Mysterious stickers with QR codes decorated Lincoln’s walls and doors on Monday morning. When the codes were scanned with a smartphone, they led to a website counting down to Wednesday, March 11 at 11:11:11 a.m.

The stickers were also posted around Grant High School and Cleveland High School. At first, students and administrators were dubious of the nature of the countdown. PPS cooperated with Portland Police, according to an email sent out by Principal Peyton Chapman, in order to identify any threat the stickers might have posed. The stickers were also taken down.

“Because they are strange in nature and nobody knows what is is, we’ve notified police and they are looking into it,” PPS public information officer Christine Miles said earlyon Monday.

In addition, a Facebook group titled “Strange Symbol Around Portland” was created in order to share information about the stickers as it became available.

The stickers had strange, unidentifiable symbols on them, described by journalist Lisa Loving as a “nut that a bolt would fit into.”

If any blank space on the website was clicked, it would lead to an excerpt of The Charging of the Light Brigade, a poem written in 1854 to commemorate a battle during the Crimean War. However, the poem is no longer present on the website.

A change to the site came a little after 11 a.m. on Monday when a new message was posted below the countdown in an attempt to calm school parents, students and administrators. “It seems some people are worried about the countdown,” it said. “It’s not anything malicious, it’s just a puzzle.”

Later, the website released more information about the countdown and its intention. It is all part of an “exploration project” around the city called the “Portland Puzzle” that is supposed to last the next two months. Wednesday, March 11 is the day the first clue is supposed to come out.

To access the Portland Puzzle website, click here: http://24.21.69.161/message.php.

To access the Facebook group, click here: https://www.facebook.com/strangesymbol/timeline.