HCHS offering a ‘wicked’ game of Clue

Have you ever heard the expression, “I don’t have a clue?”

Well, on Saturday, Oct. 19, you can get one — no, check that, you can get a whole slew of clues — by paying a visit to the Holmes County Historical Society’s game night of Clue at the Mansion.

The evening will invite the public to stop by to gather up clues that will help solve a fictitious murder at the Victorian House. The event will feature a pair of Clue games, the first from 4-6 p.m. and the second from 7:30-9:30 p.m.

Throughout the night participants will meet up with plenty of unsavory characters from Holmes County’s past, characters that will be portrayed by local actors who will weave a story filled with some lies and some truths.

The goal is to decipher truth from fiction and solve the mystery, which includes narrowing down the suspect, room and weapon, just like in the original Clue game.

According to Carmen Camacho, who is chairing the evening’s shenanigans, it should be a challenging and memorable night.

“We’ve had such a tremendous response to this event,” Camacho said. “It’s been so well received and so popular that we expanded the number of participants.”

Even so, she suggested not waiting too long to obtain tickets because they are selling quickly.

The idea to create this version of Clue came about because the HCHS was getting requests to do a Halloween-themed Clue game. Instead, Camacho said they began exploring some of Holmes County’s most nefarious, intriguing and unique characters to become the Clue characters.

Camacho said part of the fun is simply learning who the Holmes County scoundrels and personalities are who made the list.

These game members will remain under wraps, meaning people will simply have to sign up and come for a fun game night to learn more about each participant and how they became a notorious part of Holmes County lore.

“I think this makes it so much fun, not just to play the Clue game, but to throw in some local history that people may not know about,” Camacho said. “It will be just like playing the Clue game, except people can think of the Victorian House as their giant Clue game board filled with rooms, weapons and suspects. People will be exploring three to four floors of rooms, and they can check each one off as they begin to figure out who did the deed.”

In coming up with the list of characters, Camacho said they pored through the local historical book “Sketches” and in the process learned a great deal about some strange, almost eerie stories and people throughout history. Some of the participating characters may not even be human.

“This Clue version is very different from the ones we’ve done in the past in that our characters have a bit of an infamous or tragic story to tell,” Camacho said. “We learned a lot just by exploring who to include in the game, and we’re excited to be able to share those stories with the public through this Clue game version.”

There will be prizes for each session’s group that comes up with the winning answers to the burning questions, which of these ne’er-do-wells did what in which room with what weapon.

To purchase tickets, call the HCHS at 330-674-0022. The cost is $15 per ticket, and each game will be limited to the first 40 people to purchase. All children age 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult.