So when do they hide it? Do they always hide it in Saint Paul? Who hides it? Do you think they really hide it in advance, or do they wait until the hunt is at least a week old? How many people at the Pioneer Press know where it is? Does the hider hang out around the site to see the activity?
Those are all really good questions - probably not with many answers.
I can tell you, as I have a friend that works for the Pioneer Press, that almost none of the people at the paper know where it it, who hides it, who writes the clues or when it's hidden.
I do believe however that it is put down before the hunt begins. The question in my mind is how much before. It's been found at or near ground level often under feet of snow - remember Wakefield on the lake attached to the tire thingy? - and there were no tracks or any signs of that snow being touched since it fell. That's why my theory is that it's put down during a bad snow fall while the rest of us are too busy digging out and shoveling our driveways to be concerned about some oddball in the park somewhere.
Here's why I thought the clues from last year were lame:
Clue #2: A whole clue just to use one word (Ace)? Like the word "ace" would even possibly have any meaning to anyone prior to discovering the card box.
Clue #3: A tower or two? There were frickin towers everywhere you looked in Newell. EXCEPT you couldn't see any towers to the north (Boreas' direction) from the hiding place.
Clue #4: Like I said earlier, with a little research it basically gave the park away in a fairly definitive manner (kicking myself in the butt again). And we're were supposed to get Pierce-Butler from the fact they used the word "serve"? Its a pretty useless clue as there's no way to know which word we should be attaching such significance to.
Clue #5: This one was ok.
Clue #6: This one was ok.
Clue #7: Could this have left any doubt as to what park it was? And for such a small park, it doesn't make sense to pinpoint it this early.
Clue #8: "way" ending one line, followed by "amid" beginning the next line, is supposed to suggest "Midway"? In addition to having an extra letter, why backtrack and point out the general area when you've already given street names?
Clue #9: "Not far from divinity" is supposed to suggest the Saints? Saints aren't divine. It would be nice if they could be a bit more precise with their definitions.
Clue #10: Giving us Pierce Butler again? Like Fairview and Wheeler weren't enough?
Clue #11: "with a vet" is supposed to be an anagram for Hewitt Ave., except there's a letter missing. And for clue 11, isn't it a bit late to be throwing out yet another street name?
From having made one myself, I know it can be tricky to make an air tight set of clues. Mine even had an error or two, but then I spent only a month on mine. If I had a year, there would be no errors.
Its funny how there's almost a mythology behind the hunt. No one knows the truth it seems and I've heard a lot of different stories. I've heard that a woman wrote the clues for several years, and then that a guy was writing them, I've heard it was two couples, I've heard that it was someone different every year, I've heard that its just a general employee of the paper, I've heard that its an outside service under contract. The only thing I've consistently heard and believe is that VERY few people at the PP know where it is and what's going on.
Good news on the books. I have mine - somewhere between here and the place up north. I want another one as a reserve - and until I can find the first one!
From my way of looking at clues - often one of the very earliest clues will tell you what the med is to be found in or attached to...but because hunters are still trying to figure out the park, those clues are hard to noodle. The Ace clue was on target there if you look at the general way clues are written.
Often times the clue writer first puts you in a general area (St. Paul or whatever), then very specific (what it's in or some landmark very near by), then something off in the distance (towers, domes, etc.) then something very near by again. It was classic clue writing.
The part that makes it more difficult is that we don't figure out what's close, in the distance or if it's a clue pertaining to what it's hidden in. The Navy Sock at Cherokee didn't come into the clues until very late which was unusual.
allison, your clue analysis is nearly perfect; depending on your particular implementation of christianity, saints are more or less nearly divine, not far from it. but still, midway stadium could have pointed to quite a few parks.
for the epitome of lameness, the first clue pointed me towards swede hollow. seemed like a perfect vikings depression.
Viking Depression would have actually have been a very clever allusion to Swede Hallow had they meant it that way.
In my opinion the "perfect" set of clues would do the following:
Give the hunter an outside shot at finding the Medallion by the 2nd clue if they're clever enough and willing to take a bold interpretation of the clues.
Each clue should narrow down the scope of the hunt. The first clue may narrow it down to parks in St. Paul. Then maybe the second narrows it down to parks with water nearby. Then maybe a few other landmarks that eliminate even more parks until it becomes fairly clear what park it is, and from there it should narrow it down to where in the park.
Each clue should take a bit to figure out the way you had to think about the opposites of cloudy and foul last year, or the trees in a line the year before. But once you figure it out, you should feel as though you "know" you've hit upon it.
The clues should offer something of a red herring just to keep people off balance. For example, referring to landmarks that are visible from a popular park, but also visible from a more obscure park or something else clever. (In my hunt, it became obvious the clues were spelling out a page number in The Treasure Hunter's Guide. Up through clue nine, where the letters were "p-a-g-e-s-e-v-e-n-t", everyone thought it was page seventeen since there were three clues left. But the last clue had two paragraphs and it really spelled out page seventy-two.)
guide- a man hides it(ananyomos), 2 people know(him and the chief editor person), they DO hide it in advance(I dont know how much though), and YES they DO watch people in the park(apparently they roll with laughter(hider and his son)
Allison- this thing would be WAY to eazy if the clue writer was smart! we tried to get inside the mind of the cluewriter, but an ignorant mind is hard to crack.
Hay, Toes! Any finds o'The Med in those three gens?
Oh! I forgot to tell you guys! I work with a woman and her three female cousins found it one year! She thinks the year it was in the Skoal tin... She's not sure.
SHEESH! If MY cousin's had found it, I'd KNOW!
I just don't unnerstand the mind-set o'folks that don't get all goofy over The Hunt. How can someone NOT be into this????
green- I don't know how anyone can not get crazy about the hunt either. I don't mind though, less people= higher cc ratio (cooler crew members divided by non members)
Wow--so much to blog through. First, since I have nothing else to noodle, according to the Catholic theology references I have, it would actually be an offence to refer to Saints as Divine. In the sense of the Church, anyway, Christ's divinity refers to fact that he is God. Saints, are not God--prayers to them are actually requests for them to pray to God on your behalf. So, there clue writer person! Divine probably came from the difficulty in finding a synonym for "Saintly".
Second--I like Swede Hollow park. Yep, limited parking, but no less than at Conway. Small parking lot on East 7th. Could be fun. Third--Cool moniker--"Black Sabbath Guy". I've been a fan for 13-14 years.
Third--clarification--when I said I gave up tobacco, I gave up chewing. So, if they hide that bad boy in a Skoal tin again, it's mine! See, I quit smoking a couple of years ago by taking up Copenhagen. Now I am quitting the Copenhagen, by chewing gum. Which Wriggles and jiggles and tickles inside me. Just couldn't resist that last line. Anyhoo, the nicotine withdrawal headache is much less on day 3--thanks for all the support. It was supposed to be a New Year's thing, so I got a late start, but I figure if I say it's for Lent, I am more than a month ahead.
He gang don't be surprized if it's in a new park. 50th anniversity starting a new? I hope this hunt lasts longer than last year!!!! GOOD LUCK!!!!!
So when do they hide it? Do they always hide it in Saint Paul? Who hides it? Do you think they really hide it in advance, or do they wait until the hunt is at least a week old? How many people at the Pioneer Press know where it is? Does the hider hang out around the site to see the activity?
Howdy Guide!
Those are all really good questions - probably not with many answers.
I can tell you, as I have a friend that works for the Pioneer Press, that almost none of the people at the paper know where it it, who hides it, who writes the clues or when it's hidden.
I do believe however that it is put down before the hunt begins. The question in my mind is how much before. It's been found at or near ground level often under feet of snow - remember Wakefield on the lake attached to the tire thingy? - and there were no tracks or any signs of that snow being touched since it fell. That's why my theory is that it's put down during a bad snow fall while the rest of us are too busy digging out and shoveling our driveways to be concerned about some oddball in the park somewhere.
My favorite question:
DO YOU HIDE IT?
My response:
YES.
Cute Guide! Very cute!
Are you going to be at Patrick McGovern's on Saturday? Gonna have those books with?
Here's why I thought the clues from last year were lame:
Clue #2: A whole clue just to use one word (Ace)? Like the word "ace" would even possibly have any meaning to anyone prior to discovering the card box.
Clue #3: A tower or two? There were frickin towers everywhere you looked in Newell. EXCEPT you couldn't see any towers to the north (Boreas' direction) from the hiding place.
Clue #4: Like I said earlier, with a little research it basically gave the park away in a fairly definitive manner (kicking myself in the butt again). And we're were supposed to get Pierce-Butler from the fact they used the word "serve"? Its a pretty useless clue as there's no way to know which word we should be attaching such significance to.
Clue #5: This one was ok.
Clue #6: This one was ok.
Clue #7: Could this have left any doubt as to what park it was? And for such a small park, it doesn't make sense to pinpoint it this early.
Clue #8: "way" ending one line, followed by "amid" beginning the next line, is supposed to suggest "Midway"? In addition to having an extra letter, why backtrack and point out the general area when you've already given street names?
Clue #9: "Not far from divinity" is supposed to suggest the Saints? Saints aren't divine. It would be nice if they could be a bit more precise with their definitions.
Clue #10: Giving us Pierce Butler again? Like Fairview and Wheeler weren't enough?
Clue #11: "with a vet" is supposed to be an anagram for Hewitt Ave., except there's a letter missing. And for clue 11, isn't it a bit late to be throwing out yet another street name?
From having made one myself, I know it can be tricky to make an air tight set of clues. Mine even had an error or two, but then I spent only a month on mine. If I had a year, there would be no errors.
yes i have a friend at the paper too!! 3 people know where it's hid hhehe GOOD LUCK!! to every one..
Hi TV:
I'm just trying to be the first one this year to ask all of the classic treasure hunt questions.
Being first is good! Hopefully one of us will be the first to get our hands on the medallion too!
I'm being cheeky. I'll be there TV. I'll bring some books.
Its funny how there's almost a mythology behind the hunt. No one knows the truth it seems and I've heard a lot of different stories. I've heard that a woman wrote the clues for several years, and then that a guy was writing them, I've heard it was two couples, I've heard that it was someone different every year, I've heard that its just a general employee of the paper, I've heard that its an outside service under contract. The only thing I've consistently heard and believe is that VERY few people at the PP know where it is and what's going on.
Good news on the books. I have mine - somewhere between here and the place up north. I want another one as a reserve - and until I can find the first one!
LOOK IN A NEW PARK THIS YEAR??
New parks are fun to dig in.
Vikki, yes! The Pre-Dig Gig is open to all! Hope to see you there and hear your stories about the last 20 or so years hunting The Med!
Bax, HOLY CROW! Is that ever some work and noodling! I've yet to quite figure it out, but numbers and I don't get along too well...
MJ, Speaketh foreth yourselfeth!
Terry, what do you MEAN??? "Almost none of the people" at Mom Press know???? So, SOME of them DO know?
WHO ARE THEY???????????????????????????????????????
Allison, I'm in your camp re: last year's clues. You make a ton o'sense to me. YOU GO!
Hi Green!
What I meant is that someone has to know, right? No one knows who that is...but someone has to be in the know.
From my way of looking at clues - often one of the very earliest clues will tell you what the med is to be found in or attached to...but because hunters are still trying to figure out the park, those clues are hard to noodle. The Ace clue was on target there if you look at the general way clues are written.
Often times the clue writer first puts you in a general area (St. Paul or whatever), then very specific (what it's in or some landmark very near by), then something off in the distance (towers, domes, etc.) then something very near by again. It was classic clue writing.
The part that makes it more difficult is that we don't figure out what's close, in the distance or if it's a clue pertaining to what it's hidden in. The Navy Sock at Cherokee didn't come into the clues until very late which was unusual.
allison, your clue analysis is nearly perfect; depending on your particular implementation of christianity, saints are more or less nearly divine, not far from it. but still, midway stadium could have pointed to quite a few parks.
for the epitome of lameness, the first clue pointed me towards swede hollow. seemed like a perfect vikings depression.
jason
Jeez-louise! When you put it like THAT, Ter...
DANG! Both you and Allison make the most perfect o'sense to me!
Bottomline: All the clues, for the past THREE YEARS, have been sucky because I can't get a handle on them!
Ares... all the talk about saints and divine... I'm readin' ya and readin' ya, and thinking...
"Man, Allison's good, REALLY good, but a saint? Nah. That's taking it a bit far..." LOL!!!
Glad you got to the stadium bit... LOL!!!
Joe!
Anyone been out looking yet
The Puck has never been found at Swede Hollow, does anyone know why it hasn't been hidden there ? Is this a dangerous place ?
because Swede Hollow is the size of my back yard. plus, absolutely no parking.(well, that would be a problem)
Snail Lake this year
Viking Depression would have actually have been a very clever allusion to Swede Hallow had they meant it that way.
In my opinion the "perfect" set of clues would do the following:
Give the hunter an outside shot at finding the Medallion by the 2nd clue if they're clever enough and willing to take a bold interpretation of the clues.
Each clue should narrow down the scope of the hunt. The first clue may narrow it down to parks in St. Paul. Then maybe the second narrows it down to parks with water nearby. Then maybe a few other landmarks that eliminate even more parks until it becomes fairly clear what park it is, and from there it should narrow it down to where in the park.
Each clue should take a bit to figure out the way you had to think about the opposites of cloudy and foul last year, or the trees in a line the year before. But once you figure it out, you should feel as though you "know" you've hit upon it.
The clues should offer something of a red herring just to keep people off balance. For example, referring to landmarks that are visible from a popular park, but also visible from a more obscure park or something else clever. (In my hunt, it became obvious the clues were spelling out a page number in The Treasure Hunter's Guide. Up through clue nine, where the letters were "p-a-g-e-s-e-v-e-n-t", everyone thought it was page seventeen since there were three clues left. But the last clue had two paragraphs and it really spelled out page seventy-two.)
At least that's how I would write the clues.
Hi all. Just bought 2 buttons today. My kids are now 3rd generation seekers. The hunt gets me though the winter.
guide- a man hides it(ananyomos), 2 people know(him and the chief editor person), they DO hide it in advance(I dont know how much though), and YES they DO watch people in the park(apparently they roll with laughter(hider and his son)
And how do you know all this Tim?
Allison- this thing would be WAY to eazy if the clue writer was smart! we tried to get inside the mind of the cluewriter, but an ignorant mind is hard to crack.
Hay, Toes! Any finds o'The Med in those three gens?
Oh! I forgot to tell you guys! I work with a woman and her three female cousins found it one year! She thinks the year it was in the Skoal tin... She's not sure.
SHEESH! If MY cousin's had found it, I'd KNOW!
I just don't unnerstand the mind-set o'folks that don't get all goofy over The Hunt. How can someone NOT be into this????
No one in my family has found it... yet. But of course close many times!! Thats what hooks ay
I'm not to familar with Phalen, but that's where i think it will be.
Or else, i like Battle Creek to.
you guy's put to much into the clues. keep it simple u will be better off!!!!
What clues ?
green- I don't know how anyone can not get crazy about the hunt either. I don't mind though, less people= higher cc ratio (cooler crew members divided by non members)
rivvraft... You're gonna be elbowin' me outta the way at Battle Creek.
Maybe.
Gotta wait for the clues... But... I'm thinking Battle Creek, too.
Something to think about!
Can't believe it's so slow in here.
Hidden Falls, Highland, Battle Creak, in that order.
They not only change parks every year but areas of St Paul to keep it fair to all. Phalen is a due area.
Wow--so much to blog through. First, since I have nothing else to noodle, according to the Catholic theology references I have, it would actually be an offence to refer to Saints as Divine. In the sense of the Church, anyway, Christ's divinity refers to fact that he is God. Saints, are not God--prayers to them are actually requests for them to pray to God on your behalf. So, there clue writer person! Divine probably came from the difficulty in finding a synonym for "Saintly".
rivvraft- wait about 3-4 days. even after the 1st clue we can noodle!
DD- congrats on the not smoking, and GOOOOOOD noodling!!!!!!
Second--I like Swede Hollow park. Yep, limited parking, but no less than at Conway. Small parking lot on East 7th. Could be fun. Third--Cool moniker--"Black Sabbath Guy". I've been a fan for 13-14 years.
yeah, but I don't think they want another short hunt this year, and another Conway would probably be a short hunt.
My hubby and I will be there this weekend if he feels better. Is there a room reserved or something or are y'all just milling about?
unless there is some part of it that I didn't see, it is pretty tiny.
Third--clarification--when I said I gave up tobacco, I gave up chewing. So, if they hide that bad boy in a Skoal tin again, it's mine! See, I quit smoking a couple of years ago by taking up Copenhagen. Now I am quitting the Copenhagen, by chewing gum. Which Wriggles and jiggles and tickles inside me. Just couldn't resist that last line. Anyhoo, the nicotine withdrawal headache is much less on day 3--thanks for all the support. It was supposed to be a New Year's thing, so I got a late start, but I figure if I say it's for Lent, I am more than a month ahead.