Three years ago, during our Visitor Guide planning process, we had the idea to create something for our annual travel publication that would help serve as a people-mover.

We wanted to provide a guide that would not only inspire and inform readers (thats always the goal), but also one that would provoke excitement and curiosity through the use of small photos.

Our line of thinking in creating this quest, or treasure hunt, as its often called, was to encourage people to walk around our beach town and discover areas they may not have found without these photos and clues.

In a day and age where there seems to be an endless reliance on GPS devices, smart phones and answers at our fingertips, a secondary goal was to get our visitors to put away the gadgets and use old-fashioned sleuthing clues.

Three years later, our tactics appear to be creating annual excitement for each new quest we develop.

For the past two years, weve given away two grand prizes, one based on a random drawing of all those submitting correct answers, the second for coming up with the most creative way of telling us how they found all of our clues.

Needless to say, our visitors have made this a very fun project for us, too.

Two entries we received this year are definitely worth sharing in this space.

Our grand prize-winning creative entry was a video submitted by a couple from Molalla (View the video at http://bit.ly/1hQDAN2.). Our runner-up entry, submitted by a visitor from Mill Creek, Wash. and pictured above, used photos of all nine answers to provide the words I heart Seaside.

To view all of this years clues and answers, check them out online at http://seasideor.com/quest.

Look for Treasure Quest IV to be revealed in the 2014 Visitor Guide, coming in mid-January.

Beer 101 winner

Two months ago I wrote about the Oregons North Coast Beer 101 promotion we had coming up during the final two weeks of October.

Although the event weekends have come and gone, one creative individual will go down in brewing history, thanks to his winning submission to help name our North Coast collaborative beer.

The Scotch Ale beer, developed by Astoria Brewing Company, Fort George Brewery, Seaside Brewing Co. and Bills Tavern, ultimately was named, One-Eyed Willies Wee Heavy, by Ryan Powers of San Jose, Calif.

For his winning entry, Powers received three two-night stays along Oregons North Coast. More than 3,300 names were submitted by close to 900 unique entries during the course of the promotion. The winning name is a nod to the movie The Goonies, which was filmed in Astoria and Cannon Beach in the 1980s and included the legend of pirate One-Eyed Willie.

Taste the beer while supplies last at Rogue Public House in Astoria, and the Lumberyard Rotisserie & Grill in Cannon Beach. More details online at http://kgw.com/beer101.

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Have a thought or a comment based on tourism? Send Jon Rahl an email at jon@seasideor.com. Find the visitors bureau on Facebook at Facebook.com/VisitSeasideOR.