As 5 p.m. last Friday neared and the Jordan Classic Car and Cycle Cruise got revved up, the Heimatfest medallion hunt was about to get more competitive.
Determined Jack Hulet urged his family to hunt harder. If necessary, he said, "we'd be out here all night."
As soon as the sixth clue leading to the coveted gold coin came out, John Hulet -- at home, on the phone -- read it to his wife, Amy, who had help from Jack and her other children, Joseph, Emaleigh and Joshua.
"There was whining, crying, sweating, searching," Jack said. "But we found it."
The Hulet family uncovered the Heimatfest medallion in the drainage rocks near Jordan Dental Care. They struck gold in the Whispering Meadows business district, along a pond and marsh below the bluffs, near the intersection of Eldorado Drive and Creek Lane.
"We were digging together," Amy said.
The Hulets, first-time hunters as well as first-time finders, had been looking for the medallion for two weeks. Others had visited the spot where the medallion was found. But last Friday, the family was the only group there -- for a while.
All clues pointed to the open spaces near Jordan Dental Care:
- a frog pond, from clue No. 3;
- a pile of rocks shaped like a Y, or "why," as twice noted in clue No. 3;
- for-sale signs mentioned in clue No. 4;
- where residents of Brentwood Senior Apartments could watch birds, like in clue No. 4;
- and near the oval road, Eldorado and Seville drives, according to clue No. 5.
They got the clue they needed by phone just five minutes before 10 cars and a couple dozen people showed up, finder Amy Hulet and avid hunter Gil Hartmann said.
Clue No. 6 confirmed the Hulets' suspicions, and in sweltering humidity, they kept turning over rocks next to a grasshopper-friendly lawn until the medallion turned up -- wrapped in brown and nestled under a rock.
A sixth clue is rare. This year's was released during the car cruise.
Hartmann said that several medallion hunts had ended on Heimatfest in the past but none of them during Marilyn Landela's time as clue writer. A seventh clue had been written just in case hunters continued to dig all last Friday night and last Saturday morning, and it would've been released at noon during Heimatfest, had the hunt dragged on.
The Hulets proved the seventh and final clue unnecessary, with their find.
Next up: Maybe a celebratory party at Clancy's Bar & Pizza Parlor to spend their $75-Jordan-dollar winnings.
Then, Joseph and Jack have their eyes on Sante Fe art dealer and collector's $1 million treasure hunt, complete with a memoir of clues to follow.
Or maybe they'll try to make a name for themselves at home in Jordan.
"This isn't the last year we're going to find it," Jack said.
Copyright 2013 Jordan Independent/Southwest News Media/Media News Group.