Sunday, July 12, 2026 · america_250

America 250 · American minds — born July 12

5 questions · 1000 points possible. Below are the prompts, hints, and target locations from this pack.

Five extraordinary Americans share a July 12 birthday — a writer at Walden, a futurist inventor, a wandering naturalist painter, a sharecropper's daughter who sang the blues, and a Texan who beat the Russians at piano.

Practice this pack

01
Drop a pin on the town where Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817 — and where he later wrote 'Walden.'
● Monument Square — Concord, Massachusetts, United States
Did you know?
Thoreau wrote 'Civil Disobedience' after a single night in jail for refusing to pay a poll tax that funded the Mexican-American War. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. both cited it as direct influence.
Target
42.4604°, -71.3489°
Cap
932 mi
Weight
200 pts
02
Drop a pin on the town where R. Buckminster Fuller was born July 12, 1895 — the futurist inventor of the geodesic dome.
● Lodge Street — Milton, Massachusetts, United States
Did you know?
Fuller dropped out of Harvard twice, served in WWI, and invented the Dymaxion car (1933), Dymaxion house (1929), and geodesic dome (1949). About 300,000 domes have been built worldwide.
Target
42.2495°, -71.0664°
Cap
932 mi
Weight
200 pts
03
Drop a pin on the village where Andrew Wyeth was born July 12, 1917 — and where he painted 'Christina's World' in 1948.
● Upper Bank Drive — Chadds Ford Township, Pennsylvania, United States
Did you know?
Wyeth painted the actual Christina (Olson) at her Maine farmhouse, not at home in Pennsylvania. The Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford holds the largest collection of his work.
Target
39.8779°, -75.5916°
Cap
932 mi
Weight
200 pts
04
Drop a pin on the Los Angeles neighborhood where Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins on July 12, 1938 — 'At Last' singer and Chess Records legend.
● La Salle Avenue — Los Angeles, California, United States
Did you know?
James recorded 'At Last' in 1960 with the Chess house band. She was just 22; the song became a wedding-and-Super Bowl-and-Inauguration standard, performed at Barack Obama's first inaugural ball.
Target
34.0117°, -118.3055°
Cap
932 mi
Weight
200 pts
05
Drop a pin on the town where pianist Van Cliburn was born July 12, 1934 — the 23-year-old who won Moscow's Tchaikovsky Competition at the height of the Cold War.
● Commerce Street — Fort Worth, Texas, United States
Did you know?
Cliburn's 1958 Tchaikovsky win prompted an eight-minute standing ovation in Moscow. Khrushchev had personally OK'd him as winner. He returned home to a Broadway ticker-tape parade — the only one ever for a classical musician.
Target
32.7555°, -97.3308°
Cap
932 mi
Weight
200 pts

America 250 · American minds — born July 12

Drop a pin on the town where Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817 — and where he later wrote 'Walden.'

Drop a pin on the town where R. Buckminster Fuller was born July 12, 1895 — the futurist inventor of the geodesic dome.

Drop a pin on the village where Andrew Wyeth was born July 12, 1917 — and where he painted 'Christina's World' in 1948.

Drop a pin on the Los Angeles neighborhood where Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins on July 12, 1938 — 'At Last' singer and Chess Records legend.

Drop a pin on the town where pianist Van Cliburn was born July 12, 1934 — the 23-year-old who won Moscow's Tchaikovsky Competition at the height of the Cold War.