GC1GJ0D - On Point | Just Your Ordinary Joes

GC1GJ0D - On Point | Just Your Ordinary Joes

By: seldom|seen

1. Here is the puzzle.

Posted Coordinates: N 44° 31.506, W 089° 35.469

Geocache Description:






CACHE LOCATED AT N44°31.xxx W89°34.xxx

It will take a bit of detective work to solve this one. "What we do know is that one of these persons died in a car accident, one of them went to school in Wauwatosa and one of them joined the Army the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked", said Detective Mike. "And those are just the iconic individuals here, the others are just members of the local community who may or may not still be involved."

He goes on to explain that the others are neither iconic nor prominent, but are better described as ordinary joes. "It's always the quiet ones that go postal" adds Detective Mike who has his suspicions about these characters, one of which he says may have hidden a dirty briefcase bomb near the Post Office.

"As I studied this mural, I instantly recognized some familiar stances and yet couldn't place the faces. It took a little process of elimination to figure out who was who".

(To fund these mural projects, interested parties could submit a photo of themselves or a loved one to be included in this and other murals around town. Since the time period selected was the 50’s, Kelly Meredith, the artist, took a few famous 1950’s bodies, and many not so famous ones, then substituted their heads for the submitted faces).

To complete the puzzle and find the dirty bomb, all you have to do is figure out this hard-hitting clue:

"There was copious BLOOD and other unmentionables spattered on the WALL. The bullet and what came with it, HAMMERING on impact with enough force to leave a softball size imprint in the plaster. A raged star-burst of gristle and errant strands of HAIR filled the depression. And there, as if suspended by a ROPE in the acrid light, the still smoking RIFLE..." ~ Detective Mike.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)

Additional Waypoints: Stevens Point USPS Mural (Reference Point)

N 44° 31.435 W 089° 34.715



2. Identify the important puzzle elements.

Stevens Point's Third Downtown Mural

"The Old Post Office"

Our third mural project brought "The Old Post Office" back to life. The beautiful marble building originally stood on the corner of Strongs Ave. and Main St. but was torn down in the late 1960s. The mural, located on the east wall of the new Post Office building on the corner of Main St. and Smith St. downtown, was completed in July of 2008 by muralist Kelly Meredith. The faces of the people on the mural are the faces of actual Stevens Point residents, both past and present, and were copied from photos provided by their friends and family members. Funds raised from the sale of "faces" on the mural helped pay for the project.













To complete the puzzle and find the dirty bomb, all you have to do is figure out this hard-hitting clue:

"There was copious BLOOD and other unmentionables spattered on the WALL. The bullet and what came with it, HAMMERING on impact with enough force to leave a softball size imprint in the plaster. A raged star-burst of gristle and errant strands of HAIR filled the depression. And there, as if suspended by a ROPE in the acrid light, the still smoking RIFLE..." ~ Detective Mike.

3.  Solve the puzzle.

Start by making a list of the capitalized words.  Then find the characters in the mural that match those words.  Now count their position in the mural, and assign that number to the word clue.  Many can be solved by looking at the name associated with the figure.  For the rest, you will have to determine what person or character from the 1950's is portrayed in the pose.

Here is an observation we have made about this CO's puzzles.  When there are more than 9 items, in this case 18 figures, the CO will continue counting into the double digits and use only the last digit for the solution.  For example, 3 would be a 3, 10 would be a 0; 18 would be an 8, etc.  He used this method for solving this puzzle.

The puzzle is composed of two sentences.  We concluded that the first sentence provided the solution for the North coordinate, and the second sentence provided the solution for the West coordinate.

Solve the puzzle as follows:

North
BLOOD = Frank Blood = Figure #4
WALL = Wally Jakusz = Figure #7
HAMMERING = Ben Karpinski (see below) = Figure #16



Figure 13 looks like a mid-50's "Mike Hammer" pose.  Here is a picture.  Originally, we had selected this figure, but the #3 didn't solve the puzzle.

Mike Hammer
(mid 1950's)

Even though the character Mike Hammer was the right idea, it wasn't the character Mike Hammer, but the character's creator, Mickey Spillane that was the answer.  Figure #16 is posed just like this historic Mickey Spillane photo.

Mickey Spillane
'Mike Hammer' Writer

West
HAIR = Harry Pliska = Figure #17
ROPE = Alvin "Rope" Ropella = Figure #18
RIFLE = Dr. Robert Rifleman = Figure #12



4.  Put together the Solved Coordinates.

Puzzle Coordinates:

N44°31.xxx, W89°34.xxx

Solved Coordinates:

N 44°31.476, W 089°34.782

5.  Verify the Solved Coordinates.

Use GeoChecker to verify the solved coordinates.

GeoChecker - On Point | Just Your Ordinary Joes