All of the prizes for the Flagstaff 2020 Mystery Game were donated by community members and groups involved in Flagstaff 2020. This led to many exciting and desirable prizes, including a tuition-free semester at Northern Arizona University and a Grand Canyon raft trip from Arizona Raft Adventures. The grand prize for the Mystery Game was an affordable house built in the greater Flagstaff area. This prize, described as a “Community Building Project,” had many local sponsors who donated supplies, time, and other resources to the construction effort.
In the clip below, Sue (Beke) Obrzut describes her experience with the Flagstaff 2020 Mystery Game and how she solved the clues. Watch Obrzut’s entire oral history interview via Digital Collections.
A total of 10 winners were selected during a raffle held at the 1997 Fourth of July parade. Flagstaff resident Sue Obrzut (then Sue Beke) won the grand prize of the “Mystery Game House.”
NAU.PH.1997.44.02.02.008. View this item via Digital Collections.
Local businesses and organizations that sponsored the Flagstaff Community Building Project for the “Mystery Game House” included the Flagstaff Affordable Housing Coalition, National Bank of Arizona, Zion Mortgages, and Northern Arizona Home Builders among many others.
While the original plan was to have the house completed by the end of June 1997, construction of the house did not begin until 1998. Sue Obrzut recalled that when people asked her whether she was living in her new house yet, she would tell them, “No, but when I move in, there will be a big party.”
Sue Beke and Jerry Obrzut moved into the Mystery Game House on August 29, 1999. The next year, the two were married on the flagstone patio in the back yard. As promised, they invited 270 people to a combination wedding celebration /open house held on September 9, 2000. The Obrzuts lived in the Mystery Game House for 14 years.