Scavenger Hunt in Ann Arbor: The Big House, Big Ideas, and a Great Walking City
Ann Arbor is the quintessential American college town scaled up to the point where it functions as a complete, self-sufficient city rather than just a university adjunct. The University of Michigan, with 47,000 students, one of the largest research universities in the world, and the largest college football stadium in the United States (Michigan Stadium, "The Big House," capacity 107,601), dominates the city's economy, culture, and identity. But Ann Arbor has also developed a distinct independent character: an arts scene, a food culture, a walkable downtown, and a civic life that continues regardless of the academic calendar.
A city scavenger hunt in Ann Arbor works on both the university campus (extraordinary architecture spanning 200 years of American campus design) and the State Street and Main Street commercial corridors that connect the campus to the downtown.
Best Areas for an Ann Arbor Scavenger Hunt
Downtown Main Street, the commercial core along Main Street, with the Michigan Theater (1927, one of the finest surviving movie palaces in the Midwest), the Kerrytown Market (the oldest market building in Ann Arbor, now a specialty food and artisan market), and the concentration of independent restaurants and bars that make Ann Arbor's dining scene nationally recognized, is the urban half of the scavenger hunt.
University of Michigan Central Campus, the Diag, the University of Michigan Museum of Art (free admission, excellent permanent collection), the Law Quadrangle (Gothic Revival, 1930s, one of the most beautiful academic buildings in America), and the Burton Memorial Tower make the campus itself an excellent scavenger hunt environment.
Kerrytown, the neighborhood immediately north of downtown, with the farmers market (Wednesday and Saturday, year-round), the specialty food shops, and the renovated 19th-century buildings, is the most charming neighborhood in Ann Arbor for a casual scavenger hunt morning.
What an Ann Arbor Scavenger Hunt Reveals
The Questo city quest in Ann Arbor covers the university's founding in 1817 and its relocation to Ann Arbor in 1837 (which transformed a small mill town into a major educational center), the folk music and protest culture that made Ann Arbor an important site of the 1960s counterculture (the White Panther Party was based here; the MC5 and the Stooges both formed here), and the medical research heritage of the university's hospital complex (one of the largest hospital complexes in the United States).
The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library is on the north campus, Ford grew up in Grand Rapids but attended the University of Michigan, and his presidential papers are housed here.
Ann Arbor Scavenger Hunt Tips
Zingerman's Delicatessen (on the edge of Kerrytown) is one of the most celebrated delis in the United States, the Reuben sandwich, the Jewish rye bread baked in-house, and the extraordinary cheese selection are the reference points. The Zingerman's Community of Businesses (the deli spawned a full-scale artisan food operation including a creamery, bakehouse, coffee roasting operation, and restaurant) is a genuinely remarkable business story embedded in the city's food culture. The Ann Arbor Art Fair (the largest juried art fair in the United States, held every July) is worth planning around if your scavenger hunt visit coincides.