Three St. Paul high school students, with help from one of their dads, followed the clues this morning to Battle Creek Park, where they found the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt medallion after searching for about 45 minutes.
The medallion was found about 9:35 a.m. today in the park on St. Paul's East Side. It was packed in ice and wrapped in a Pearson's Nut Goodie wrapper.
The winners are Joe Barnard, 15; Ian Luby, 14; Kai Peterson, 15; and Kai's father, Scott.
Joe and Kai, who had spent two evenings earlier in the week combing Highland Park with flashlights, decided to try the ice-covered Battle Creek this morning on their day off from school. They were joined by Ian, who decided just last night over dinner with them at Snuffy's Malt Shop with that he would join the pair.
The evidence clearly pointed to Battle Creek, the boys said. One clue including the phrase "searching hill and glen." Two parallel roads in Battle Creek are Hillsdale and Glenridge avenues. A "red-letter day" in Clue No. 5 referred to nearby 3M headquarters, Kai said. The "twixt" reference, too, pointed to 3M, which makes a "bookshelf" game by that name.
They said they were indebted to the sleuths at the online Treasure Hunt forum at www.twincities.com, to point them to the right park.
The teens, who are too young to drive, also relied on Kai's father to be their chauffeur. They first circled a lake, found nothing, then hit a nearby playground where they got distracted by playing on the slides. They finally decided to each take a portion of a steep hill used for sledding. Joe and Ian started poking around a wooded area between two hills. Kai combed the other side of the hill.
"I look down, and I see the Nut Goodie ... inside an ice block," Joe said. "It looked so unnatural."
After smashing the ice brick onto the ground, the wrapper fell out. Inside was the medallion wrapped by a red- and-black garter. The medallion was found after publication of the sixth of 12 clues.
This is the 55th year of the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt.
The winners will be introduced and receive their prizes at an afternoon news conference at the newspaper.
Copyright 2006 Pioneer Press.
