The Cooler Crew is an online community dedicated to the spirit of the annual St. Paul Pioneer Press Winter Carnival Medallion Hunt. The shared quest for a plastic blue medallion hidden every winter in a public park in St. Paul, Minnesota caused a friendly exchange of ideas within a Web forum supplied by the sponsors of the medallion hunt. By nature of being a community, the Crew has expanded its mutual interests, but the thrill of the hunt is where it all began. Eventually, it was decided that these souls needed a place of their own—and here it is. Every attempt is being made to make this an important reference point for all things medallion, with a few extras for good measure.
Unlike some other computer-based gathering places, this joint is filled with intelligent people who make a point to get away from their computers every now and then, sometimes to meet with each other as a group in public places. Whether you're looking for sensory involvement beyond the sights on a computer screen, or you simply want a new place to play, the Cooler is a respectable place to stop by for a cool drink.
With the recent spike in local medallion hunts as part of annual suburban and rural festivals, and especially the recent finds by Cooler Crew members, we strive to make this site strives the premier site on the internet for festival medallion hunting. You may notice, as you peruse these pages, particularly if you've followed the site for a long time, that when we have treasure hunt information, we often have original newspaper articles related to both the given treasure hunt as well as the festival that goes along with that hunt. For instance, with the St. Paul Winter Carnival/Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt, we often link to stories related to both that hunt, as well as that year's Winter Carnival.
Why are the festival stories important? Firstly, they're important because without the festival, there'd be no hunt. The stories provide insight to the goings-on of the surrounding festival. For instance a Winter Carnival hunt might last until the 12th clue. Was it because of the weather? The Clues? Having the stories related to the carnival, and not just the hunt can help fill in those blanks for readers and researchers.