2024 Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt

Something old is the ancient land that is now called Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, the site of the sacred cave and meeting place of the Dakota, Wakan Tipi (also called Carver’s Cave). The sanctuary features towering limestone and sandstone bluffs that date back more than 450 million years. Something new is that same park, one of St. Paul’s newest parks, where the treasure has been hidden for the first time.

Historic and pioneer refer to the 175th anniversary this year of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the first newspaper in Minnesota. They also allude to the ancient features of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, one of the first areas described by explorers, such as English explorer Jonathan Carver’s account of the area when he visited in 1766. Park hunter suggest that hunters restrict their search to parks.

The second stanza revolves around James Goodhue, the editor and founder of the Pioneer (who’s shadowy, cigar-chomping descendant, James Goodhue IV, made appearances in Treasure Hunt videos), and for whom Goodhue County is named. The man who first wrote about the Bruce Vento park area in 1766, English explorer Jonathan Carver, also has a Minnesota county namesake (Carver County).

Other “hunts” coincide with the Medallion Hunt this year, with the Winter’s Carnival’s Golden Can of beer (free beer for a year to the finder!) and the St. Paul Park and Recreation’s tree gnome scavenger hunt (including a roving golden gnome). We suggest these imitators do not distract you from finding the lost treasure. We also tip our hat to the state of the hidden medallion – it sits on the open ground, not sequestered in a log or secured underneath park equipment.

We mention the recent theft of copper wire from streetlights, which hit St. Paul especially hard recently, in an effort to help hunters narrow down their field of search. We also use it to note the lack of light in Bruce Vento, when being able to light your own path is especially helpful.

St. Paul made headlines in January when it seated its first all-female city council – a first for the city and likely the first for any major U.S. city, news reports said. The last line is a hint for hunters to consider the views of the council – which meets in a building that has a clear line of sight to Bruce Vento.

The medallion is a pyramid-shaped plastic object this year. It was placed in a box and covered in sawdust taken from the many tree trimmings at the park.

Pink await” is an anagram for “Wakan Tipi,” the Native American name for the cave called Dwelling of the Mystery. The cave, also known as Carver’s Cave, is a sacred meeting place for Native Americans, and its walls once featured petroglyphs. Vandalism and industrialization destroyed much of the cave and the land around it was used as a dump until recent efforts to reclaim the land and restore it to its natural beauty.

This clue is all about landmarks in Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, told as the story of St. Paul Winter Carnival Ice Palaces (and a “castle” reference that is specified in Clue 12): blocks refers to the giant stone seats at the park’s makeshift stage; pads references the concrete pads leftover from when the land was used for train maintenance; timber for the pile of bleached logs near both the blocks and pads; and the ‘tween our waters calls out the hiding spot of the medallion, on a patch of land between the two most southeasterly ponds in the park.

Bruce Vento, the namesake for the park where the medallion is hidden, was a junior high school science teacher when he was elected to Congress in 1976. He became a fierce protector of the wilderness and the homeless and was chief sponsor of the BWCA Wilderness Act. An elementary school in St. Paul is also named for him, as is a section of the BWCA.

Movie stars, candy bars and grain sweet to eat refer to roads that bound Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary – Warner Road, Mounds Boulevard and Kellogg Boulevard, respectively.

The “spot” is in Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, as noted in earlier clues, a park we haven’t included in past hunts. We let hunters know the puck isn’t far from the paths that wend through the nature sanctuary – just a short distance off in the grass. Finally, “produce fruit” is a nod to “Cherry Street,” which is in line with the puck’s location.

This final clue for the 2024 hunt gives it all away – the park name, the trail to follow, the street to line up with (Cherry Street, which ends on the bluff above Bruce Vento), the landmarks visible from the hiding spot (railyard supplies on one side, the visible sandstone bluff known as the “Sand Castle” to the other), and the number of steps to take up the hill to find the pyramid-shaped medallion in a sawdust-covered box.