It's been a part of winter for 52 years, but has another Treasure Hunt sparked such a frenzy?
After 11 clues, no one had found the medallion, worth up to $10,000 and other prizes. On Wednesday night, hunters knew the 12th, and final, published clue would all but give it away.
And at 12:30 a.m. today, the newsroom received word: Three young men -- Michael Corrigan, 24, of St. Paul; Craig Black, 24, of Apple Valley; and Josh Stender, 24, of Minneapolis -- had found it at 11:45 p.m. Wednesday at Como Park.
Wednesday night, the line in downtown St. Paul had grown, spreading from the Pioneer Press entrance, down Cedar Street, around Fourth, up to Wabasha, then curling back toward Fifth.
All for a chance to see the first newspapers off the press, sometime after 11 p.m.
"I see it as like a ticket to the Super Bowl," said Josh Tew of Oakdale, who staked his place at the front of the line by arriving outside the newspaper office at 6:15 p.m. "It's a big deal."
And something of a rarity. In the more than five decades that the Pioneer Press contest has been run in conjunction with the St. Paul Winter Carnival, only 13 hunts before this year's had required all the clues. The last time was in 1996 when the medallion turned up at Harriet Island.
But waiting for hours, with the temperature in the teens?
"It's the thrill of the hunt," said Amber Weins of St. Paul, her face partially covered by a fur-lined hood. She'd been waiting since 7:45 p.m.
When the papers arrived at the Pioneer Press lobby, hundreds crowded inside, struggling to pay a quarter and grab a paper. Most pulled cell phones out of coat pockets and called partners at Como Park, where the most recent clues had drawn them.
A similar frenzy had settled over the park, where hundreds of searchers were at work amid the light of lanterns and the roar of leaf blowers.
People like Tom Freiling, 17, of St. Paul knew that time was of the essence. He was beginning to explain his strategy when he heard a shout in the distance -- "firepit, firepit."
"Let's go, let's go," he yelled, sprinting through woods, toward lights bobbing before him.
Ah, the thrill of the hunt.
Copyright 2003 Pioneer Press.
