By R. Scott Teets steets@CinciPulse.com   Photos By Alex Bell
CINCINNATI— If you’re a fan of mystery – especially somewhat strange and quirky mystery – then it’s game on in Greater Cincinnati. For more than three weeks now, people in the Cincinnati area have been walking and driving on what essentially has been turned into one huge and curiously odd board game spanning the Ohio River. Who created this far-ranging maze game and why is every bit a part of this mystery. Many people who have noticed the game’s spray-painted navigation markings have speculated it’s a wild pub crawl, but owners of bars along the way say they are unaware of any such thing. Some believe the curious trail of painted arrows is a scavenger hunt. Others have theorized the trail is part of some sort of initiation or fraternity or sorority hazing. Could there be some darker side to the mystery maze? “There are a lot of theories out there. No one seems to know what they are,” said Tiffaney Hardy in Cincinnati’s city manager’s office. “It’s like the urban equivalent of the crop circles.” Cincinnati police and traffic officials are all interested in finding out who created this game and why. It seems almost incomprehensible but, despite there being hundreds of markings across such a large area, no one seems to have seen the people who spray-painted the symbols.   It appears this maze game begins at Party Source in Bellevue, Kentucky, and ends at Boswell Alley in Northside. By car, that trip is nearly eight miles between. It’s easily twice that following the crazy trail of painted arrows on no less than 100 streets, alleys and walkways. We say the maze “appears” to begin and end at these two points, because, quite frankly, no one but perhaps its creator knows for sure. We do know that between these points, there are bulls-eyes painted in front of eight watering holes – each popular with a more bohemian crowd. The spots are Mansion Hill Tavern in Newport; O’Malley’s in the Alley, Tina’s and Buddakhan Downtown; Kaldi’s Coffee House in Over-the-Rhine; Arlin’s in Clifton; and Northside Tavern and Boswell’s Alley in Northside.  
View Larger Map   “A lot of people have been talking about the mysterious arrows,” said Cara Jude, bar manager for Mansion Hill Tavern in Newport. “For weeks people have been asking, ‘What do they mean?’” “I’m curious to find out what these arrows and bulls-eyes mean,” Jude said. “It’s intriguing that these appeared all of a sudden.” Mike Bigler, co-owner of Boswell Alley, is similarly mystified by the bulls-eye outside. He and Jude don’t know of any connection between their two establishments. Like many who have seen the markings, Buddakhan owner Dan Dell simply assumed the bulls-eye in front of his place was put there by utility crews. He was surprised, and mystified, that his establishment was linked to a very large and complex maze. The trail between Party Source and Boswell Alley is navigated by following very distinct arrows that have two shafts extending from the arrowhead’s point. It’s a daunting task that cannot be accomplished by car because parts of the trail are passable only on foot or bike.
Along the way, travelers will encounter numbered locks and keys spray-painted on the streets and alleys as well as two other curious symbols. The first key can be found mid-span of the Purple People Bridge. Keys numbered three and five were on Gano Street, behind the Aronoff Center, and the number six key was found along with its lock in Chase Park near the trail’s assumed end. The other locks were found spray-painted on Central Avenue at Fifth Street (#2), in the alley on the north side of the Main Library (#3), on the University of Cincinnati campus near Campus Green Garage (#4), and on Burnet Woods Drive (#5) not far from Trailside Nature Center.
Navigating beyond the “locks” for which there doesn’t seem to be a “key” is tricky doing. For example, lock number 2 appears to be a dead end downtown. But the trail is picked up again if you travel east on Fifth Street and turn north on Main Street. On the UC campus, where the number 4 lock appears a dead end, the trail is picked up by continuing forward across Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and heading north on Burnet Woods Drive. While trying to find the way through this maze, travelers might ponder this: What is the significance of dual arrowheads found at six intersections along the trail. The arrowheads are located at the east end of Ader Alley in Newport, the north foot of the Purple People Bridge, on Berning Place alley at Third Street, at both Backstage Alley and Bearcat Way on the UC campus, and on Brookline Drive at Hosea Avenue in Clifton. The dual arrowheads must mean more than directional symbols. That job is done quite nicely by the creator’s standard arrows which also indicate turns in the trail. Another curious symbol found along the way is a circle with a cross inside and what appears to be a hook protruding below. Such a symbol is found at the intersections of Sixth Street and Linden Avenue in Newport, at McMillan Street and Clifton Avenue in University Heights, and at Knowlton Street and Chambers Street in Northside. When you hit this symbol, it appears game travelers can go left, right or straight. Any direction will reconnect with the trail. But, of course, there may be clues that could be missed. Which brings up the point: What is the point? Obviously, it was someone with a touch of wit and way too much time on their hands who created such a complicated and challenging trail. It was obviously also created by someone armed with a can of white spray paint and who isn’t afraid to use it. But there must be a point to the game. CinciPulse.com followed the trail from what we believe to be its beginning to what we believe to be its end, and we still don’t know. So it seems it’s up to the remaining curious among us to figure out. Perhaps we missed something important – the missing puzzle piece or a bunch of puzzle pieces. For instance, the letters TA are spray-painted on a guardrail at Gray Alley in Northside. Is it random graffiti or a clue? And what of the letters GEF T+K spray-painted on a bench on Hartshorn Street near the UC campus? Alas, it’s a board game that now may be unsolvable – and, so, over – before most knew it existed. Some of the symbols are already disappearing. For instance, behind the Aronoff Center for the Arts there were two painted keys, numbered 3 and 5. Those symbols have been erased. Another example is in Yeatman’s Cove, Sawyer Point and Riverview parks. Grounds crews have already blacked out or removed the arrows there. So if there were any “clues” painted in the area, the game can never be solved. (Future gamers, you might want to make a note of that. The Parks Department is damn particular about graffiti. Its existence will be but a brief one, so don’t paint clues there.)