2024 South St. Paul Trail Walk Hunt 1

Welcome to the 2024 Trail Walk Treasure Hunts hosted by SSP Parks & Recreation. Get outside of your house and explore the park system to search for the hunt 1 medallion. This hunt is sponsored by the Mason Lodge in SSP "Mizpah Lodge #191". The medallion could easily be uncovered with a rake or garden hoe tool so no need to dig. Follow Park and hunt rules and don't damage park property. The last line hints that the park has a ball field which could lead you to multiple parks but ours is the SSP Girls Varsity Softball Field at Harmon Park.

Harmon Park was established by William E. Harmon, a visionary real estate agent originally from Ohio, the foundation played a pivotal role in providing financial support for the development of approximately 120 to 150 parks and recreational facilities nationwide. Harmon believed in the enduring value of playgrounds, stating, "A playground now will be a playground forever, for land is the one thing that does not perish. And children will play!" Harmon also had an alter ego, Jedediah Tingle (or Jebediah Tingle, depending on the source). Under that name he dispersed money for less focused and more frivolous or impulsive purposes.

Harmon Park is not just about softball -- it's a multifaceted recreational haven. In addition to the premier Girl's Fastpitch Softball Facility, the park features a playground, tennis courts, a paved and boarded hockey rink, and expansive open areas perfect for passive recreation and picnics. We let the hunters know that the park is on the south end of town and that it is not hidden on the softball field, hockey rink, or tennis court. We advise you to look in the forestry more especially in the pine trees (Needle in a haystack).

The final clue leads you to the resting spot of the medallion. The first half of the clue gives all the street names that go around the park (Spruce, Henry, MacArthur) and reminds you that it was hidden on the east side of the park in the past. In 2022 it was on the south side of the open prairie in the woods and now in 2024 it's on the north side of the open prairie in the woods. The second half od the clue walks the hunter to the medallion. If you're "STUMPED" there is a tree stump on the edge of the north side of the prairie cut close to the ground, you can't miss it. From there you walk to the first pine tree north then walk to the first pine tree east of that. On the ground in a pine needle-covered baggy rests the medallion! Than you to all the medallion hunters who participatd in Hunt 1!