From desert inspiration to "WordTrails:" Kanab inventor brings unusual game to life
Part 1 of 2
An unexpected idea in the Nevada desert has grown into an unconventional game created by Kanab resident Scout Wilkins, with a little help from friends, family and an assortment of unlikely circumstances.
In May 2021, Wilkins was traveling to Montana when she stopped to camp on a dry lakebed in Nevada. She awoke around midnight beneath a full moon with an overwhelming urge to get out of her truck and dance.
There was just one problem: The ground was covered in fine dust, and another part of her wanted nothing to do with it.
As she considered the competing impulses, Wilkins imagined a small chip floating above her. In her mind, two hands separated it into two chips, one labeled “CAN” and the other “HAVE TO.”
“I was bowled over, because in that moment I saw completely that my entire life had been lived from a belief that those two were the same thing,” she recalled.
On her return trip, Wilkins stopped at a craft store in Twin Falls, Idaho, purchased modeling clay and began making chips bearing words such as “can’t,” “won’t,” “will” and “love to.”
Back home, the chips sat on her coffee table, where visiting friends began experimenting with them. More words appeared, followed by colored categories, action cards and eventually a playing board.
For nearly a year, the project evolved without a formal plan.
“Is it a game? Is it a tool? I don’t know,” Wilkins said. “What it is called doesn’t really matter. What it does is the thing.”
In 2022, Wilkins moved to Kanab after an unplanned drive through town led her to a house she eventually purchased. Local friends became part of the game’s development, experimenting with the pieces and helping introduce new elements.
When Wilkins was ready to explore commercial production, an email from Utah Tech led her to the Atwood Innovation Plaza in St. George. There she connected with product development specialists who helped transform her handmade prototypes into a manufactured game.
The process eventually involved designers and printers in Washington state. On December 5, 2024, the first finished copies of WordTrails arrived at her Kanab home.
“There truly was never a time in all this that was me standing up saying, ‘I’m going to create a game for this purpose and here’s what it will look like,’” Wilkins said.
Instead, she describes WordTrails as an evolving collaboration shaped by everyone who helped bring it to life.
Next week: How WordTrails works, the unexpected places it’s being used and what Wilkins hopes it can accomplish. More information about WordTrails is available at wordtrails.com.
