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Allison Wonderland Mock Hunt

2023 Allison Wonderland Mock Hunt Kickoff

Submitted by Allison Wonderland on
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We'll have the kickoff event at Joseph's Grill in St. Paul starting at 6:30pm on Wednesday, March 8th. There's no requirement to attend as it is just a social occasion, but they do have their pasta bar on Wednesday nights. It's also a chance to pay your registration fee.

2019 Allison Wonderland Mock Hunt Kickoff

Submitted by Allison Wonderland on
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I think the time has come to announce the 2019 Allison Wonderland Mock Hunt. This year we will kick it off on Wednesday, March 6th at 6pm at Joseph's Grill in St. Paul. Wednesday night is their pasta bar night from 6 to 8 so you can participate in that or just order off the menu.

 

 

2016 Allison Wonderland Mock hunt Kickoff

Submitted by Allison Wonderland on
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18th Annual Cooler Crew Pre-Dig Gig
Saturday January 23, 2016
Joseph's Grill (in the banquet room)
140 South Wabasha Street
Saint Paul, MN 55107
 

 

I had originally planned to start my Mock Hunt in March, but then the Wild Announced there Gold Puck hunt that would be going on all month (worth a little over $5,000). So instead I bumped it back to April and it will now begin on Friday, April 8th. Clues will come out at 6pm daily (12 clues altogether) and Clue 1 will be released at Joseph's Grill in St. Paul (on Wabasha and Plato). Consequently we'll plan to meet there around 5:30pm.

Clues will be posted daily to this site and the Cooler Crew Facebook page. I may post it to the PP site if it seems anyone is on there. There will be a $10 registration fee which entitles the finder to win the entire prize (usually somewhere between $200 and $500). Otherwise an unregistered hunter can still find it and win $100. The medallion will be hidden in a Saint Paul park. It will not be hidden in water, up a tree, under ground, on a steep slope, in anything electrical, indoors, or anywhere else that might cause you to ask "Is looking here really a good idea?) We'll also exclude the locations excluded by the PP hunt such as Golf Courses and the Como Zoo and Conservatory.

Hunters can pay their $10 at the kickoff event or they can pay the money via Paypal to allisonwondrland@yahoo.com If neither of those options work for you, let me know and we can make other arrangements. The winner must turn in the medallion to collect their prize. The hunt will continue until the medallion is found, though I reserve the right to suspend the hunt in the case of extraordinary circumstances.

Behind the Scenes of the 2015 Allison Wonderland Mock Hunt

Submitted by Allison Wonderland on

by Allison Wonderland

Some of you may be interested to know some of what happened behind the scenes of this hunt. It all started of course when the PP medallion was found and people were calling for a second hunt. I didn't believe the PP would do another one and some Cooler Crew people were suggesting an immediate mock hunt. I'm usually up for such a challenge so I was thinking about it, waiting to hear for sure what the PP would.

When they said they wouldn't, Jake called me and said we should do one. It was his idea to do two clues a day. I had a meeting that night I had to go to so we said we would meet up later to discuss where to put it. In the meantime Jake decided not to help, but later realized he had an idea of what I had in mind, so he didn't hunt either. So as I headed to my meeting, I knew I was on my own.

After the meeting, I actually started towards Indian Mounds with the medallion in hand. I'm not even sure why now, but as I was driving I suddenly decided to go to Highland instead. As someone on here guessed, I was looking for a park that people had already been digging in. Not to hide footprints, but because of how I wanted to hide the medallion. I wanted to find a spot someone had already cleared, and hide it under their pile of snow so that when people came looking at Highland, they would think that spot had already been checked.

I got to the park and went to the south side because parking was easier. I went up to the picnic grounds and found a pile of snow next to an area someone had swept clean. I stuck my shovel under the pile, lifted it up, and put the medallion underneath. Then I pressed down on the snow with my shovel and scraped a bit more onto the pile. With that I was out of there.

By the time I got home it was after 10pm. I started making a list of things I could use as clues. I knew I had to get at least the first clue written before bed so that I could post it in the morning and I did manage to do that while also keeping up with the details of the PP hunt.

So the next morning I post the first clue thinking I had been pretty clever and used some obscure references. Five minutes later the first response appeared. It was Valley Girl saying it must be in Highland because Highland used to be called Reserve Township. My hunt lasted 5 minutes and they had already figured out the park!

So there was a bit of panic there as I furiously set about trying to write the rest of the clues. I knew I wasn't going to fool anyone into thinking it was a different park, but there was one tactic that might work. The "Boomerang". Often I like to use the "Eclipse" strategy which is where you use a small park, but you write clues in such a way that they also kind of fit a big park and the little park hides behind the big park. This would be the inverse of that. I would use a big park, but make people think the big park was a decoy for a little park, when in fact the little park was the decoy.

Mattocks Park was my target. I knew it had a Charles Schultz connection as did Highland, it was sort of in the Highland area, and they both had a street named after a college. My goal was to try and lure some people there through the 1st six clues anyway and then maybe the hunt would have a decent chance. The second clue was meant to talk about the Peanuts connection, but also to sow some doubt about whether it was really at Highland, or was it just the decoy yet again.

That strategy kind of worked, except somehow people ended up at Hillcrest instead of Mattocks. They would have to tell you why. I've never been to Hillcrest.

That first day was a furious one of clue writing. I actually had all 12 clues written within 24 hours of the PP hunt being done. I did tweak the wording on some of the unreleased clues later on, but didn't make any major changes or alter the order of them.

And then it was just a matter of waiting to see how long it would go. It was interesting to watch this year because there was a lot more discussion on the PP boards than I usually get to see during a hunt. People came up with Highland in half a dozen different ways from the first clue, and only two were intentional. I think I see now why the PP doesn't use Highland. Everyone tends to go there and dig no matter what the clue actually says.

On the other hand, even though the Reserve Township and District 15 thing came up very early on, people started going to parks all over town anyway. It's amazing what power a vague phrase can have on splitting the masses.

But eventually people got back to Highland right about on schedule and the hunt almost made it to Clue 10 which I think is a pretty good length. So despite a crazy start, I think it was a good hunt and I am pretty happy with it.

 

2014 Allison Wonderland Mock Hunt Kickoff

Submitted by Allison Wonderland on
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Monday April 21, 2014
Joseph's Grill (in the banquet room)
140 South Wabasha Street
Saint Paul, MN 55107
5:30pm-close

It seems Easter weekend wasn't going to work out so well for people so we're going to further break tradition and have a 3rd clue release party on Monday night, the 21st. We'll meet at Joseph's where it is $2 taco night starting at 5:30 and release the clue at 6pm. You can still register at the party.

2013 Allison Wonderland Mock Hunt Kickoff Party

Submitted by Allison Wonderland on
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The Original Gabe's By The Park
Saturday March 2, 2013
5:30 start, 6:00pm clue release
991 Lexington Pkwy N
St Paul, MN 55108

More from the white rabbit:

It's been a couple of weeks now since the Rehash and hopefully everyone has had time to recover from the Medallion Hunt. But now it's time to start thinking about the Allison Wonderland Mock Hunt which will be starting two weeks from today on Saturday, March 2nd. We will have a kickoff party at Gabe's by the Park starting at 5:30pm. The first clue will be released at the party at 6pm.

Subsequent clues will be released daily at 6pm online and will be posted on the AllisonWonderland yahoo group as well as Ableminds. People are free to repost the clues to other sites, but I'm not making any promises to do so myself.

There will be 12 clues in all and the hunt will end when the medallion is found or when the hunt is declared over (by me) in the case of extraordinary circumstance.

You may participate in the hunt as either a registered or unregistered hunter. To be a registered hunter, you must pay the $10 registration fee. Then if you find it, you will win the entire prize which this year will be $500 (registration fees + money left from last year + money I chip in myself to bring it to $500 even). You may also particpate as an unregistered hunter which allows you to hunt for free. If an unregistered hunter wins, they will get $100 and the leftover registration fees will carry over to the next year.

To pay your registration fee, you may pay me at the kickoff party, you can send me the money via PayPal at AllisonWondrland@yahoo.com, or email me and I can give you an address to send a check to. You actually have until the release of the 4th clue to register. Some people have already registered.

The hunt will take place in a park in the city of St. Paul. The medallion will not be on or in a body of water, on top of a building, up a tree, on a steep cliff, underground, indoors, inside anything electrical or something that is locked, or anywhere else that might make you ask if looking there could be a bad idea. Be safe, and don't destroy.

Payment of the prize is contingent on return of the medallion.

Cluewriting is underway already and this should be an interesting one.

Announcing the 2013 Allison Wonderland Mock Hunt

Submitted by Allison Wonderland on
I have to admit that when it comes to being creative, nothing inspires me so much as seeing something done badly.  Consequently this year's clues and explanations have me quite inspired to get started with writing clues for the Mock Hunt.  So with that said, let's go ahead and set the date for Saturday, March 2nd.  The first clue will come out at 6:00pm that nightand be released, once a day, every day at 6:00pm until the end.
 
There are two ways to play.  One is to be a registered hunter which costs $10.  If you are registered and you find it, you will win the whole prize which I estimate will be around $500 this year.  You can also hunt for free, but then if you win, you get just $100 and the remaining registration money will carry over to the next hunt (which is what happened last year).
 
So if this hunt left you wanting for a better puzzle to solve, I encourage you to keep in touch and watch this message board over the next month.