Pioneer Press Treasure Hunters were anticipating a long, exhilarating night.
Many hunters were focused Wednesday, the 11th day of the 12-day hunt, on Harriet Island Regional Park, on the Mississippi River across from downtown St. Paul. They were spread across the park, in a waiting game. The real action would begin around 11:30 Wednesday night, when the final clue drops, spelling out the puck’s precise location in the park.
Then, the mad dash for the medallion is on.
“Thousands of people will come running with shovels and headlamps. It’s like a scene from ‘Frankenstein,’ with all the peasants running with torches,” said Paul Ryan of Minneapolis, who was there with his six-guy crew, Team Irish Scream, named for a bit of litter they dropped one year that drew the finder to the medallion.
“There’s nothing like the mass exodus,” said Melissa Weeks, whose group the MedHedz was standing in a knot, taking in landmarks nearby and plotting for the moment the clue drops.
“It’ll be mosh pitty tonight,” said Erin Collins of St. Paul, referring to the infamous 2004 Treasure Hunt that came down to a small bowl-shaped “mosh pit” filled with wall-to-wall hunters in Phalen Regional Park.
“Even last night, it was mosh pitty. The headlamps were pretty impressive around here,” said Bob Wiswell of St. Paul.
Others were predicting such a scenario going into Thursday.
Kim Bauer and Shawn Gallahue of South St. Paul remember the scramble to the site in 2016 at Bald Eagle-Otter Lakes Regional Park in White Bear Township and then the mad digging.
“You saw hundreds of lights in the dark running … then you get onto the path and then, all of a sudden, I don’t know who brought the lights, but it was like boom! … Everything is lit. Someone brought a floodlight. … It was bright as could be,” Bauer said.
