A self-professed “casual hunter” uncovered the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt medallion in Tony Schmidt Regional Park early today, following the 11th clue to a stand of three pines and the $10,000 find.
And Lange Wallgren admits he’s not the likeliest finder.
He’s not a fan of digging through snow, he said, or driving all over the county on the off chance he might happen across the medallion.
The most involved he has been the past few years was occasionally perusing the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt clues and “noodling” – “I can’t stand that word,” he said. “I prefer ‘thinking.’ ” – from the comfort of his Osseo home.
But when he heard folks were massing in the Arden Hills park – just 20 minutes from his home – he decided to go do a little digging Monday afternoon. (He had been vacationing in Florida before then.)
After a total of eight hours of hunting over two days, Wallgren did what some hunters spend a lifetime wishing to do: He turned up the puck.
He also honored a gentlemen’s agreement he made with four other hunters – Nate Buck of Cottage Grove, Alex Valen of North Oaks, Corey Hargreaves of New Brighton and now-three-time-finder Jake Ingebrigtson of St. Paul – after the acquaintances encountered each other in the park early today.
The group had agreed to pool their hunting resources and will now be listed as co-finders of the 2012 prize.
The Pioneer Press introduced the winners and awarded prizes at a news conference at 10 a.m. today at the Pioneer Press’ downtown St. Paul headquarters at 345 Cedar St.
“I couldn’t believe how small the thing was,” Wallgren said a couple of hours after the discovery. “I thought it would be like a hockey puck.”
The 2-inch plastic medallion was frozen in a mass of ice, tucked into a bag of Diamond cashew halves and then wrapped in leaves and brush before being secured with one white and one blue hair binder.
Wallgren, an engineer with the Minnesota Department of Transportation, had split off from the other hunters sometime between 1 and 2 a.m. as they scoured a pile of rocks along the Elmer L. Andersen trail, which runs along the west side of the park.
Wallgren said he liked the trail – named after the state’s 30th governor – because he thought Andersen was governor when the hunt started in 1952. Actually, Andersen served from 1961 to 1963.
“That was my noodle. It’s good I got it wrong,” he said.
As his four compatriots investigated along the trail, Wallgren made his way up a small rise to the east. He had decided to push through the hillside brush and turn over an “overwhelming” amount of leaves because he believed the clues urged hunters to search along a line made by a trailside bench, a stand of three pine trees and a set of power lines.
The day before, as he sat on the bench, he mused over the words inscribed on it.
“It said, ‘Be active, be green.’ I couldn’t figure it out. I thought, ‘I’m in the park, what do you want from me?’ ” he said. “The clue was calling me to something green.”
He figured if the medallion were hidden along the line, it would most likely be near the trees. But the base of the trees had already been turned over by earlier hunters.
That’s when he decided to take a few paces back and search in a circle around the pines.
Armed with just a headlamp held in his gloved left hand, Wallgren sifted through the light layer of snow and a thick mass of leaves with his right hand.
“I went around them a few times,” he said. “I kind of thought about giving up.”
Then, about a dozen feet north of the trees, he saw an odd-looking clump of leaves.
“It was too perfect,” he said. “It was in the shape of a football, with binders on it.”
He picked up the clump and peeled away some of the leaves.
Inside he saw a bit of a white plastic cashew bag.
He had heard of fake medallions being put in parks, he said, so he quietly pocketed the find without making a scene. He went back down the hill and sat on the bench, wondering what he had found.
He pulled the bag from the leaves and pulled out a chunk of ice.
“I stomped on it and some ice broke off,” he said. “I could tell there was a piece of plastic inside.”
He made his way back to his car – parked at Perry Park to the north – and pried off more ice.
“I could see there was writing,” he said. “I saw ‘Fury Jeep.’ I said, ‘OK, I think this might be real.’ ”
Without notifying his co-hunters – “You’re supposed to just stealthily sneak out, right?” he asked – he started driving home. He called his brother, a childhood friend of Ingebrigtson, to get the hunters’ cell phone number.
“You know that medallion thingee?” he asked. “I think I found it.”
Ingebrigtson and the rest of the crew were still hunting when Wallgren’s brother called with the news.
“Is this for real? Is this for real?” Ingebrigtson asked.
The four piled into a single car and drove to Osseo to see for themselves.
“It was dead silence in the car,” Buck said.
Hargreaves said the group then drove back to the park to pick up their cars after handling the puck.
“There was a guy searching around a Porta-Potty,” he said. “We were yelling, ‘It’s over.’ He stopped, looked at us and then continued hunting.”
Wallgren said each of the other hunters would get $500 and he’d take the remainder.
Why did he make the pre-find decision to share any potential loot?
“You know, anything goes, because nobody’s going to actually find it,” he said.
John Brewer can be reached at 651-228-2093.
Copyright 2012 Pioneer Press.