Will the medallion ever turn up in a Maplewood city park?
Last year, the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt’s prize surfaced at Keller Lake Regional Park, not a city park but a Ramsey County park in Maplewood.
But for years, rumors have persisted about a Maplewood ban because of damage done during the mad dash for the medallion there.
In the 2008 documentary “No Time for Cold Feet,” former clue writer Don Boxmeyer discussed why Maplewood officials banned the $10,000-prize puck from its parks after the 1971 and 1982 hunts, both in Wakefield Park.
“The treasure was hidden on a Little League field in Maplewood,” said Boxmeyer, a longtime Pioneer Press columnist who died in 2008. “There was significant damage done to the Little League park by the hunters — chopping up of dugouts, things like this — things that never should’ve happened. The Maplewood City Council was so incensed that they passed a resolution saying, ‘Never darken our door again.’
“Unfortunately we did darken their door again. Not too many years after that, somebody forgot … that the Winter Carnival Treasure (Hunt) was not the favorite winter pastime of the Maplewood City Council.”
They hid it in another part of the park, “and damage was done again.” The Pioneer Press cut a “fairly large check for the damage,” Boxmeyer said.
Maplewood’s assistant city manager, Mike Funk, had no knowledge of such a ban. Neither did Mayor Nora Slawik.
In fact, Slawik said that as long as medallion sleuths follow the Treasure Hunt’s cardinal rule — “Dig, don’t destroy” — she would welcome the hunt.
“I think the Treasure Hunt is a fantastic part of the Winter Carnival,” she said. “It brings out a lot of people and a lot of excitement. … It would be fun for our residents. … So, yes, we would love to have it.”
She went so far as to suggest some large parks, including Goodrich, Hazelwood — and even Wakefield.
Said avid hunter Nicole Evenson of Maplewood: “We’re in Ramsey County, so yeah, bring it!”
Copyright 2018 Pioneer Press.