Saint Peter resident Jennifer Jenniges imagined the path of a foul ball to find the Saint Peter Medallion at 5:07 p.m. in Gorman Park behind the bleachers.
"If I was sitting in the bleachers, and it flew over my head, this is where it would land," said Jenniges, holding a metal rake between the sidewalk and the street.
"We did it!" she shouted, as she lifted the clear plastic medallion over her head to show the dozen or so other searchers in her vicinity. She called the feat a "global effort."
Jenniges was at the Saint Peter Dog Park when her sister, who lives in the northern suburbs, called her just after Clue #7 was released at 5:01 p.m. "She said, get there! It's behind the fence!"
It was a global effort, because Jenniges, her sister, and a friend in Djibouti, a country in east Africa, utilized collective brain power to decipher the clues.
They knew the first of five governors from Saint Peter, Willis A. Gorman, was central to the story of Saint Peter almost, but not quite, becoming Minnesota's capital city.
"There were a few things with the clues," Jenniges said. "This is the TREEmendous Playground park, it's the library so read between the lines, maybe even something with Creative Play Place."
Her second year participating in Saint Peter medallion searches, Jenniges combed an area of Gorman park last night near a bench in the middle where people might "rest" or "sit", as the clues alluded.
The 13-year resident of Saint Peter didn't spend more than three hours outside trying to find it. Dressed in layers like a true Minnesotan, she looked for a little while in Stones Park, Minnesota Square Park and by the rocks in the northwest quadrant of Gorman.
"I was committed to searching no matter what weather came the next few days," Jenniges said. "The cold doesn't bother me."
She said Minnesota Square seemed too obvious, and her Djibouti friend read somewhere that Stone was the maiden name of Gorman's wife.
"All three of us were confident it was in Gorman Park," she said.
This is the 17th Winterfest Medallion Hunt, and the winner each year receives $1,000 in Chamber Bucks, compliments of the Saint Peter Tourism and Visitors Bureau. Jenniges said she hasn't yet thought about how she will spend the winnings.
Clue #1 included the words "seventeen" and "sixteen". Gorman was born in 1816.
Clue #2 incorporated the line, "Follow last year's clues, and you just might succeed." The medallion was found in Ramsey Park last year. Minnesota's first governor Ramsey succeeded second governor Gorman.
Also following last year's clues, both Ramsey Park and Gorman Park are along the same Washington Avenue.
More clue meanings will be revealed this week.
Other searchers were seen last night and today in Stones Park, Levee Park, and Minnesota Square Park, to name a few.
Other searchers were sure after the Clue #7 foul ball reference was released today that the medallion was hidden under or very close to the bleachers behind Gorman's ball park home plate backstop fence, so Jenniges wouldn't have had enough space between them to search there even if she wanted to.
"But that was okay, because with the shorter fence to the right of the taller fence, this is the only place the ball could go over."
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