It didn’t take long for Heidi Johnson and Erica Carlson to zero in on a theme for this year’s Watercade Medallion Hunt.
The first clue, unveiled Monday morning via digital and social media, as well as local radio, might have seemed relatively innocuous, or at least not very helpful, for many people.
But Johnson Googled the clue “Trick the Dwarf” and an early hit indicated it was connected to a book titled “Dreamland.”
“We knew right away it had something to do with books, the library,” Johnson said.
Of course, identifying a theme for the hunt, didn’t mean Johnson and Carlson were any closer to finding the medallion.
It would take three more days, three more clues, and searching numerous Little Free Libraries throughout Litchfield before they would strike upon their quarry, during their lunch break Thursday afternoon.
The women, who work at Meeker County Community Homes on South Marshall Avenue, knew there was a Little Free Library just a short walk away near the paviion at Meeker Memorial Hospital. They’d searched a couple other of the tiny libraries in town to no avail, but figured the four-block walk to the hospital over lunch time was worth it, especially given Clue No. 4 announced earlier that day, “Imagination Train, Choo Choo.”
“We Googled ‘Imagination Train’ this morning, and it came up with Dolly Parton’s library program, and that just confirmed it had to be a book,” Johnson said.
Once arriving at the hospital and opened the Little Free Library’s doors, they saw nothing obvious indicating the medallion might be there. They began pulling books from the library’s shelves.
“I said to Erica, ‘Any kids books, anything from Dolly?’” Johnson said. “And she’s looking and she said, ‘Well, there’s ‘Dreamland,’’ and I said, ‘Open it! Open it!’”
And there was the medallion, nestled in a hole cut into the pages, just the right size the hold the medallion securely.
“We were pretty excited,” Carlson said.
Finding the medallion earns a $200 cash prize, but financial gain didn’t seem to be the motivation for either of the women, who said they just enjoyed the hunt and trying to make sense of the clues.
“My husband’s going up north this weekend, so he’ll probably take it with him,” Johnson said of her share of the cash prize. “Or spend it at Watercade. It will go fast.”
Carlson agreed: “I’ll blink and it will be gone.”
But the memories of the hunt are likely to last much longer.
Copyright 2019 Litchfield Independent Review/Crow River Media/Media News Group.