AM on May 31
posted by PurpleNico at 11:55 AM on May 31
Best answer: Some photo scavenger hunts that I do just for fun, uploading some of the photos to Instagram when I feel like it:
Look for things embedded in sidewalks and roads (USGS benchmarks, utility hole covers, stamps, glass prisms, etc.), and look them up to learn about what they mean.
Learn to identify the eras that local houses and other buildings are from by finding buildings that catch your eye and looking them up. Same for older cars.
Look for interesting typefaces on signs on buildings, along with interesting older ways of making signs - neon glass tubes, vacuum-formed signs, painted ghost signs.
Make a list of local landmarks that don't have photos in their Wikipedia articles (Special:Nearby can help), go find them, take photos, upload the photos to Wikimedia Commons, and add them to the articles.
posted by dreamyshade at 11:55 AM on May 31 [3 favorites]
Look for things embedded in sidewalks and roads (USGS benchmarks, utility hole covers, stamps, glass prisms, etc.), and look them up to learn about what they mean.
Learn to identify the eras that local houses and other buildings are from by finding buildings that catch your eye and looking them up. Same for older cars.
Look for interesting typefaces on signs on buildings, along with interesting older ways of making signs - neon glass tubes, vacuum-formed signs, painted ghost signs.
Make a list of local landmarks that don't have photos in their Wikipedia articles (Special:Nearby can help), go find them, take photos, upload the photos to Wikimedia Commons, and add them to the articles.
posted by dreamyshade at 11:55 AM on May 31 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Geocaching is still a thing! There's aps and stuff
posted by Jacen at 3:30 PM on May 31 [1 favorite]
posted by Jacen at 3:30 PM on May 31 [1 favorite]
Best answer: One thing I've been doing recently is exploring local historic trails & routes. I don't know which part of the world you live in, but I believe most areas will have something of this sort. Often there is a society or agency of some sort dedicated to preserving the history, and books or web sites by others that have traveled the route looking for historical sites and such.
Often there are old stations or points of interest of various types along the routes that you can "collect".
This has made my travel around the area a lot more interesting, because I'm always thinking of a route I'd like to visit and often these are parallel to or nearby to where I'm going anyway. So a slight detour and you're visiting 12 historical sites along the way instead of a boring 3 hour drive.
A lot of the sites tends to be marked with historical markers, and looking up the marker in the Historical Markers Database (mentioned above) usually brings up a dozen nearby markers to explore.
A few examples from my neck of the woods:
posted by flug at 4:30 PM on May 31 [1 favorite]
Often there are old stations or points of interest of various types along the routes that you can "collect".
This has made my travel around the area a lot more interesting, because I'm always thinking of a route I'd like to visit and often these are parallel to or nearby to where I'm going anyway. So a slight detour and you're visiting 12 historical sites along the way instead of a boring 3 hour drive.
A lot of the sites tends to be marked with historical markers, and looking up the marker in the Historical Markers Database (mentioned above) usually brings up a dozen nearby markers to explore.
A few examples from my neck of the woods:
- Butterfield Overland Trail - national historic trail, maps
- Santa Fe Trail - association, national historic trail, website
- Pony Express National Historic Trail - national historic trail, bicycle guide
- Route 66
posted by flug at 4:30 PM on May 31 [1 favorite]
Best answer: One of my quests is independent book stores when I am traveling-it makes being away a lot more enjoyable.
posted by childofTethys at 6:47 PM on May 31 [1 favorite]
posted by childofTethys at 6:47 PM on May 31 [1 favorite]
Best answer: wandrer.earth to 'collect' roads and trails by walking or biking them.
posted by bradbane at 11:16 PM on May 31
posted by bradbane at 11:16 PM on May 31
Best answer: Not so much treasure, but very much in the 'collect things in your neighborhood' vein: StreetComplete! Basically answer questions about streets, places etc. around where you are, which helps improve the completeness of OpenStreetMap, the open-source version of Google Maps and the like :)
posted by snusmumrik at 3:15 AM on June 1
posted by snusmumrik at 3:15 AM on June 1
Response by poster: Wow what a great list of ideas, I am so excited to get started! I've marked as best answers the ones that fit current circumstances best, but hope to try them all eventually. Thank you all!
posted by lemonade at 5:46 PM on June 1
posted by lemonade at 5:46 PM on June 1
Response by poster: I lied, I'm doing them all!
posted by lemonade at 5:50 PM on June 1 [3 favorites]
posted by lemonade at 5:50 PM on June 1 [3 favorites]
Best answer: If you carry a little blacklight/UV torch to the thrift shop/antique store/flea market you can shine it on antique-looking glassware and if it’s uranium glass it glows bright green!
You can also use the torch to see where the cat pisses in your house but that’s a lot less rewarding as a treasure hunt.
posted by slightlybewildered at 2:39 PM on June 4 [1 favorite]
You can also use the torch to see where the cat pisses in your house but that’s a lot less rewarding as a treasure hunt.
posted by slightlybewildered at 2:39 PM on June 4 [1 favorite]
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posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:16 PM on May 30 [2 favorites]