(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – Officials in Guthrie County report 2023 marks the third year that Guthrie County ISU Extension & Outreach has offered the “Wild Places in Guthrie County” tourism event. Krista Downing, Program Coordinator says “Each year we select different locations in Guthrie County to explore. Our flyer provides you coordinates or a QR code option to each location and a list of a few activities that you can do once you get to each location. We try to find different areas around that county that hit on recreation, history, and places that you might not even know about and then we create an educational video for each location with the help of local experts.”

With this event, you can go at your own pace, once you have the flyer with the information on it. First pick one of the mystery locations to visit then follow the coordinates to get there. Once you have arrived at the location find the flyer with QR codes on them. Scan the large QR code to watch a video to learn more about the site you are visiting. Make sure to take some time to explore each site, there are suggestions listed with each location on the flyer. Pick a new site and repeat this adventure until you hit all five locations! Make sure to scan the QR code to check in at each site so they can track how many people participate.

Guthrie County Extension is also offering a mystery prize to two lucky people. To be entered in a drawing for a prize take a picture at each location. Post your pictures on Facebook, tag Guthrie County Extension, and #GuthrieCountyWildThings. If you post entries at all three locations, you’ll receive three extra entries. All entries will be due by July 20th, 2023.

According to Krista Downing, “We had a few different goals with this event when we started it in 2021. We hope to help stimulate the local economy by promoting tourist locations, provide a family friendly all ages event to the citizens of Guthrie County and surrounding areas, and get people outdoors exploring the different amenities that Guthrie County has to offer. We had a great response the past two years and are excited to be able to bring it back for a third year.”.

For more information or to download the flyer for this year, go to https://www.extension.iastate.edu/guthrie/. If you have any questions about the tourism event, please feel free to reach out to the Guthrie County ISU Extension office at 641-747-2276. (Click to enlarge the image >>> )