Jason Anderson is serving in Iraq, but that won't stop him from seeking the medallion.

Jason Anderson's smiling face has been seen all over town this week during the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt: pouring a beer at the Rockin' Lobster on Wabasha, searching the frog pond at Como Park and cozying up with some Winter Carnival princesses outside the Landmark Center.

That's surprising news, though, because he's actually in Baghdad, Iraq, where the 30-year-old sergeant from Rosemount has been serving as a mechanic with the Minnesota Army National Guard out of Hastings since October.

Anderson, known as Zephyrus in the online world of Treasure Hunt chat rooms, is one of at least two area residents who are taking part long-distance from the Middle East in this year's medallion search.

Some members of the Cooler Crew, an informal group of avid medallion hunters who chat online and throw hunt-related get-togethers the rest of the year, first met Anderson in a hunt chat room about two weeks ago.

When they found out he was serving in Iraq and learned how much he missed taking part in the hunt, they decided to take him along on their outings.

They created "Zephy," a life-size cardboard cutout with a picture of Anderson's face pasted on. They clothed their Anderson stand-in in jeans and a jacket and, over the past week, have photographed their get-togethers and shenanigans. Now, they've posted their photos on the Crew's Web site at www.coolertimes.com.

"When he sees the pictures and laughs, he can kind of put himself in a better space," says Stephanie Firestone of Maple Grove, who, with her husband, Daniel, first made contact with Anderson. "Everything that we can do to make him smile... so that he's able to come home safe."

The wife that Anderson left at home is taken aback by the attention a group of strangers is giving her husband.

"These people had never met him," Stacy Anderson says. "The devotion and commitment they're putting in to keep him involved is just amazing."

The Andersons and their three children — two sons and one daughter — are no strangers to the Treasure Hunt.

Jason Anderson's grandfather Larry Graber found the treasure chest (a precursor to the medallion) in 1954 at Hidden Falls.

Anderson had been hoping the medallion would be in the same park this year for sentimental reasons, but said by e-mail from Baghdad that his current guess leans "pretty strong for Crosby, although I have a small feeling for the Indian Mounds/Battle Creek area."

Anthony Barbour, a Department of Defense civilian contractor now in the Mideast, wasn't so forthright with his noodling on the clues.

Although he calls White Bear Lake home, he wrote from his current residence at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait that he is hunting "with all the resources the Web can offer."

He should know which tools to use, too. Barbour, 42, has spent the last 30 years medallion hunting, most of them from locales like Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Kuwait, Scotland and Texas.

He had a feeling for Harriet Island before the hunt this year, he wrote, but "the clues see something else."

If he does pinpoint a medallion location, he has friends in town who will check it out for him.

Stacy Anderson is prepared to go hunting, too, if her husband asks.

Already, she's going out to buy each day's clue in the newspaper.

"If I do find it and I have all the clues, it's better," she said her husband told her of the steps to win the biggest cash prize.

Whether or not she ventures into area parks this weekend, Zephy will have a big couple of days.

The cutout's caretakers, Cooler Crew members Jason and Sue Michaelson of Apple Valley, have entered a cardboard cat in this weekend's Saintly City Cat Show in Zephy's honor.

They're also going to try to get him a ride on the Vulcans' firetruck.

They've even purchased a pink boa for Zephy to wear when he meets the Royal Order of Klondike Kates.

Explains Sue Michaelson of the Crew's outreach efforts, "The Coolers didn't have anybody (in the service) to reach out to but wanted to help so much. This is a way to put a face on it."

And Anderson wants them to know how thankful he is for that.

"When I found out that I was being brought out all over town, and that I am going treasure hunting with them, I cried of joy (just a little, I am a soldier, you know … ) and laughed a lot, which doesn't happen too much over here," he wrote.

"It really made me feel special, and like I didn't really miss the hunt this year after all."

TRACKING ZEPHYRUS

  • To chat with Zephyrus or other Cooler Crew members, go to www.peoplesforum.com and follow the links.
  • To see pictures of Zephyrus out and about, go to www.coolertimes.com or www.coolercrew.com.
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  • The Grande Day Parade steps off at 1:30 p.m. today. Winter Carnival royalty crowned.
  • Today's carnival events.

Copyright 2005 Pioneer Press.