Rules

With the annual arrival of the Winter Carnival buttons, we get our first glimpse of the rules for the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt. Last year, we got a new twist on the clues. One hour prior to the official release time online, the clues were released in a scrambled form. Not that we really needed the unscrambled clue, given our penchant to attach meaning to every single word in every single clue, regardless of how meaningless it may be. This year, in what we can only presume is a response to last year's controversy, where a group of hunters teamed up after someone found the medallion, because the finder didn't have a registered button, and that group was later stripped of their titles, there's an interesting twist on the rules this year. As opposed to past years, where multiple winners (in the event of a group find) are recognized by the Pioneer Press, the Pioneer Press will recognize only one finder, and that one finder must have a properly registered Winter Carnival button. So, fellow Coolerheads, your buttons, whether you like it are not, are no longer for sale. If you want your share of the $5000 bonus for having a registered button, you better be on the lookout for our beloved piece of transparent lucite, because you won't get the 5 grand without it :).

While there's been some criticism of the rule on the Treasure Hunt Facebook Page, mostly about the implementation of the rule, and how tax consequences will be handled (since the burden will be on a sole finder, instead of distributed across the group), the reaction has been generally positive, just because it avoids the sort of ad hoc group forming solely for the purpose of enhancing the prize. What do you think?

"Read the daily clues to search for the Pioneer Press medallion hidden on public land in Ramsey County." Its been apart of the treasure hunt rules in one way shape or form for as long as I can remember. Granted I've only been paying attention to the hunt since about 1990 or so, and has really been active in it since Conway in 1999. But in all those years, the puck has been on public land in Ramsey County. In 1979, in fact, the medallion made its one and only venture out of the county, placed in Marthaler Park in West Saint Paul. One can only assume that Ramsey County was not a part of the rules in those days, since the throngs of irate hunters descending on the Pioneer Press building would have made the Vulcan's overthrow of Boreas look like a flick of a Bic. Sure, every year some clown posits that its in Powderhorn or Theo Wirth Parks. We can only assume that these posts are in jest, with those two being in Minneapolis, a distinctly un-Ramsey County location.

Then there's the Fairgrounds. In recent years they've been off limits, at least in name, but that wasn't always the case, with Ma Press even hiding the puck there in both 1953 for the second hunt of the year and again in 1967. Trying to dig there today though will get you a stern talking to by the State Fair Police, followed by an escort off the grounds. But yet they're the "State" Fairgrounds. Aren't they public land in Ramsey County? According to legend the grounds are currently private property. This discussion came up this evening in the Cooler Crew Discussion Boards, and prompted me to do some digging around.

The first place I looked was Ramsey County's online GIS system for property records. According to the County, in whose boundaries the Fairgrounds lie, the grounds themselves are owned by the Minnesota State Agricultural Society. That doesn't really sound like the sort of private enterprise that would make the grounds private property, so I did some to'ing and fro'ing to find out exactly what the State Ag. Society was. My best friend for this sort of task, Google, referred me to Chapter 37 of the Minnesota State Statutes. In section 13, subdivision 1, We find that "The state owns all money and other property of the society in the name of the society and there may be no division of its assets among society members." Presumably this property would include the society's real estate, i.e., the Farigrounds. Arguably, according to state law anyway, the Fairgrounds are public land.

Let's go back and read section 1: "The State Agricultural Society is a public corporation." Yes, this lends more credence to the grounds being public land. Later on in that section we find this sentence: "Any part of the State Fairgrounds which is within the boundaries of a city or other political subdivision of the state is detached from the city or political subdivision". The fairgrounds are most definitely within the boundaries of Ramsey County, the city of Falcon Heights, and potentially, depending on how you look at the boundaries, the city of Saint Paul. However, the legal impact of that sentence within the statute has the effect of creating a political subdivision, containing the State Fairgrounds, on the same level as a County, but one that is completely surrounded by Ramsey County, an enclave. It is very similar to how Vatican City is a separate "nation" completely surrounded by the city of Rome.

By that one small sentence, which was put in place in 1982 and amended to its current state in 1985, the state Legislature placed the Fairgrounds off-limits to the hunt. Why is that? Because although they are public land (remember, the state owns the land, through the quasi-agency known as the Minnesota State Agricultural Society), that land is surrounded by Ramsey County, but not within Ramsey County.

So, as they say on Mythbusters, the myth that the Fairgrounds are off limits to hunters because they are private land is busted. They're off limits becasue they're not in Ramsey County. Which of course explains why you can see police officers from various municipalities within the Twin Cities roaming around the fairgrounds, and not just those of Police Departments within Ramsey County.