WHEATLAND – The origins of the popular board game, “Monopoly” can be “traced back to 1903 when American antimonopolist Lizzie Magie created a game which she hoped would explain the single-tax theory of Henry George. It was intended as an educational tool to illustrate the negative aspects of concentrating land in private monopolies. She took out a patent in 1904. Her game, The Landlord's Game, was self-published, beginning in 1906,” according to sources at Wiki.

Monopoly came to the forefront of popularity during the Great Depression when Charles Darrow, an unemployed heating engineer pitched and sold the concept to Parker Brothers in 1935.

Since that time, there was a Monopoly board in every home and was as common as having a deck of cards. It waned in its popularity with the influx of technology and video games as did many board games that brings back memories of family game night and rainy afternoons at the cabin while on vacation.

In 1990 here in Wheatland, to generate more ad income and also to promote pride in the community, a quirky version of Monopoly was published called “WHEATLANDOPOLY.” There are not many of those 32-year-old games still exist, with the exception of a pristine copy that Dan Brecht has held on to all these years.

Genia Vineyard of Simply Creative came up with the idea to resurrect a game that was popular before the new millennium. In 1990 the board game was WHEATLANDOPOLY but the 2022 version that is coming out around Christmas includes more of a Platte County flavor and is called PLATTEOPOLY.

The concept was pitched to Wheatland’s Main Street group and as Vineyard had the go-ahead to run with the idea, it generated much more interest and participation than anticipated.

“We sold all of these spaces to businesses all over the county,” Vineyard said. After just a few weeks, the entire set of property cards is sold. We didn’t even get to everyone yet.”

A local business can purchase the mortgage deed cards and put them in their own name. For example, what is Boardwalk on a regular Monopoly game may be Safeway or Drube Supply here in Wheatland. Businesses can also have their logos put on the currency (which the 1990 game didn’t have) and you can also get your name on the board as a personal sponsor for $50.

“They did this in 1990 as a Project Safe fundraiser,” Vineyard said. “It hadn’t been done since 1990 so for Platte County Mainstreet, this is a perfect thing for Main Street to represent. There are surprisingly many businesses who advertised on the 1990 game are still in town and there are still some of the old games out there. Some have never opened and played them.”

Vineyard said that her it’s like a snapshot in history. Who was here way back when. It’s captured forever on the board.

“It’s so exciting that everybody’s so excited about it,” she said. “I’ve been chasing the project for probably six months or more. Just to get Main Street to decide they are going to do it, because of course, Main Street has to pay for the games up front.”

The retail prices on the boards will be $39.99 to own a piece of history. They will be available in mid-November and the games will be sold by many businesses all over Platte County. Just in time for that quirky Christmas gift for someone special.

All proceeds will go to the Main Street programs that they run.

Businesses that have paid for a sponsorship can actually sell the games and recoup their original investment, however Vineyard said that may of the larger businesses will be gifting them to some of their clientele or employee gifts.

It’s a resurgence of board games which has been trendy of late. It may also be a returning to the simpler times when families again will gather and have family game nights.

“When we started doing the math on this, it’s not going to be the best fundraiser ever, but it will be such a cool snapshot of our history,” Vineyard said. “What could even be fun is to host a PLATTEOPOLY tournament.”

It’s a trip back in time to record our time today.