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Cooler Crew

How to Find the Saint Paul Winter Carnival Medallion

Submitted by zephyrus on
A snow covered tree

Wintery conditions work against you, and for you in your search

The time has come where Vulcanus Rex attempts to unseat King Boreas from his wintry throne and bring the promise of spring once again. It is also the time of the year where the web-weaving muse hides the ultimate winter treasure somewhere in Ramsey County. Want to increase your odds at finding it?

Difficulty: Challenging
Instructions

Things You''ll Need:

  • The proper maps
  • Warm clothing
  • "Digging" tools
  • Clues
  • Portable light
  • Sustenance
  • Truckload of luck
  • Step 1

    Prepare yourself before the Winter Carnival

    Read up on past clues and get a feel for what you are up against. Get a feel for how the Cluewriter hides not only the medallion, but the clues within the clues. 

    Prepare in other local treasure hunts. Many suburban cities host treasure hunts in the off season. These are a great way to hone your skills as a true "puckhead".

  • Step 2

    Read the Official Rules

    Go to Twincities.com and read the official rules. To paraphrase - The medallion will only be on public property within the limits of Ramsey County. Search, don''t destroy. You will not have to dig up the ground, climb up trees, or damage any property to find the medallion. Doing so will cause the hunt to be cancelled and the $10,000 to be forfeited. Collect the clues from the daily Pioneer Press paper, find the medallion, and turn it in to the Pioneer Pres Building.

  • Step 3

    Register your button

    You can either register the button online or by mail. If registering online, clicking the send button after filling in your information registers the button. If mailing in, be sure to have it postmarked prior to the first clues official release.

  • Step 4

    Make sure that you have warm clothes

    This is Minnesota in January folks, I don''t think I need to remind you that you will likely be searching in weather ranging from -25 through 30 degrees. Layering is very important. It takes a lot of effort to swing a rake for 14 hours a day, you will be sweating in below zero temperatures. What a wonderful state!

  • Step 5

    Get your digging tools ready

    Every hunter has their favorite tool for different environments. I like to use a childs garden rake for light snow, and in weedy areas. It doesn''t have the weight that larger tools have, which is why I prefer a garden hoe for the harder, icier, and deeper snows. An actual shovel is many a hunters best friend 12 days of the year, just remember to never allow it to sink into the ground. Remember, search don''t destroy.

    Bring some kind of light source should you be obsessing until dark. It gets icy and can be dangerous to travel if you can''t see where you are going.

  • Step 6

    Get a clue
    You need to have the clues. How will you know where to dig if you don''t have a clue? You can get the clues online at Twincities.com, on your doorstep in the morning, or my personal favorite - waiting in line the night before the papers release. The doors are usually open between 11 pm and midnight. Not only do you get to hunt right away, but you can meet other hunters and share your ideas on where the medallion is.

  • Step 7

    Decipher the clues

    You could write a book on this. Really. First, look at the clues literally. Is there anything it is trying to tell you? Usually you will have to dissect it to get to the heart and soul of the clue. Are there anagrams hidden in the clue? Do any of the words in the clues have any other or archaic meanings? Does a phrase hint to something that ties to a park?

  • Step 8

    Get out there and dig

    You will never find the medallion from your computer chair. It is hard to stumble upon it if you stay in your car. Don''t worry about feeling silly, there are thousands each year looking just like you. And someone is going to find the medallion. Ask a previous finder if the $10,000 was worth feeling a little silly poking around in a snowbank with a hockey stick.

  • Step 9

    Rejoice when the hunt is over

    Either you found it or you didn''t. In the end it really doesn''t matter. The money, your picture in the paper, the free sweatshirt, and the ride in the parade will be just fleeting memories compared to the bonds made with other dedicated hunters. Given the chance, your obsession will spread and you will meet like-minded people doing things just as silly as you. Buying a $75 hoe just for the hunt, taking time off of work to hunt, memorizing the clues of years past. 

    Think hard, and dig harder.

    You dig?

Tips & Warnings
  • Archived clues can be found at coolercrew.com
  • Official rules and Clues are found at twincities.com
  • If you can find a copy of the Treasure Hunters Guide, or the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt History book, they will help out tremendously in having park maps and previous clues at your fingertips.
  • Stay on public property
  • Search, don''t destroy
  • Be careful on icy slopes. Remember that paths compacted with footprints become very slippery

'Cooler Crew' comes to aid of widow

Submitted by Administrator on
Body
20100108__100110Cooler1.webp, Nicole Evenson, center, gets a hug from Cooler Crew member, Randy Rust, who’s with other Cooler Crew members, Ken Ng, left, and Mike McMahon, right, b
By MOLLY GUTHREY | mguthrey@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer PressThe Cooler Crew — a loosely organized group of Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt medallion seeke

Nightly Pre-Clue Gatherings

Submitted by Joe Medallion (not verified) on

Before each night's clue comes out, many members of the Cooler Crew get together in downtown Saint Paul as a way to wind down at the end of a long day of digging, and to recover some strength for the night of digging that often follows the release of later clues. These get-togethers will either be at Wild Tymes or at the Bulldog in Lowertown. Stay tuned to the forums at ableminds for details of each night's gathering.

The Clue Master Status Report

Submitted by ares on

As many of you are aware, Clue Master is in the hospital, with surgery scheduled for Friday, 8/8/08 (hey, crazy eights. Gotta be a lucky day) to replace a heart valve.

For the $0.25 version of what's happened, last Wednesday he was in so much back pain he couldn't get out of bed. He went in to Woodwinds on Thursday where they did a full-body image set of him, and discovered something "fuzzy" in his bone marrow. Initially this was diagnosed as Leukemia, but the oncologist later corrected it saying that the rest of the symptoms weren't consistent with the GP's diagnosis; bone marrow tests would be required. After some more work, they determined he has a bacterial infection that's settled in his bone marrow, lungs, and heart.

The infection resulted from a previously undiagnosed prolapse heart valve, combined with dental work 6 months ago. The result is that the infection has eaten away at the valve to the point where he needs it replaced.

For updates, check out CM's family's web site. To send your well-wishes, check out the thread at AbleMinds. He's in there a lot from the hospital and responding to posts.

Cooler Crew -- A History

Submitted by Terry on

During the 1990’s, the St Paul Pioneer Press opened online discussion forums. These forums were called Water Coolers. The forums had discussion topics related to sports, politics, news, and current events. Each year, the Pioneer Planet – the online section of the Pioneer Press – opened a discussion forum as a media for hunters to discuss the clues for the Winter Carnival Medallion Hunt.

During the earlier years, one might find a few hundred posts during the hunt. As more hunters had computers, those numbers jumped. From 1997 to 1998, the number of posts increased from the hundreds to the 5-digit thousands. It was during the 1998 hunt the Cooler Crew was born.

The community spirit and teamwork displayed in the 1998 Pioneer Press Medallion Hunt thread was inspiring. The group of hunters found themselves at the end of a hunt not wanting to let go of new friendships and the camaraderie found on the Water Cooler board. The idea emerged to do what anyone would do in the middle of winter in Minnesota. A picnic in Cherokee was planned - the first Rehash Bash!

Among the potato salad, sloppy Joe medallions, coffee and desserts, the Pioneer Planet Water Cooler Crew met face to face on a chilly, Sunday, February afternoon. Representatives from the Pioneer Planet were there to record this phenomenon and Greg Sax, a native St. Paulite, then residing in Milwaukee, arranged to have the first “You Dig?” buttons available.

This group then decided it should have a website of its own. The Pioneer Planet agreed to sponsor a website, Greg Sax agreed to volunteer his time as webmaster and all that was now needed was a URL for this new site! After much discussion, a decision was reached. coolercrew.com would be the site and this online community would be known as the Cooler Crew!

The rest of the history can be found woven among each year’s clues, images and stories at this website.

In 2002, Knight-Ridder, the owners of the Pioneer Press, decided to change the format and get rid of the discussion forums that had brought this group of hunters together. At that same time, the sponsoring of the website was dropped. The Water Coolers were gone.

But the spirit of the Cooler Crew was bigger than Knight-Ridder. A new place for online discussions was found and a new home for the coolercrew.com site was arranged. Once we had the release of the domain name, the new webmasters, Ares, Marley King and Artemis the Huntress, put the website back online. Knight-Ridder took the Water Cooler away, but did not take the Cooler out of the Crew.

The Cooler Crew is an online community made up of super folks with a commonality that involves digging in parks in the dead of the winter and because we have this obsession in common, we find other parts of us that have commonality too. We believe that anyone who hunts is part of the Cooler Crew.  It has been our founding principal to welcome one and all.  We have always invited anyone with this obsession of digging in snow in the middle of winter to join with other hunters.  The friendships and camaraderie we find is the best!   Please join us!  You will be welcomed with open arms. 

We are lucky to have found a webmaster who is passionate about the hunt and has worked tirelessly to keep content up to date and in a format that is user friendly.  If you haven't explored the vast amount of information, hunt history and year round activities and hunts, take the time to do so.  It is truly amazing!!  Jason has shouldered the cost of this for many years as a labor of love.  It is time to step up and help defray the cost of his work, the cost of running all the equipment needed to keep the site running and backed up, his expertise, and his time.

 Alas, the Winter Carnival hunt lasts for a mere 12 days of the year. As we've grown, so has our passion for medallion hunts in general. After the short hunt in 2002, we had two years’ worth of mock hunt after mock hunt, with prize money put up by members of the group. Around 2004, we really started to get involved with the hunts organized by the various suburban festivals that occur over the summer. We track 115 festival hunts apart from the Winter Carnival hunt that occur throughout the year in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. We're adding more all the time. And we participate in the vast majority of them, as is evidenced by the Hall of Fame.

 If you know of a hunt that we don't have on our list, it’s not a question of whether or not we should have it. We should. Period. We'd love it if you could help us out. If there's a hunt that we do have and we don't have clues for it for any given year, we'd also love it if you could help us out. Click the contact us link at the bottom of this page or any other page on this site!

Me2's Speech

Submitted by me2 on

OK , just breathe. – I’m getting up here to talk a bit. I brought a speech. Not because I won an Oscar, and I haven’t yet found the medallion, but I won! I won all of YOU.

Once again I have seen us strengthen friendships and make new relationships. New Daddy, RedDog, Karl & Laurie. I got to put new faces to online names of BigG, Mystical_Muzik. But there are still people I hope are here today that I haven’t met in person yet- Homeless Artist, On the Search, jusme, 231gnx – I hope you find as much kindness, respect, laughter and acceptance with these fine people as I have.

Most of us were brought together by the Winter Carnival Treasure Hunt. 
You have unique qualities that have kept us together! Some of you are terribly funny, some really care that we had a rough day, some are quiet, like Reg ;) . Sometimes we disagree with each other in the forum, we listen to each other vent, share in each others joys (like a new baby Congratulations ESD!, a new job-way to go ClueMaster!, Terry and Inks son in the Peace Corps-come home safely)

We share our private lives as much or more than we discuss clues in a treasure hunt.

There are some that we don’t hear from throughout the year that put a smile on our face the moment we see them in line at the pioneer press or out in the park, like Wright Winger, Tami or Chair guy-John. Then there’s the Clowns –"Who's goin' chicken huntin'?"

Unselfish began at the pre-hash bash with East Side Digger giving me and Scribe copies of his newspaper art project. And trickled into Marley giving me a glow in the dark bulldog and reminding me to be positive-It was the year of “I believe, I believe” from Miracle on 34th st., some of you may have heard me chanting as I dug.

Thank you Terry Knapp for bringing us tacos in the middle of a park! To everyone who brought drinks! Then the Camo Crue-always so generous! A huge thank you to anyone who gave another person a ride to the parks. Cluemaster for 2 am talks in the truck. Gordy for slipping me a handwarmer while standing in line and CM for slipping me some schnapps. Randy Rust for the last of his hot chocolate at 3 am.. Tim the hunter-thank you for carrying Ares heavy shovel back to my truck! Karl, Laurie & New Daddy for offering me gloves on that last night when I left mine at home! Downtown Dave for posting the clue almost every night. Chrisdigger, Ares and Artemis for waiting hours downtown for the last clue! Artemis daily report that I still have to read. and Terry Valentines editorials.

Marley and ESD for designing bumper stickers and Mom, Dad, Terry & Inks for the wonderful work they do on the buttons.

The little things throughout the year that take so much time. Like Marley, Med Hunter & Ares (and now OntheSearch) for keeping wonderful websites maintained! Everyone who takes pictures throughout the years!- Cluemaster, Ian and KC0GRN! TMK just for always making me laugh ...and playing with our kids at the re-hash bash every year! THX our “stern controller” in the cooler. 
Scribe hanging out with me under the table at the Rockin' Lobster. 
Green? Just cause it’s hard being Green.

LL – you have graduated from (CCA) Cooler Crew Anonymous – you stuck by Phalen this whole hunt! Congratulations!

AW and Marley- looking forward to a good old fashion treasure hunts!

If I have not mentioned your name it isn’t because you’re not thought of.

Cooler Crew are, restaurant & business owners, website organizers, master gardeners, authors, lawyers, figure skaters, car salesmen, photographers, clue writers, police officers, filmmakers, ... moms, dads, grandma’s & grandpa’s, we donate our time to our friends, habitat for humanity, the historical society, schools.—YOU ARE THE SPIRIT OF ST PAUL –you are the soul of medallion hunts.

I don’t plan to win an Oscar if I make it in Trent's movie and I may not ever find that medallion but You can forever call me ...” lucky... humbled.... proud.... blessed...” to have met every single one of you. This is to all of you, I raise my shovel! Thank you.

love, Me2

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