2026 Medallion Rapscallion Blog Entries (please see rules below).
February 5, 2026 — Medallion Found! Congratulations to Trae Swehla for finding the medallion at 3:33 p.m. on Thursday, February 5 in Warren Park after clue #6, thanks to the Ambassadors for sponsoring the event with $1,000 in Chamber Bucks as the prize, to all the searchers and everyone who expressed interested. We’ll see you again for the 2027 Saint Peter Winterfest Medallion Hunt!
February 5, 2026 — No one reads this, right?
Assuming that, we’ll share with you that an arguably clever searcher added 88 and 81 to get 169. What a coincidence. Um.
This searcher surmised that one park is along Highway 169, and another park on the other side near the, um, curvy river features frisbees. Terms in disc golf could, um, relate to slides and swings and such.
Anyway, the forecast calls for 43 degrees today! Snow, which cloaks medallions, melts at 32 degrees, last time we checked, well, unless shade comes into play.
How in the world is the medallion going to hide in these conditions when it feels more like San Diego than Saint Peter?
Don’t dig in the dirt, because it’s not buried, and please please please don’t vandalize anything.
Remember Rapscallion tendencies. Medallions of years gone by have frequented gloves and cookie sleeves and even litter bags. We’re not sayin’, we’re just sayin’.
Gorman Park is so very trampled. Sure, multi-ton stones are unturned, but it looks like every other square inch of the park has been searched.
We have seen seekers in Jefferson Park, Stones Park, Levee Park and even Johnson Park. We should really sweep by Veterans Park and Ramsey Park to monitor activity.
We are on clue #7 today, everyone, and oh has this been fun!
We will see you out on the scene, where melting snow opens our world to more green.
February 4, 2026 — What is going on here anyway with “Minnesota” and “river” in today’s clue?
Parks along the Minnesota River in our fair town include Riverside, Mill Pond and Levee.
Whether the Rapscallion is trying to get searchers closer at this point is anyone’s guess. Mill Pond and Levee have swings, while Mill Pond and Levee both have slides, and Mill Pond has picnic tables, by the way.
Where the Rapscallion is going is anyone’s guess though.
This is the second day in a row where the Rapscallion has mentioned college teams, and it’s probably a leap to reach for College Avenue and Minnesota Square Park, where several clue words have pointed. For that matter, here we go again with the word “Minnesota”. Lots of rocks and stones in that park, by the way.
Perhaps there is a football tie, and the fields that come to mind are very close to Rotary Park.
It’s all too much to think about. Too much to figure out. Caught between hope and doubt.
Yesterday’s clue talked about the “Fighting Irish,” and we all know the Saint Patrick parade is on South Third Street, which abuts Minnesota Square Park.
Accurate insights are tough to come by when the opponent is this clever Rapscallion.
Search away, search away, search away all!
February 3, 2026 — So, then, what’s the buzz about the booty?
Whoa-ho did some minds go to Gorman Park when reading yesterday’s clue.
Come on, “from corner to corner, from rock to rock” could have meant the big Kasota Stones that are rectangle close to the thicket-like bushes by the library in the corner of the park that has slides, picnic tables and swings. Not all parks could say that. Gorman is prominent as so many amenities are added last year and this year. Glaciers made the hill on which the park and community center is built. And who donated huge dollars for Gorman Park improvements? The Ambassadors, who are also sponsoring the hunt for a cool $1K. The park has a lot of lights, which means it’s search friendly day or night.
Only one dude was searching there 15 minutes after the clue was posted. It was cold, and he was layered with a flannel top. How long would he be so bold before February’s winds blew through his shivering cold?
Searchers combed moors of other parks too, all bundled as warm as African gnus.
We’ll see you out searching after fifth telling clue, is posted at twilight this very afternoon!
February 2, 2026 — The square and class seem to be substantive clues, right?
Well, it’s early in the hun though. If the medallion was hidden in Minnesota Square Park, as it was in 2022, then the searchers will be kicking themselves for overlooking, rather than over-looking, for it on day 3.
But what else could square (the square park, as some call it) and class (there used to be a school at the southwest corner of the parkland), mean?
Let’s all channel the Rapscallion in an attempt to draw out more specificity with clue 4, which we are on the precipice of receiving today at 5:01 p.m.
At least it’s warm and warming further. Soon the snow that potentially cloaks the little puck will fade from solid to translucent liquid. We have much to look forward too!
February 1, 2026 — Drat!
How dare Mother Nature blanket every footprint under a thin-but-flatly-opaque blanket of snow? Just as a razor blade. merino socks or teflon tape are skinny but play rigid enough to do their jobs.
It’s a game-changer but perhaps only short-lived. The sun has a way of erasing the cottony blanket, albeit after altering what could have been tell-tale marks in the previously tainted terrain. At this writing at 2 p.m., the outside temperature was 31 degrees.
And oh wow what welcome warmth! The lows had dipped below zero for more than a week.
This heatwave figures to bring searchers out of the woodwork, but if the past is an indication, a wide swath of sleuths waits until clues get more specific. It’s a time thing. They wood rather hide indoors in creature comforts rather than subject themselves to this climate’s lashings.
But if last night’s clue pans out as specific, then how much more gifting could a Rapscallion be? Slides? Swings? Picnic tables? Sure, most parks have them at some point in a 365-day calendar, but those three things should attract searchers in February like lemonade magnetizes bees in August.
I don’t know. I really don’t. But you do. I just know you do. So get out there and reel in this Rapscallion, who can hide but not run.
January 31, 2026 — So many lines and potential meanings.
But do these clue lines extend the key to the placement of the coveted puck? If the past is anything to trust, then probably.
The sacred Order of the Rapscallion loves the game. That person(s) takes joy in dangling veiled truths just over the noses of sniffing searchers.
Remember when the then-Rapscallion made clue #1 in one year exactly the same clue #1 the next year to communicate the medallion was hidden in Jefferson Park for the second year in a row? A searcher immediately publicly questioned it in the comments section of the clues social media page. No response was given. Just an invisible shrug, as if that could be communicated without a single stroke on a keyboard.
Yes indeed, clue #1 is usually quite nebulous and rarely telling. But, you are tangled in the sacred Order of the Rapscallion, who will point to cloaked clues at this event’s conclusion and say, “See, I kind of gave it away right there.”
Go fetch it, fido. Follow your sniffer along each hunch and every footprint.
January 30, 2026 — This is getting real, everyone, as chocolate powder sets poised to blend with its warming H2O and the bonfire’s cold kindling lay structured on the precipice of the match strike that will lift flames spectacular skyward.
Winterfest 2026 starts today at 5:01 p.m. with the reading of the first Medallion Hunt clue at the Chamber!
Come one, come all.
Yes, it’s a chilly, but isn’t this the point? This is neither springfest nor summerfest but in fact Winterfest, a celebration of a North 44.
The opening ceremony is all free with hot chocolate, peanut butter-chocolate prizes for finding mini medallions, a Saint Peter blanket for finding Joe Rolette’s missing paperwork that would have made Saint Peter the state capital, s’mores and a disco ball. All along the 93.96 and at 849, btw.
This is the 2026 Winterfest Medallion Hunt. If you don’t like the 11-degree windy cold, channel a Vulcan as he goes all in over the freeze’s slip amid this rock’s 23.5 tilt.
Join us in the spirit of a search riddled with rhymes, double meanings, cloaked phrasings that long to reveal themselves as mini/many epiphanies and scarlet-with-sparkle red herrings.
January 29, 2026 — Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow, you’re only a day away!
Hello searchers. We are excited to hear your strategies for the 2026 Saint Peter Winterfest Medallion Hunt with the first clue being released at 5:01 p.m. on Friday, January 30. Will you outfox the Medallion Rapscallion?
Two big factors: 1. This is a low snow year, which makes the medallion harder to hide; 2. This is a cold, cold year, which makes the medallion harder to find.
We have been keeping an eye on the Saint Paul winter medallion hunt, and, low and behold, their medallion has been found. Reports are saying their’s was found on Wednesday, January 28 2026 by Steven Sanftner in Linwood Park in Saint Paul in a white-painted Coco-Cola can. The finder claimed the $5,000 for the find, another $5,000 for having the official button and yet another $5,000 for having the official patch, all for a total of $15,000. Their last clue was #11, release at 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 27. Officially, their find came shortly after 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
Their big clue: Laborious yet lithe lads and lasses have loyally leapt to luminate the lexical labyrinths of logic locking the lucrative lotto, longing to lure the lavish luxury lying latently in local landmarks. See the connection? Linwood starts with an L, and Sanftner caught on to that.
Their medallion was hidden just off the sidewalk, which seems like a pretty good hint with these things. When you think about where the medallion has been hidden in past years in Saint Peter, memories pop up of several finds near roads or sidewalks.
Please know that with the Saint Peter hunt, we have always told hunters immediately when the medallion has been found. The process follows the finder calling our cell phone, which is on 24/7, and us posting on Facebook within five minutes that unofficially it has been found. We proceed immediately to interview the finder where they found it. We post the official notice and within two hours the story of the find, the finder and fun details.
Be the 2026 finder of the Saint Peter Winterfest medallion!
January 29, 2026 — Here are a few points about Saint Peter’s winter medallion hunt:
1. We’ve never put a time limit on the search, and searchers every year have found the medallion. The game is that the clues get more and more specific with their hints each day as the hunt continues. For instance, clue #2 might indicate whether it’s hidden on the east or west half of town, clue #4 might hint at which park it is in (with plenty of red herrings), clue #6 might tip off the southwest quadrant of the park, and clue #8 might place it in the vicinity of the park’s only old oak tree. Searchers’ sniffs become more keen.
2. We release the clue at 5:01 p.m., because that is when the largest swath of all ages is available to hunt, in the daylight even. We really want to reduce the likelihood of flashlight beams bouncing by mistake across windows or dark-clothed figures with hunting tools raising suspicions or kids who need to awake for school the next day searching at midnight instead of getting their beauty sleep or searchers being mistook as peaceful protesters.
3. We would never erect a paywall as a pay barrier to reading the clues. We want everyone, regardless of how much money they have, to have an equal chance at finding the medallion. Our medallion hunt is not only affordable, it’s free. Scratch that. We love giving away hot chocolate and treats, which makes it beyond free. We post the clue in multiple places so there are no barriers.
4. We ditched the tiered prize payout 21 years ago, in the hunt’s second year. If you find the medallion, you win the whole prize, not more or less based upon whether you bought a badge or whatever. We insist there be no financial favoritism.
Every community’s medallion hunt is different! There are good reasons behind every decision that piece together the structural skeleton. We support other communities’ medallion hunts, as we are all siblings in this family of fun experiential adventures.
January 28, 2026 — We are watching Saint Paul closely. As of 9 a.m. today, their medallion still has not been found. Searchers have just 36 hours until the clock strikes midnight on Thursday, January 29.
So, what is going to happen?
Is their clue that is released tonight at 11:30 p.m. going to be specific or vague? How close will it put hunters to their medallion?
And if searchers don’t find the medallion today or tomorrow, how specific will their clue that is released at 11:30 p.m. at Shamrocks be? If it’s very specific, basically telling searchers where exactly their medallion is, think about how dramatic and exciting that scene will be, complete with a large crowd. It sets the stage for the clue to be read and the searchers to race to the hiding place and fight for the medallion, claiming it with fewer than 29 minutes remaining in this season’s hunt.
Is their medallion hidden close to Shamrocks, which would mean the frantic searchers don’t need to go far in the race?
If you were a speculating searcher, and you were painting this scenario right now, with a day to look and look and look, then combing the parks close to Shamrocks would be one prospect. Is the prospect even accurate though?
THAT is what we never know until the medallion is found and light shines on the clues meanings.
We can attest or at least surmise in Saint Peter that the Medallion Rapscallion, who hides the prized puck and writes the clues, is two things: very clever and, like a leprechaun, loving of riddles that scatter the thoughts of searchers, who think they are on the right track one minute only to find themselves derailed the next.
The Saint Peter Winterfest Medallion Hunt starts at 5:01 p.m. on Friday, January 30 with the posting of the first clue on Facebook pages managed by the Ambassadors and the Saint Peter Chamber. We will see you in Levee Park for the opening ceremony, where we will read aloud the first clue!
January 27, 2026 — You might find this interesting; I certainly do.
There are several differences between the winter medallion hunts in Saint Peter and Saint Paul. We did some google searching.
For starters, there is a time limit on the Saint Paul hunt. There is no time limit on the hunt in Saint Peter.
In Saint Paul, daily clues are released around 11:30 p.m. at Shamrocks and around midnight on Twincities.com. In Saint Peter, clues are released daily at 5:01 p.m. on the Ambassadors Facebook page and Saint Peter Chamber Facebook page and website.
The Saint Paul search started on January 17 and, as of this writing at 5:30 p.m. on January 27, the Saint Paul medallion had not been found. If it’s not found by 11:59 p.m. on January 29, the hunt ends.
Watch the next blog for more contrasts! The Saint Peter hunt starts Friday, January 30 at 5:01 p.m. Bundle up.
January 19, 2026 — Here we go, hunters!
The 2026 Saint Peter Winterfest is nearly underway, with the opening ceremony at 5:01 p.m. on Friday, January 30 in Levee Park for the reading of the first clue. Clues will go out on the Chamber Facebook page each day at 5:01 p.m. until it is found.
Sustaining factors include snow depth, past placements, air temperatures, windchills and that oh-so-unpredictable Medallion Rapscallion.
We have it on good authority that the Rapscallion was a bit frustrated last year when the coveted piece was recovered on just the fourth day. The hunt in previous years had gone seven or eight days.
But how do you write clues that put searchers in the right park without putting the medallion in their hands?
This clue writing. It’s an impressive art.
We’ll tell you the medallion was found in Gault Park in 2025, but that is hardly a hint. The grizzled, long-tenured hunters will remind you the puck was hidden in Jefferson Park three years in a row.
Did we mention the Medallion Rapscallion is unpredictable?
Bundle up, hunters. Think through your strategy. Get out there, and like a trusty duck retriever, bring back the medallion to claim the $1,000 prize sponsored by the Ambassadors.
2025 Medallion Rapscallion Blog
February 3, 2025 — Congratulations to Julie Peters with sister Bekki Ziemer for finding the 2025 Saint Peter Winterfest Medallion on Monday, February 3 in Gault Park after clue #4!
Leave it to a former book publisher to make sense of alphabet soup, thereby deciphering the clues and finding the coveted puck.
“I saw the black and thought there it is,” said Peters, who was by the lighted tunnel shuffling through leaves. “I started screaming, ‘Bekki!’”
Peters was excited to get to the park, because she had seen slightly odd capital letters spelling GAU in clues 1, 2 and 3. If a capital L was in clue #4, she knew her theory had to be correct. That’s exactly what she saw with the 5:01 p.m. clue release.
“We searched the entire outfield and around the fence, but we were not going to give up tonight until we found it,” said Ziemer, in the falling temps of 23 degrees chilled by the stiff north wind. Her furry companion, Duke, could have passed for a Beargrease sled-dog.
The sisters had been knocking at the door the past four years of the medallion hunt. They were just steps away from finders Tom and Montana Weisgerber in Jefferson Park last year, Trae Swehla at Minnesota Square in 2023 and Cole McCarthy and Gavin Grochow in Levee in 2021.
“We’ve been so close, right there,” said Peters, who like her sister sported snow pants and puffy parkas. “We’re just stunned right now.”
Peters works at Saint Peter Eyecare and Ziemer at the Alma property Trellis in Mankato.
They don’t have plans for the loot, but they were hoping to thaw out over dinner somewhere after their big find.
Sponsoring the hunt this year was the David Detlefsen Agency for $250 in Chamber Bucks. The Chamber kicked in $100, an anonymous giver ponied up $100 and several business threw swag and gift certificates into the traditional vat of “stone soup” for the finders.
A few other searchers were in the finders’ midst, meaning, presumably, the clues did their job to put sleuths on the scent.
“There were other cars, and a guy and gal with a poking stick along the fence,” Peters said.
These ladies were not even going to search this year, but on Sunday night as Peters’ literary brain grew restless with its revealing of the capital letters in the clues, their path was defined.
“It was 12:30 a.m.; I couldn’t sleep,” said Peters, a former Capstone wordsmith who didn’t look at the clues the first two nights. She united with Ziemer in Gault Park on Monday after work. Their find tripped the timestamp at 6:42 p.m. By 7:30 p.m., the temperature dipped to 17 degrees.
The medallion, a hockey puck with the David Detlefsen Agency — State Farm Insurance logo, was positioned upside-down under weeds and leaves. That’s why only black was showing.
“I saw it and thought it had to be it,” said Peters, who got a new flashlight for this year’s endeavor.
This was the 21st annual hunt and the second time the hiding place was Gault Park, where — get this — Peters’ sister-in-law Lisa Schultz found it in a different part of the park the first time.
2026 Winterfest Medallion Hunt Rules. Please call Ed at 507-766-4560 immediately if you find it!
22th Annual Winterfest Medallion Hunt Rules. Thank you to the Saint Peter Ambassadors for sponsoring this event to the tune of a colossal $1,000 in Chamber Bucks!
Find the Medallion somewhere in St Peter, notify Ed at the Chamber (507-766-4560 anytime of the day or night or weekend,and you will win .
There are a few simple rules to remember when searching for the St. Peter Winter Medallion:
The Medallion is located within the St. Peter city limits and on public property.
-Do NOT dig in the soil.
-Please respect other people’s property and DO NOT search for the Medallion on private property (never search Treaty Site History Center, adjacent properties, or cemeteries).
-Please DO NOT climb over any fences when looking for the Medallion. The Medallion is NOT located in a restricted area.
Clues will be posted at 5:01 p.m. each day, until the Medallion is found, on the following websites:
St. Peter Herald
St. Peter Chamber
If you find the Medallion, you can turn it in at the St. Peter Area Chamber of Commerce office located at 101 S. Front Street in St. Peter. If you find the Medallion outside of the normal Chamber of Commerce business hours, please call Ed at 507-766-4560 so, as a courtesy to all Medallion hunters, we can report via the Chamber Facebook Page that it has been found. An e-mail also will go immediately to the St. Peter Herald and Mankato Free Press.