'History Mystery' Bike Adventure Returns To Beverly

CHICAGO — The "History Mystery" Bike Tour, a popular 1990's-era Beverly Area Planning Association event, is back. BAPA brought the community bike-centric event back under modifications fit for proper social distancing in the age of coronavirus.

Beginning this month and until October, the mystery will focus on a different community within the 19th Ward, said Cathorina Fey, BAPA's community outreach and improvement coordinator whose idea it was to bring the tour back.

Participants in June can start in West Beverly by following this map and riding their bike to all the stops to look for the answers to each clue. Answers will be put in the solution spot at the bottom right of the page, and then the numbered letters in their designed spaces to uncover the solution.

When complete, take a picture of the completed clue sheet and email it to bapa@bapa.org to be entered into a random drawing. Three winners will be picked at random each month, with prizes in the form of gift certificates from businesses within the neighborhood being handed out.

Clues are all specific to the sites included on the guide map and are often connected to local landmarks, Fey said. For example, the clue associated with the stop at Munroe Park at 105th and Talman is "running, laughing, jumping around, the sounds of summer will soon be found. Echoing through this West Beverly park. A new green and blue _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, The joy it will spark."

"Some clues you might be able to figure out, but others are so specific you'd have to ride to each of the sites to find the answer," Fey said.

BAPA's "History Mystery" tour dates back a couple of decades when it was a one-day family biking event that coupled with music and food at Ridge Park and then Morgan Park Academy, BAPA Communications Director Grace Kuikman said. The event went on hiatus for a few years and was brought back from 2009-2012 with a scaled-back version at Kennedy Park.

In 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing requirements, tours will take place over the course of a full month instead of prompting several people to be on their bikes at the same spots at one time.

The tour starts in West Beverly this month, and will expand with new puzzles for East Beverly in July, North Beverly in August, Central Beverly in September and Morgan Park in October, Fey said.

Fey said the idea was a response to seeing even more people out on bikes in the neighborhood this summer.

"We want to provide people on bikes the opportunity to do something fun while outside and giving them something to look forward to," Fey said.

If successful, the month-long tours could be brought back on a yearly basis, she said.