Meet the Creator of the Block Island Scavenger Hunt

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (WPRI) — For the past thirteen years, glass orbs have been hidden around Block Island. They’re free, but you need to find one first.

Eben Horton founded the Glass Float Project in 2011. His wife Jennifer Nauck has been helping since 2012.

Each year, the duo creates 550 glass floats, which are then hidden by many people around the island.

“They are hidden on Block Island, on the beaches and green trails,” Horton said.

Glass floats have been around for a long time. Nauck explained that “they are modeled after Japanese fishing net floats.”

“So these are things that people have been finding on beaches for hundreds of years,” Nauck added.

The tanks are engraved with a date and registration number so people can report their finds.

Horton had the idea for the project several years before it came to fruition.

“When I was 19, I was working in this glass workshop and a bunch of pieces of glass had little cracks in them. They couldn’t sell them, and I thought they were too cool to throw away,” Horton recalls.

“So I took all these glasses and hid them all over Middletown and Little Compton, and that idea stuck with me for a long time,” he continued.

The project exploded. Block Island natives and tourists search for the orbs every summer. People came from India just to meet Eben and try to find an elusive tank.

“It’s very humiliating. I never thought, by hiding the first ones, that it would become what it is,” Horton said.

There is a tag looking for it. Tanks are never hidden in dunes, on cliffs, on school grounds, on private property or in cemeteries.

Tanks will always be hidden near established trails. There is no need to deconstruct stone walls or damage the natural landscape.

Another principle: once you find a float, don’t take any more home.

This year, there will be 24 special floats of different colors to discover.

Glassblowers have some tips for finding floats.

“Anything that catches your eye could be a potential hiding place,” Nauck advised.

“Where would you hide it? I’d hide one there, well, maybe he did,” Horton added.

So keep an eye out if you walk on a Block Island beach or trail this summer. You might just find hidden treasure.