Thieves With Plastic Blue Hearts
This is a nonprofit site meant to add further enjoyment to a St. Paul, Minnesota hobby and tradition. At present, this site exists because the St. Paul Pioneer Press has allowed it to. Truth is, without the cooperation of the Pioneer Press and the exceptional folks at Pioneer Planet this site would be hard to operate, being that much of the good stuff is copyrighted by the Pioneer Press. The clues are the real butter for this basket of breadsticks and without them there's really no point in pursuing all else that follows. The clues belong to the Pioneer Press.
We do, however, develop original material, as a simple post of the clues would be quite dry. For instance, the explanations are not all Press originals. The stories and images are not press originals unless otherwise stated. And when credit is known, it is given. In no way are we trying to steal for personal gain. Where we will take credit is in the compilation of this material. Nowhere else is this done, thus the reason why the St. Paul paper seems to have taken a fancy toward our endeavors.
So enjoy, contribute, and let us know when we seem to have overstepped our bounds. Now go look at something more fun to read.
Greg Sax
Site Founder
During the 1990’s, the St Paul Pioneer Press opened online discussion forums. These forums were called Water Coolers. The forums had discussion topics related to sports, politics, news, and current events. Each year, the Pioneer Planet – the online section of the Pioneer Press – opened a discussion forum as a media for hunters to discuss the clues for the Winter Carnival Medallion Hunt.
During the earlier years, one might find a few hundred posts during the hunt. As more hunters had computers, those numbers jumped. From 1997 to 1998, the number of posts increased from the hundreds to the 5-digit thousands. It was during the 1998 hunt the Cooler Crew was born.
The community spirit and teamwork displayed in the Pioneer Press Medallion Hunt thread was inspiring. The group of hunters found themselves at the end of a hunt not wanting to let go of new friendships and the camaraderie found on the Water Cooler board. The idea emerged to do what anyone would do in the middle of winter in Minnesota. A picnic in Cherokee was planned - the first Rehash Bash!
