Every winter for the past six decades, thousands of dedicated adventurers spend days and nights scouring Ramsey County parks for the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt medallion, worth up to $10,000.
Despite the competition, the medallion seekers are their own community. They bring their own sense of camaraderie to the event — a mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together in their winter search.
A delicate balance exists between the camaraderie and the competition, said hunter Michelle Gutwein, 34, of Afton, who’s been hunting since she was a child.
Gutwein’s 9-year-old daughter Zoffia has been out hunting with her for a few years — and she is quite competitive, Gutwein said.
She explains the fine line medallion seekers must walk to her daughter: It’s important to be friendly, but not give away the spot.
“You have to keep your cards close to your chest,” Gutwein said.
Gutwein said she thinks about people who are out hunting for the medallion for the first time.
“You don’t want new hunters to see people being rude because that’s not what it’s about. It’s about community,” she said.
During the first few days of the hunt, people talk a lot, Gutwein said. There is a lot of speculation about the clues and the parks.
But the competition heats up toward the last leg, the closer the hunt gets to the last clue. The medallion was found after nine of 12 clues in the 2014 hunt.
“We talk a lot, but near the end, you’re silent as you’re digging. All you hear is people breathing and shovels hitting the snow,” Gutwein said.
A big theme in sports sociology is finding a balance between competition and sportsmanship or cooperation, said Douglas Hartmann, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota who specializes in the sociology of culture and sport studies.
“Underlying the competition of the hunt is the idea of following rules to allow it to happen. A mutual understanding or respect is needed,” Hartmann said.
“It’s brutal in some ways,” he said, comparing the sociology of the hunt to that of boxing or mixed martial arts.
In 2010, the Cooler Crew — a loosely organized group of medallion seekers that Gutwein belongs to — banded together to help one hunter’s widow after he unexpectedly died at age 28.
The Crew set up a memorial fund that raised enough money to help purchase a headstone. The Crew also arranged to have Yarusso Bros. restaurant cater the post-funeral reception for 100 guests, free of charge, and got several floral arrangements donated by Lakeside Floral and Koehler & Dramm’s Institute of Floristry.
“We take care of our own,” Coolerhead Trygve Olsen told the Pioneer Press in a 2010 interview. “The Cooler Crew … it’s hard to explain. It’s just a mish-mash of all sorts of people from all walks of life. If I needed help, I’d call them before just about anybody else, because I know they would help me. Because that’s what we do.”
Gutwein explains the group the same way. She doesn’t necessarily hang out with her hunter friends year-round, but she keeps in touch with them on Facebook — even going to the group’s Facebook page to ask for baby sitters in a pinch.
Then, when the Treasure Hunt rolls around each winter, the hunters pick up where they left off, Gutwein said.
“We’re all part of a group, but you still hunt alone. There can only be one winner,” she said.
The competition adds to the closeness, said John Brewer, who covered the hunt for the Pioneer Press for nearly a decade. “It brings you into a unique relationship with these people you otherwise wouldn’t have any other reason to hang out with.”
The Cooler Crew’s webmaster, Jason Michaelson, met his wife at a Cooler Crew picnic in 2003.
“For me, and I know for several other people in the Cooler Crew, the treasures we’ve found through the friendships that we’ve made far outweigh the treasure of actually finding the treasure. I’ve met several of my closest friends through the insanity of this crazy frozen hunt,” Michaelson said in an email.
The group sends snowflake ornaments each Christmas to members who have lost immediate family members. This year they sent one to Mary Ragsdale, widow of longtime clue writer for the Pioneer Press Jim Ragsdale who died in November.
“Without the work of guys like Jim, we never would have existed as a group and this camaraderie would never exist,” Michaelson said.
Sociologist Douglas Hartmann is fascinated the hunt has lasted 63 years.
“Combining the creation of a unique community where the members are competing with each other is a fragile balance to maintain. The more that’s at stake, the harder it is to do,” he said.
Katie Kather can be reached at 651-228-5006. Follow her at twitter.com/ktkather.
Copyright 2015 Pioneer Press