Waterman Conservation Education Center looks back on fifty years of programs with an Interactive Mystery Room and exhibit

For 50 years, the Waterman Conservation Education Center has been the place where generations of Southern Tier families first came face-to-face with a barred owl, learned to identify a wood frog, or paddled past a great blue heron on the Susquehanna. This year marks a half-century of connecting people to nature, and Waterman is starting the celebration! 

Waterman invites visitors to solve a Midwinter Mystery: The Uninvited Guest, an original escape room-style mystery set inside the actual nature center. Players race against the clock as they track down clues and solve puzzles about several critters that have wandered into the center by accident. Can you identify the animals and free the one that has been caught, all before time runs out?

The Mid-Winter Mystery: The Uninvited Guest runs through April 12. Space is limited. To register or learn more, visit www.watermancenter.org/events, email info@watermancenter.org, or call (607) 625-2221.

“We wanted the first event of our 50th year to feel like Waterman — hands-on, a little wild, and rooted in real natural history,” said Chris Audette, Executive Director. “The escape room uses real science and actual wildlife facts; it’s the kind of fun where you don’t realize how much you’re learning until you’re already hooked.”” 

To further tie The Uninvited Guest into their anniversary celebration, some of its clues are woven directly into a new historical exhibition tracing Waterman’s 50-year story. Eight display panels, featuring photographs and memorabilia spanning five decades, document milestones from Lolita Waterman’s founding gift of 90 acres to the recent addition of Pettus Hill Preserve in Windsor. 

The exhibition also revisits beloved traditions: the summer day camp, Hiawatha Island breakfasts, and the boat tours on the Susquehanna that have introduced thousands of Southern Tier residents to the wonders in their own backyards.

The panels are open to all visitors at no charge, and notebooks are available for anyone who wants to share a memory or a message for the next 50 years.

The Waterman Conservation Education Center, located in Apalachin, manages six nature preserves across Tioga and Broome counties. Since 1976, the Waterman Center has continued to connect the Southern Tier community with the natural world through conservation education, outdoor recreation, and environmental literacy.