Have they always been able to find the Treasure Hunt medallion?
St. Paul Pioneer Press - 01-22-2017
Sometimes it's buried deep in the woods, and sometimes it's dropped in the middle of a city park.
JAIME DELAGE - PIONEER PRESS STAFF WRITER
Sometimes it's buried deep in the woods, and sometimes it's dropped in the middle of a city park.
Either way, someone has found the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt medallion every year since the contest began. It just takes a while some years.
The 2016 medallion was the first in more than a decade that eluded hunters right down to the 12th and final clue. Three Minneapolis friends found the medallion shortly after the final clue was published at TwinCities.com/TreasureHunt. It was under an uprooted tree off a nature trail at Bald Eagle-Otter Lakes Regional Park north of White Bear Lake. Wrapped up in a wet nap and hidden inside a plastic bag, the winners found it when it stuck to the tines of a rake.
There was a lot of fresh snow on the ground, and some people had predicted the 2016 hunt would be the longest ever.
But the treasure hunt has gone longer before.
In 67 previous hunts, the medallion always has been found. The latest it turned up was 5 p.m. on the final day of the 1984 hunt, nearly 18 hours after the final clue came out.
Before 2016, the last time the hunt went to the final clue was 2004, when the medallion was discovered loose in the snow at Phalen Park after being dislodged from the green frosted doughnut it was hidden with. The doughnut, perhaps eaten by squirrels, was never found. It was eight hours after the final clue was published.
Will the medallion ever go unfound?
"I would say the chances are pretty much zero, unless somebody finds it and doesn't hand it in," said Lori Swanson, vice president of marketing for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "The last clue tells you pretty much where it is."
Here's a list of hunts that went down to the final clue, gleaned from the "Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt History," by Jesse Anibas, which is available at wintercarnival.8m.com.
1962: Mr. and Mrs. John Michaud found the medallion about noon in a hard-packed cake of snow on a site leveled out for the future Interstate 35E, just west of Lawson Avenue and Mississippi Street.
1967: Harvey and Rita Etzler found it about 12:45 p.m. in a horseshoe on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds Midway.
1970: Linda and Mary Hollanitsch, Kris Rayment, Margaret Anderson and Jerome Wandschneider found it about 11:30 a.m. in a metal vise on the 50-yard line of the football field at Battle Creek Park.
1971: John F. Fastner found it about noon in the wheel of a baby buggy near the shore of Wakefield Lake.
1973: Michael Hurley, Chris and Todd Bunde and Jim Zielinski found it about noon near a light pole north of the Phalen Park Pavilion.
1978: Bev and Diane Gerber and Rita Taylor found it about 10 a.m. in a frozen ball of watered-down milk near the Harriet Island Pavilion.
1981: Frank Klapak and Wesley Etzler found it about 3 a.m. in two oak leaves near the Acorn Park skating rinks.
1984: Kirk Condie found it about 5 p.m. in a broken 45 record near a Newell Park footpath.
1988: Mike and Donny Madland found it about midnight, shortly after the clue’s release, in a chunk of almond bark near the bathrooms at Tony Schmidt Park in Arden Hills.
1989: Mike and Dan Reinartz and Jim Murphy found it about 1:45 a.m. in a pair of white earmuffs between the hedgerows near the State Capitol Veterans Memorial.
1993: Tom and Dan Opatz, Phil Sinn and Mark Nicklawske found it about 12:15 a.m. in a diaper south of the Hidden Falls picnic area.
1996: Charles Kester and Eric Taylor found it the morning of the final day in a Skoal tin near the Harriet Island picnic shelter.
2003: Michael Corrigan, Craig Black and Josh Stender found it about 11:45 p.m., minutes after release of the final clue, in a block of ice near the old fireplace in Como Park.
2004: Luis and Virginia Ibarra found it about 7:45 a.m. loose in the snow after it fell out of its green frosted doughnut between Round Lake and Lake Phalen at Phalen Park.
2016: Christopher Jozwiak, Phillip Kitzer and Heather Vocke found the medallion shortly before midnight under an uprooted tree at Bald Eagle-Otter Lakes Regional Park.
The Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt is presented by Fury Jeep.