Have you seen Roger the Raccoon in Rogersville?

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A local artist is encouraging Rogersville residents to get out into the community through a city-wide scavenger hunt for a cartoon raccoon. His name is fittingly Roger, and he gets into some mischievous situations around Rogersville as he explores.

Andrea Ehrhardt created Roger the Raccoon about a year ago. He encourages the community to explore their city and visit small businesses across Rogersville. He can be found getting up to all kinds of adventures outside local businesses, reading a book at the library, and even in his monthly feature in the local newspaper.

Ehrhardt has painted murals across 5 continents. This includes many iconic murals in Springfield like the monarch butterfly wings downtown, and the "Greetings from Springfield" mural outside the Discovery Center.

"About four years ago, we moved out here to our forever home, and we did the same thing with Springfield. I looked around and saw a blank canvas about ten years ago. So I started painting murals all over Springfield," Ehrhardt said. "And now we live here, and this is also a blank canvas. And so I thought, what a fun way to bring art to the town."

Ehrhardt says Roger is a raccoon because Rogersville used to be known as the raccoon capital of the world. Now it's been one year since the first Roger painting, and there are almost 30 different versions of the mischievous raccoon. It's turned into a community scavenger hunt, effectively exposing people to art and locally owned businesses.

"They love it," Ehrhardt said. "I get a lot of messages from people sending me pictures of their kids going to search for Roger the Raccoon."

Owner of Slingshot Creative, Josh Hill, prints the Rogers that are all around town. He says many people come by just to take pictures with the Roger featured at his shop.

"We have people that come by just take photos with each one of them, the search for the spots," Hill said. "And they'll come out and take photos with them, just so I guess they can have them. I'm assuming. But yeah, it's pretty cool."

Ehrhardt says more versions of Roger will be made soon, and she has visions of seeing larger raccoon murals across Rogersville, hoping to one day take back the title of raccoon capital of the world.

You can find a full list of where you can go find Roger for yourself and more information about how to get Roger in front of your business by clicking here.