ABOUT US

Owned and operated by Beth Scrimger, Mystery NH is Mount Washington Valley's premier escape room experience.

Beth has lived around the Valley on and off throughout her life and is happy to call it home with her husband, Bruce. Their sons, Devlin and Ian, both Fryeburg Academy graduates (Ian is a Full Sail University alumnus) are instrumental to the success of our rooms. Their sister, Kellyn, also a Fryeburg Academy graduate and Stetson University alumna, and other members of Beth's family are frequently called upon for design ideas, building projects and game mastering duties, for which Beth is always immensely grateful.

Beth strives to design rooms that challenge all sorts of skills and aptitudes, appealing to the math geek, lexophile, cryptographer and apophenia in all of us.  Beth's primary goal is for each of her guests to have a good time, possibly exercising the brain cells a bit.

Special thanks goes to Ron Krieger of RJK Remodeling & Building and Carlija Trett, the Valhalla Handyman, who are instrumental in bringing visions of grandeur into existence.

BRIEF HISTORY OF MYSTERY NH

July 2, 2015 - Keith Force launched the idea of starting an escape room in the Mount Washington Valley.  

Beth Scrimger, a long-time friend, was up for the challenge and a partnership was born.

The sight of a moose in the gift shop on top of Mt Washington inspired our logo, "Myst".

"Mystery at The Met" was our first room. The Met owners, Larry and Diane, graciously hosted us in their upstairs conference room for August and September. The concept of escape rooms was very new to many Valley residents and visitors, and The Met's central location allowed us to open folks up to a new form of entertainment.

Settlers Green was our next home from October through January 2106, where we created rooms 2 and 3, "Agent X" and "Escape the Zombies". Both rooms were great successes and we thank Dot Seybold for allowing us the opportunity to expand our business while looking for our permanent home.

Also in January 2016, we signed our lease for our new home at the Mt Valley Mall. After an exciting five-week construction phase, we were able to transform a completely empty box into a wonderfully, creative space with the capacity for three+ escape rooms. 

Early in 2017, Beth took over the business full time, allowing Keith to pursue other interests. 

Thank you to all our players, our staff, our friends, our neighbors at Cinema 7 and Lowe's, and especially our families!

In March 2020, COVID-19 disrupted our world. After closing, per government order, for 10 weeks of quarantine, Mystery NH re-opened.

BRIEF HISTORY OF ESCAPE GAMES

Escape games originated from point-and-click adventure computer games in the 1980s where players must escape from a virtual environment, by solving puzzles, looking for clues and maneuvering through obstacles.

The games' popularity increased with the release of a game by Toshimitsu Takagi called 'Crimson Room'. Today, escape games are often identified in the Takagism genre - a credit to Takagi.

Takao Kato of Japan is first credited with bringing the online video games to a real-life venue.  In 2007, Real Escape Game started the phenomenon that subsequently swept through China, Indonesia, Taiwan and Singapore in the following years. In 2012, escape rooms made their debut in the U.S., first in San Francisco, then Seattle. Since then, escape rooms have popped up across the country.