THE LOST VOICES CHALLENGE Crawford Notch
1826–2026
Inquiry ✶ Discovery ✶ Contribution
An Experiential Learning Challenge for America’s
250th Anniversary and the Willey House Bicentennial
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Uncover hidden gems and unfamiliar corners of your city or beyond. Traveling or even exploring local spots can provide fresh perspectives and inspiring experiences.
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Life is made up of countless small moments that often go unnoticed. From a peaceful sunrise to a chat with a friend, each moment adds value to our lives.
Recognizing your accomplishments, no matter how small, is crucial for maintaining motivation and self-esteem. Each milestone reflects your hard work and perseverance.
BUILT ON PROVEN PRACTICE
Every meaningful investigation begins with a question.
✶ Some questions remain with us for days.
✶ Others remain for years.
Occasionally, a question follows us for decades.
The Lost Voices Challenge did not emerge from a planning document.
It emerged from lived experience.
For more than three decades, similar investigations have brought together learners, mentors, communities, researchers, artists, storytellers, and subject-matter experts in the shared pursuit of discovery.
One example began with a historical investigation into the 1875 murder of Josie Langmaid in Pembroke, New Hampshire.
What started as a question grew into an interdisciplinary challenge involving historical investigation, primary source analysis, screenplay development, filmmaking, community engagement, and public presentation.
Learners worked alongside mentors, professional filmmakers, researchers/investigators, historians, and community members.
✶ New roles emerged.
✶ Unexpected contributions appeared.
✶ Questions led to further questions.
✶ Discoveries led to new investigations.
The result was not simply a completed project.
The result was a community of people working together to investigate, create, contribute, and share what they had learned.
Many participants later reflected that the most meaningful aspects of the experience were not the facts they memorized.
They were the relationships they built, the challenges they overcame together, and the discoveries they helped bring into the world.
The Lost Voices Challenge builds upon that same spirit.
Not by repeating the past.
By applying those lessons to a new investigation.
Just as earlier generations walked the landscape, interviewed witnesses, compared accounts, and sought understanding, today’s investigators have opportunities to build upon that work using new tools, new perspectives, and new forms of collaboration.
The goal is not to recreate history.
The goal is to participate in it.
✶ To investigate thoughtfully.
✶ To contribute meaningfully.
✶ To leave behind new questions, new discoveries, and new opportunities for those who follow.
Because every generation inherits stories.
Every generation adds to them.
And every generation has the opportunity to help others see them in a new light.
AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE
The Lost Voices Challenge is larger than any single organization, institution, discipline, or individual.
✶ The story belongs to the landscape.
✶ The questions belong to all of us.
✶ The opportunities for discovery continue to grow with every new perspective brought to the investigation.
Universities, historical societies, museums, libraries, community organizations, researchers, storytellers, environmental investigators, public historians, mentors, learners, and curious individuals all have something meaningful to contribute.
✶ Some may contribute expertise.
✶ Some may contribute questions.
✶ Some may contribute historical materials, local knowledge, memories, photographs, maps, or stories.
✶ Others may contribute technologies, investigations, partnerships, or entirely new perspectives.
✶ Every contribution helps expand the picture.
✶ Every contribution creates new opportunities for discovery.
The Lost Voices Challenge is designed to support collaboration across generations, disciplines, communities, and institutions.
It is an opportunity to bring together people who might not otherwise have the chance to work alongside one another.
✶ Historians and technologists.
✶ Researchers and storytellers.
✶ Community members and universities.
✶ Mentors and learners.
✶ Local knowledge and emerging technologies.
✶ Different perspectives.
✶ Shared investigation.
✶ Shared contribution.
As the 2026 Willey House Bicentennial approaches, new opportunities continue to emerge.
✶ New questions are being asked.
✶ New connections are being discovered.
✶ New investigations are beginning.
The invitation is simple:
✶ Bring your curiosity.
✶ Bring your perspective.
✶ Bring your questions.
Help us discover what might still be waiting to be found.
Because some of the most meaningful contributions begin with a question no one thought to ask.
Follow the investigation
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