The 60th anniversary of the hunt proved to be the most exciting hunt for our team this year. We met a local medallion celebrity, Jake Ingebrigtson, who had found it twice and was featured in our favorite movie, No Time for Cold feet. Meeting him in the park several days before the medallion was found led us all to think that we were FINALLY on the right track.
This was the first year we uncovered the park before it was clearly spelled out in the clues (this year we were pretty sure it was in Tony Schmidt after clue 5). Jake told Seamus that if he ever found it again he'd retire...well guess what? He went on to find it with four other guys a few days later. We'll see if he retires. The Pioneer Press conspiracy theorists are going nuts right about now...
Seamus, as close to the medallion as we've ever been.
Jake and the other finder looking at the box the very first medallion was found in 60 years ago.
Bob took a picture of me taking a picture. But the next day the trail that is behind me in the photo is specially called out in the clues. We really know we're on the right track! Note Thomas is hunting from underneath a blanket. Also the weather was incredibly warm - we hunted in often 45 degree weather. And just about everyone on the team was battling a terrible cold or the flu. Needless the say the hunt was a highlight of the end of January for us all.
A portion of the team. Not photographed. Eli & Erin Vogen, Pat and Dee, Nicky and Katie.
Since the hunt goes on, here's a recap for future reference...
CLUE NO. 1
The time has come around again
For using all your cunning and ken
To unravel Boreas' befuddling clues
Circulated in the PiPress news.
Within our realm explore and search.
No private properties besmirch.
The treasure rests in a public park.
On a course for golf, please leave no mark.
CLUE NO. 2
It's time to get this off our chest:
Mix treasured lore into your quest.
Triple score provides a clue;
So do the colors red and blue.
CLUE NO. 3
Crack the nut and find the treasure.
There's a place to cook and a place for leisure.
A road there is that's interfacial.
Bag the treasure if you are able.
CLUE NO. 4
"Woof" says the dog.
"Babble" says the brook,
And here is wisdom on which to make book:
When in Rome you should do
Exactly as a Roman should do
CLUE NO. 5
If it's treasure you're trackin'
Stop chattin'. Get crackin'.
As the sun will lighten up your day,
This clue will brighten up your way.
CLUE NO. 6
Let us stop the haw and hem
And get you looking for the gem.
Incorporate thinking outside the box.
Sort it out as you like it - opportunity knocks.
CLUE NO. 7
Search the land through darkest night;
Follow the crowd to the treasure's site.
Wear warm clothes, and don't come to harm.
And bring along your good luck charm.
CLUE NO. 8
Many there are in many a park;
Find the right one, and you're close to the mark.
Think big, and you'll be right in the game
When you spot a place with a special claim.
Clue No. 9
From miles around they came to stay
A night or two, then on their way
To reap the riches fall can yield --
The delicacy of a watery field.
Clue No. 10
If you are now taken aback,
Then you are, my friend, on the right track.
Benches, tables, gazebos galore
To sit and admire the view from the shore.
But yours is not to sit or rest;
To scramble and search will serve you best.
Respect the land where people dwell.
But follow your nose to the nearer end smell.
CLUE NO. 11
Read the right sign then look up to the sky;
You'll be wired in then and won't go awry.
You're getting close, you're doing just fine.
With what you will see, this rhyme should align.
Clues to Park
Clue #1 The phrase "come around again" hints the treasure is hidden in a location where it has been hidden before. "Circulated in PiPress news" refers to the Pioneer Press circulation area and the word "explore" suggests expanding the search beyond St. Paul into all of Ramsey County. The treasure is hidden in a public park.
Clue #2 The colors red and blue, when "mixed" create Viking purple - more treasured Minnesota lore. The Vikings are seeking to build a new stadium in the City of Arden Hills, where the medallion is hidden and was hidden in the past.
Clue #3 Lake Johanna Blvd divides the Tony Schmidt Park recreational area - it separates the Lake Johanna beach front from the trail area where the medallion is hidden.
Clue #4 The words "Woof" and "Babble" are onomatopoetic - they imitate the sounds made by a dog and a brook and suggest that sound is important in this clue. The last line of the clue - "a Roman should do," evokes another reference to the Vikings Arden Hills stadium effort - wide receiver Devin "Aromashodu." "Woof" also sounds like the last name of Vikings owner Ziggy "Wilf." (Also the previous time the puck was hidden in Tony Schmidt, it was camouflaged in almond (nut) "bark." "Babbling" about a stadium is what politicians have been doing for a long time. "Make book" references "gambling" - a suggested funding source for a Vikings stadium.
Clue #6 confirms the medallion is hidden outside the city of St. Paul - "outside the box"-- in an "incorporated" Ramsey County city. "Sort it out as you like it" refers to Shakespeare's play "As You Like It," which contains scenes in the Forest of "Arden."
Clue #7 pinpoints Tony Schmidt Park in Arden Hills. Clue 7 quotes Mike Madland, who found the treasure in 1988, the last time the medallion was hidden in Tony Schmidt Park. He found the treasure at 10:30 at night by "following the crowd." His advice to hunters was to "dress warm," and he believed his son, Donny, was his good luck charm.
Clue #9 The earliest known history of Arden Hills and Lake Johanna is as a resting place for the Dakota people on their trek to harvest wild rice in other places.
Clues to Medallion Camouflage
Clue #2 In the very first treasure hunt, 1952, hunters sought a small metal chest but "off our chest" means this year's treasure is NOT in a chest. 2012 is the 60 th or "diamond jubilee" year of the hunt - a clue to how the treasure is camouflage (see Clue 3).
Clue #3 "Bag the treasure" reveals the medallion is in a bag; "crack the nut" further describes the bag as a bag of nuts. Combined with the "diamond" reference in Clue 2, the medallion is hidden in a Diamond nut (pecan) bag.
Clue #6 "Gem" is another reference to "diamond," which refers to the Diamond Pecan Bag holding the medallion.
Clues to Medallion Location
Clue #3 "There's a place to cook and a place of leisure" refers to the picnic pavilion with a kitchen that is near the medallion location.
Clue #8 The "many there are in many a park" refers to picnic pavilions/gazebos. "Think big" describes a larger structure with a kitchen (a "place to cook" from Clue 3) on the "big" hill in Tony Schmidt Park. Near the pavilion is a playground where children get "in the game." Reference to a place with "a special claim" refers to the handicapped parking in the nearby parking area.
Clue #9 The medallion is hidden on the Lake Johanna (south) side of the railroad tracks running through Tony Schmidt Park.
Clue #10 "Taken aback" means look away from the lake toward the treasure site - across Lake Johanna Blvd - the "interfacial" road from Clue 3. Don't "sit or rest but "scramble" the phrase "nearer end smell," an anagram for Elmer L Andersen, namesake of the trail head near the large pavilion in Clue 8. "Respect the land where people dwell" refers to all the private homes visible from the lake and along parts of the Elmer L. Anderson Trail.
Clue #11 The "right sign" is the marker for the Elmer L Andersen Trail (the anagram in Clue 10). Looking up, one sees wires. Follow them up the hill past the pavilion (Clue 8). The "what you will see" that "aligns" with the rhyming words "sign," "fine" and "align" is two groves of "pine" trees. The medallion is hidden near one of the two groves.
Clue #12 The medallion is hidden in Tony Schmidt Park in Arden Hills up the hill from the post marking the head of the Elmer L. Andersen Trail. Follow the trail past the large pavilion (with kitchen) and the children's playground. The medallion is hidden in the woods just off the trail --NOT in the sand around the playground equipment and NOT in the marshlands off the lower trail. Near the pavilion are poles supporting the overhead power lines. Standing by the poles, one can see two groups of pine trees "dead ahead" The medallion is hidden six paces north of nearer group; it's hidden "low"- on the ground frozen in a wrap of leaves in a Diamond Pecan Bag.
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