Still trying to unravel the meaning of the 2019 Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt clues?
The medallion was found by John Collins of Fridley, a lifelong Pioneer Press Treasure Hunter, just minutes after the 12th scrambled clue was released late Wednesday night. Here are the clues that led the winner to the hiding spot — and the explanations behind them.
CLUE #1
For the sake of a wall we’re in a grand stall
So make use of your new found leisure
In the midst of the shutdown, since work hours are cut down,
Find a park to search for treasure.
Explanation: Exhorts federal employees who are idled by the government shutdown to make the most of their time and hunt for the treasure. “Park” indicates the medallion is in a park. “Stall” alludes to the hundreds of stalls that once made up the Twin City Packing Company on Long Lake that once vied with the South St. Paul stockyards in the late 1800s.
CLUE #2
This sounds less than clever, but this year we endeavor
To hide the prize in scant flora.
Surround with ice wall? We knew it would fall.
Better to join the plethora
Explanation: The weather this year had the CW flummoxed. In year’s past, the puck has often been encased in ice to help camouflage it. This year’s temperate weather convinced the CW to use something found all over Long Lake Regional Park instead — leaves. (“Fall” was a hat tip, too.) “Plethora” refers to the many leaves in which the medallion is buried.
CLUE #3
One day moons ago, the wind it did blow
The sky, an upside down bog
As a tornado twirled it soon unfurled
A street full of fish and frog
Explanation: In 1925, a tornado hit Long Lake, sucking up fish and frogs and spewing them out over the old downtown district of New Brighton.
CLUE #4
Don’t be snide, buy a ticket to ride –
The journey’s bound to be a hoot
Down by the junction, you hunters should function,
To track down the precious loot
Explanation: Soo Line gave the Bulwer Junction Depot to New Brighton Historical Society, and in 1990, the building was moved to its current location in Long Lake Park, where it serves as History Center. Outside the building there is a restored caboose.
CLUE #5
Wouldn’t it be sweet if treasure you’d meet?
Your life bedecked in grand style!
Search hip to hip on your hunting trip
And your tactics could prove worthwhile
Explanation: The Hipp family, among the oldest and longest residents of New Brighton, operated the Lakeside Berry Farm along Long Lake. “Sweet” refers to the berries. Extra credit to those who divined “stockyards” from “meet.”
CLUE #6
From cowpokes to news blokes
It was the place to get hitched.
But gone are the colts, it’s now nuts and bolts
That are most likely to be pitched.
Explanation: The “opulent” Cattlemen’s Hotel was built in the 1890s to accommodate traffic to the new stockyards near Long Lake — replete with hitching post for the cowboys. The building, which later became known as the Exchange Hotel, housed a bank, a land company, railroad offices, stock commission offices, a telegraph office, newspaper presses, a barber shop, a saloon, and gaming rooms. It eventually became a canning factory and, finally, Beisswenger’s Hardware. In 1988, Beisswenger’s built a new store behind the former hotel, which was razed. Beisswenger’s moved to another building in the city in 2005.
CLUE #7
Leave your back yard, search long and hard
For the gold that will be your pay day
No more carping, head toward the barking,
To find a clue to brighten your day
Explanation: “Long” refers to the Long Lake, and “carping” to the problem that the lake has had with carp. “Brighten” alludes to the nearby town of New Brighton. “Barking” alludes to the “Goldzilla” celebration the Long Lake Regional Park hosted last year that featured golden retrievers. “Gold” also refers to a time, in the 1920s, when a local farmer said he heard a rumor that gold bars were buried along the eastern shore of Long Lake by bootleggers, sparking a mini “gold rush” along Long Lake to find the treasure.
CLUE #8
Try for cooperation, angle for affirmation
Smart hunters exchange intel.
If you see perplexed faces in the usual places
Listen close to what they tell.
Explanation: “Try” and “angle” reference the triangle that is formed by the cardboard cutouts of the gnomes Snap, Crackle & Pop from Kellogg’s Rice Krispies planted in the vicinity of the medallion. Located a distance apart in places hunters often look — in a stump, behind a sign and alongside a fallen tree — it’ll still take cooperation to triangulate the prize. The characters seemed appropriate given this year’s temporary relocation of Winter Carnival activities to Kellogg Mall Park from Rice Park because of construction. “Exchange” references the New Brighton Exchange Development, adjacent to the puck’s location in the park.
CLUE #9
If you have heard noises we’ve stirred
You’re viewing quite the sight.
Don’t go near track, path is best tack.
This veined take’s a lowly sleight.
Explanation: “… noises we’ve stirred” refers to the Rice Krispies cutouts we’ve planted around the medallion, and “viewing quite the sight” is for The View Apartments overlooking the hiding spot. “Don’t go near track, path is best tack” suggests hunters should stay close to the trails if they want to find the medallion. The puck is also hidden on the ground in two leaves, or “veined take.” Plus, “veined” is an anagram for “Devine,” the nearby street that points to the location of the medallion.
CLUE #10
We get the impression the hunter’s depression
Is pitted in clue ambiguity.
You’ll feel fine when you realize a sign
Can help repair hunting acuity.
Feeling pumped? If you’re stumped,
Follow this reminder:
Holy places lead to treasured spaces
Be humble to be finder.
Explanation: “… depression,” “pitted” and “repair” all reference an interpretive sign on the trail along the southeast side of Long Lake. “… pumped” references another sign, followed by “stumped,” as the signs and a giant stump get ever closer to the hiding spot of the medallion.
“Holy places lead to treasured spaces” is a play on the nearby Devine Drive, which if extended into the park, would run over the puck. “Be humble” means to remain lowly — get down on the ground to sort through the leaves and find the treasure.
CLUE #11
Whether from beach or boat breach
Examine an adjoining trail.
With backs to tracks, ignore sticks in stacks.
Search high ground for puck’s leaf veil.
We dropped the treasure close to walker’s pleasure
Within paces of the trodded lane.
To cure hunting blues, go back some clues
A signal street there sounds plain.
Explanation: Whether parked at the swimming beach or the boat ramp at Long Lake, hunters should hop on the connecting trail and turn away from the housing to the east. The medallion is on the lake side of the trail, hidden with the help of a couple of leaves.
The medallion isn’t far from the path, but if hunters are still having trouble figuring out at which point on the trail to look, they’re referred back to the anagram in Clue 9, “veined,” which, when spoken, “sounds” like “plain.”
CLUE #12
Out in New Brighton, the thought does frighten
That berries are no longer sweet.
And skip the depot; go where we go
Southeast Long Lake hides the treat.
When in line with Devine (large tree’s past the find)
Head west off the pathway.
After ten steps in, look left; ignore din
The puck’s at your feet, on display.
Drop to the ground; with hands feel around,
And ID two cottonwood leaves.
These have heft, though, and make a pouch faux
Find and slow pokes will grieve.
Explanation: For hunters in New Brighton’s Long Lake Regional Park, it’s time to leave the Lakeside Berry Farm and the area around the Depot, because the puck is hidden down the shore.
By lining up with nearby Devine Drive and a large tree just to the east of the trail, hunters will be able to take a few steps east from the trail to the hiding spot.
Taped between two discs of cardboard from a Rice Krispies box and then swaddled in two leaves, the medallion waits for a quick — and lucky — hunter.
Copyright 2019 Pioneer Press.