The St. Paul Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt officially kicks off Sunday, with thousands of folks scouring Ramsey County parks for the coveted medallion and a chance to win up to $10,000.
The first of 12 daily clues has been revealed, challenging treasure hunters to find a pocket-size piece of plastic hidden somewhere in thousands of acres of parkland.
Sometimes the hunt takes just a few days, other years it stretches over many cold hours of searching.
But diehard treasure hunters no longer have to line up outside the Pioneer Press to wait for first editions of the paper and the latest clue. They can download the Treasure Hunt app. Launched last year on iPhone and Android, the app has clues, photos, stories, videos and a map of previous medallion locations.
Daily clues will be posted online at TwinCities.com/treasurehunt at about 11:30 p.m. each day of the hunt — but hunters ready for a riddle will have an advantage: The clue will be released in scrambled form one hour earlier.
First editions of the St. Paul Pioneer Press with the printed clues will be available at Gabe’s by the Park, 991 N. Lexington Parkway. The editions sometimes come out before 11:30 p.m. Copies will not be for sale at the Pioneer Press building in downtown St. Paul.
Hunters can also follow along on social media. Watch for the Treasure Hunt Trivia Contest on Facebook at Facebook.com/PPtreasurehunt, and follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #pphunt.
What did the winners do with their winnings?
After all that frostbite and frustration, what have the medallion-finders used the prize money for?
Lynn Olson-Tuma found the medallion in the 2013 hunt. The East Side St. Paul resident is a third generation hunter who’s been braving the cold to hunt since she was 12 years old.
Olson-Tuma had been suffering from Lyme disease for six years before finding the medallion. She used some of the $10,000 prize to buy medication that wasn’t covered by her health insurance.
She and her husband, Scot Tuma — who hunt together — also bought a new bed for their then toddler, who had outgrown his crib.
Here are some others:
1952 — Arthur M. Jensen: The first treasure hunt winner spent some of his $1,100 winnings on a black straw pillbox hat for his wife.
1964 — Mary Jane Hilsgen spent some of her $2,500 on a set of encyclopedias and a stereo.
1978 — 12-year-old Diane Houle hunted with her mom and her mom’s best friend. They split the $2,500 and both families went on a Florida vacation. It was Houle’s first family vacation — and life changing, she said. From then on, they continued to take family vacations.
2007 — Jake Ingebrigtson hunted with Rob Brass. Ingebrigtson offered to split the $10,000 prize with Brass, who declined. Ingebrigtson put the money toward paying off bills. “I am debt free except for my mortgage today because of that find. I paid it all off and had a little left over,” he said. The two went on to find the medallion again in 2010.
2010 — This time around, Brass and Ingebrigtson split the $10,000 prize. Brass paid off some bills from the birth of his first child. Ingebrigtson was able to travel to Mexico to be in a friend’s wedding, and had money left to take his wife back to the same resort the following year for their honeymoon.
Katie Kather can be reached at 651-228-5006. Follow her at twitter.com/ktkather.
Copyright 2015 Pioneer Press.
