With just 3 clues — and a little help — dedicated hunter finds medallion
It was bound to happen. . A dedicated – some would say obsessed – treasure hunter, Jake Ingebrigtson set a record for finding the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt medallion with fewer clues than anyone in the 56-year history of the event.
The 27-year-old set out to find the medallion this year as he has for the past decade: cocksure and ready to dig.
Months earlier, he’d scoped out Hidden Falls Regional Park, a wooded area tucked below the Ford plant on Mississippi River Boulevard. He printed maps and marked likely hiding places, focusing on the north end of Hidden Falls.
In mid-hunt Tuesday afternoon, he ran into Rob Brass, who also was looking for the medallion.
After talking with Brass and further deconstructing the clues, Ingebrigtson changed his focus to the south end of the park.
By 3:30 p.m., and just three clues in, Ingebrigtson was mugging with the medallion, taking calls from disbelieving friends and family.
“I found the medallion!” he shouted into his cell phone as his downtown St. Paul apartment filled with well-wishers.
“He’s the type who’ll be out day one, day two, digging,” Jason Rogers said. “He goes out there full-bore.”
His girlfriend knows all about her guy’s obsession.
“That’s all he talks about,” Sara Harpestad said. “In the summer, we went to Hidden Falls, and he said, ‘This is where the medallion’s going to be.’ ”
This hunt could have ended like those of past years – with the fanatical searcher empty-handed – if it wasn’t for the chance meeting with Brass.
“I was so ecstatic that I solved the clue that I went to check it out” over lunch Tuesday, the 27-year-old Chaska resident said.
That’s when he saw Ingebrigtson. The two talked.
Ingebrigtson was sure it was in the park. The past few years it’s been in large parks with wooded areas, he said, but not in Hidden Falls.
Brass, a 20-year hunt veteran, was sure about the park, too, and had narrowed his search to its southern tip. He said “level” in Clue No. 3 referred to the same word buried in Cleveland Avenue. He planned to come back Tuesday night and search the area below the street.
After Brass went back to work, Ingebrigtson followed the tip. He spent a couple of hours moving snow with his shovel before following a set of footprints to a nearby ravine. He got on his knees to clear some brush. As his gloved hands scattered leaves and twigs, he looked up and directly into a nook between two fallen logs.
A block of ice filled the space.
The hunter pulled out the slab and saw two business cards frozen inside. One said “Ford” and the other “UAW,” for United Auto Workers union. Sandwiched between was the medallion.
“I dropped my gloves and shovel. They’re still at the spot,” Ingebrigtson said.
He screamed so loudly in excitement that two cross country skiers asked him whether he needed help.
Back in Ingebrigtson’s apartment, friends grinned about the find but lamented the short hunt.
“I knew someday he’d find it. You knew the day would come,” said Jesse D. Anibas, author of “The Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt History.”
“Just not today,” he said.
“It’s good and bad,” added hunter Jason Rogers. “But if anyone’s deserving, it’s Jake. He wanted to be on the list of finders, and now he is.”
And so is Brass, thanks to Ingebrigtson.
Knowing that he’d still be digging far away from the medallion without Brass’ input, Ingebrigtson was able to contact the other hunter as Brass prepared to head to Hidden Falls for the night.
“The bottom line is I wouldn’t have found it if he didn’t tell me what he knew,” Ingebrigtson said. “The monkey’s off my back. Now I can have fun doing it.”
The find is worth the full $10,000 cash prize and $1,200 worth of groceries at Cub Foods for Ingebrigtson. Brass said he just wants his name included among the rest of the medallion finders.
“It’s like a dream,” he said.
John Brewer can be reached at jbrewer@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2093.
Copyright 2007 Pioneer Press.
