2013 Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt

The medallion was found after Clue 11 in 2012. The word “bluff” in this clue references the bluffs around St. Paul and “reprise” hints the treasure is hidden in a park where it has been hidden before. “Use high tech gear …” refers to the increased use of cellphones and the Internet and also cautions hunters not to use electronics to cheat, as some people did in 2012. The treasure is hidden on public land in Ramsey County, but the “fine line” hints that the treasure rests very near the county line. Stay off golf courses, and don't dig up the ground.

Clue references two innovations in disseminating the clues last year – the song versions of clues, which has not been continued (and which was accessed early by one hunter), and the jumbled version of the clues, which added a fun twist to the hunt and is continued in 2013. Clue also describes the new policy of the PiPress that when people hunt in groups, only the person who actually finds the medallion will be awarded the prize money. He or she may share it with other members of a search party.

“Council” carries a tribal connotation relating to Cherokee Heights Park. The “Happy Holidays” pair, Bing Crosby and Perry Como, who shared billing on the album “Happy Holidays,” is a red herring (first stanza “song … so very wrong”).

Clue describes frequent activities in Cherokee Park. There is a playground to “exercise the kids” in the summer and a sledding area in the winter. Jog “a bit” hints that it is not a large park. “Grab your honey ….” a 1974 treasure hunt clue explanation referenced “amorous couples” use of Cherokee Heights Park.

This clue defines the end of Cherokee Heights Park where the medallion is hidden. It refers to the yellow playground sign (two children on a teeter totter) just east of Annapolis Street directly across Cherokee Heights Blvd from where the treasure is hidden.

“Ups and downs” indicates the motion of a teeter totter. The unseen rhyme is “clever” and “lever,” which is the word “clever” without the “c” (“can't see”). A teeter totter is an example of a lever. “Mashed rice” is an anagram for Archimedes, who wrote “Give me a place to stand, and with a lever I will move the whole world.” (“Crashed Ice” was often mentioned as the unseen rhyme on PiPress discussion board, but it was never part of the clue.)

Clue refers to the remnant of a fence across Cherokee Heights Blvd from the yellow playground sign (Clue 4) , which doesn't actually fence in anything. A tree has grown around the fence literally “gobbling it up.” The medallion is hidden near that tree.

“Bark,” “schooled” and “wheel of fortune” identify one of Cherokee Park's best known and most successful residents – futurist Joel Barker, a former high school teacher who gained fame for his “outside the box” business bestseller “Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future.” (A paradigm “shift” also implies the medallion is hidden in St. Paul, not “outside the box” like 2012.) Barker now touts a device called the Implication Wheel to help clients “foresee” events and make business decisions about the future. Barker's Prairie-style home is just off the east end of the park.

Barker may be a famous futurist, but we doubt he could have predicted he would be a clue in the medallion hunt.

"Robber barons” (“1 percenters” in today's parlance) James J. Hill and Andrew Carnegie each had a role in establishing Cherokee Heights Park as a public space accessible to citizens of St. Paul and the surrounding area. “One for the money” refers to railroad baron Hill, who helped the city buy the land that now makes up the park, while “two to go” refers to steel baron Carnegie, whose company built the first High Bridge providing park access for the residents of the city living on the other side of the Mississippi River. We also reveal that the medallion is hidden under the snow and ice created by the rain just before the hunt officially began.

Clue identifies seven streets around Cherokee Park: “Yon a car wash” is an acronym for “anchors away” the Naval Academy theme, which refers to Annapolis Street; “equal rights” refers to Wyoming Street (the state motto). “Down under” refers to Sidney Street, “ice” is part of CurtICE Street; “buns” references Baker Street; “Calling” a doctor references Page Street; and “tons” refers to MorTON Street.

Clue references two memorials in Cherokee Heights Park.

In 2011, a memorial plaque and bench for St. Paul rap artist Michael Larson, also known as “Eyedea,” was placed in the park near the Bruce Vento View sign. “Rhymes” refers to rap music and the local label, Rhymesayers. “Sneak” refers to the title of one of his songs, “idea” refers to the Larson's stage name, and “second” and “heavenly” refer to the plaque next to the bench on which is inscribed “You see heaven isn't some place we go to when we die, it's that split second in life where you actually feel alive. Eyedea” 

The second memorial is to Congressman Bruce Vento, who died in 2000 of a rare lung cancer related to exposure to asbestos [“As-best-to-s(say)”]. Vento has been honored with a number of public sites in St. Paul, including the Bruce Vento View and the Bruce Vento Overlook. The Vento View and the start of the trail to the Vento Overlook are in Cherokee Park. The hunter should look closer to the outlook trail than the view (“Study his path”). The “best” way to “study his path” is looking at the map at the head of the Bruce Vento Overlook Trail. The map is referenced again in Clue 11.

Woodland refers to the fact that the medallion is hidden near a wooded area. Find the park woodland creatures inhabit by unscrambling “Hark,” “cheekiest” and “gopher”; the first word of each of the first three lines of the clue yield an anagram identifying Cherokee Heights Park.

At the end of the hunt (and the “end” of Cherokee Park and Ramsey County) is not the time to be thinking red herring. Anagram in Clue 10 gave away Cherokee Heights Park. Medallion is not in the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. When “you are here” you are standing by the map (noting “You Are Here”) at the trailhead of the Bruce Vento Overlook Trail (referenced in Clue 9). Following the trail leads you away from the treasure (and out of Ramsey County); you want to walk generally east from the trailhead to a tree with a piece of fence embedded in it (Clue 5). The medallion is buried in the snow somewhere near that tree.

Clue pinpoints the treasure location and identifies that it's in a nest buried in the snow.