Wagon Trail Lock

The Pioneer spirit is alive and well in the debut puzzle from Dylan Christopherson, a mechanical engineer with a flair for ingenious design. His first offering is a lock that refuses to open, requiring at least 15 hidden movements and the use of discovered tools to ultimately release the shackle. The lock comes with an adventurous backstory about a family making their way along the wagon trail in early America, searching through discarded nick knacks and family possessions discarded by others along the journey. Young Johnny uncovers a chest with this interesting lock, and in his frustration smashes one of the gears with a rock. Can the lock still be opened?

Dylan Christopherson shared the story of his lock. “I'm a mechanical engineer. I help design skid steer loaders for Bobcat. Pioneer Puzzles is my side business that I work on part time. I started out as a twisty puzzle collector. A friend in college showed me some puzzle boxes and I was intrigued. I have always been a woodworker so I thought it would be fun to design and build my own.

I wanted to build a puzzle with gears, as many people find gears interesting. I started sketching it out around November 2023. I really like puzzles by DEDwood crafts like Angry Walter. He {Dee Dixon] makes beautiful puzzles with very cool stories! Like some of his puzzles, I wanted to design a puzzle that had a rich and complex solution as well as an interesting story to go with it. I wanted a rustic old west theme that incorporated gears. My wife helped me a lot with the name and story. The name of the puzzle was a byproduct of the story we came up with. We wanted something pioneer themed, as the name of my business is Pioneer Puzzles.

I have faced many issues during the build. A lot of little things come up along the way. One small thing might mean scrapping many parts and having to remake them. As Elon musk says, design is the easy part, building things is much harder. It is very difficult to mass produce intricate wood puzzles that have such small margins for error. I had to tweak a few small internal parts along the way so they could function without issue. Like many puzzle collectors, I have a huge appreciation for puzzle builders.

Max production of highly complex wooden puzzles is extremely difficult and time consuming. I spent so much time in the garage working on these. Not sure what I ended up making an hour, but sometimes I wonder if it was worse than minimum wage lol. Gears are cool but they take a long time to sand. They have a lot more edge surface area.”

Wagon Trail Lock is a beautifully crafted object made with fine detail and care from canary, curly maple, black walnut, red oak, cherry and poplar woods, and internal 3D printed parts. It appears to be simple enough, and lures you in with its three prominent gears which are the focal point of the puzzle. There does not seem to be all that much to explore. Those gears, of course, the shackle, and a small hole on one side. There is an intriguing feature on one of the gears, as mentioned, which has a section missing. Nothing much moves. Many intrepid explorers stayed firmly put at this starting point, unable to discover where to go, and how to advance. Clearly, this “simple” puzzle had some sass. It also has more surprises than you might expect, and despite having relatively few parts to work with, presents a series of fantastic challenges that keep you guessing at every sequential hard-earned discovery. Do not underestimate this puzzle lock!

“I tried to incorporate all my original plans into the puzzle design. For me, it's fun to try to figure out how to make my original idea work and function. I added a few more steps along the way as well. Some of the first and last steps were late additions to the design. I wanted the puzzle to be fun and challenging, and have as many moves as possible. I'm going to take a break from puzzle designing and building to work on many new house projects. Just taking a break for now. I'm very grateful for the large amount of positive feedback on this puzzle. Thank you all for the support!”

Pioneer Spirit cocktail — Pioneer Spirit by Meaghan Dorman

I’m toasting this impressive achievement in mechanical design and multimedia woodcraft production with an old fashioned cocktail that embraces the same pioneer spirit. The drink comes from the Raines Law Room, an elegant craft cocktail bar in New York City by award winning bartender Meaghan Dorman that evokes a prior era in a sophisticated parlor. The Raines Law, a liquor tax, was passed in 1896 New York in an effort to curb the consumption of alcohol. In addition to the tax, it prohibited the sale of alcohol on Sunday, except inside a hotel. Saloons began to take advantage of this loophole by adding a few “guest rooms” in the back or upstairs. Dorman’s modern homage to that era naturally sits inside of a hotel.

The drink is an “Old Fashioned”, that original classic mix of spirit (usually rye whiskey), sugar, bitters and ice. In this example, the rye is cut with a little apple brandy, which accents the flavor and is a nice touch for the season. Orgeat, and almond syrup, lends a twist on the more traditional brown sugar, and goes well with rye and apple. Angostura bitters are extremely classic, and hard to beat for the season as well, full of baking spice and warm notes. Here’s to embracing the Pioneer Spirit! Cheers.

Wagon Trail Lock puzzle and Pioneer Spirit cocktail — a pair of pioneers

Pioneer Spirit by Meaghan Doorman

1 ½ oz rye

½ oz Applejack

2 barspoons orgeat

2 dashes angostura bitters

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite glass over a large cube. Orange twist.

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