2017 St. Peter Winterfest Medallion Hunt
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A long-committed trio of medallion searchers finally hit the jackpot about 10 a.m. Saturday at Jefferson Park in the lengthiest hunt ever.
Taylor McCarthy, 17, her brother Cole McCarthy, 14, and cousin Gavin Grochow, 17, were combing the park together when Taylor picked up a brown glove under a bushy tree not far from Nicollet Avenue.
"I felt the circle and knew right away," Taylor said. "We couldn't believe it. We were jumping up and down yelling that we found the medallion."
“We had been looking only about an hour, if that,” Gavin added.
There were many hunters in the park, and they swarmed to the teens to offer congratulations. One hunter said she had seen the glove but didn’t pay any attention to it. The trio said they were surprised the medallion was not found earlier.
Taylor, Gavin and Cole have searched diligently every year for all 13 years of the hunt. Taylor and Cole have after school sports, but Gavin used several after-school to search and rule out possible hiding places. They will split the $1,000 in Chamber Bucks three ways.
“We’re going to give our Grandpa the other $1,” Taylor said.
They sniffed out Jefferson as the park early on, because a clue word was “13” and Jefferson has 13 acres, they said. They surmised nearby Menk Drive had a tie to surveyors Martin Menk and John Bolton of Bolton & Menk fame. Of course, Thomas Jefferson is on the $2 bill and Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron were known for hitting home runs beyond the fences, perhaps even to left field. The clues were valuable, the young hunters said.
“One of the clues said off the beaten path. This was definitely off the beaten path,” Taylor said.
Last night’s clue seemed to suggest there was a softball or baseball beyond an outfield fence somewhere in the park, and that it marked the hiding place of the medallion, but hunters who happened up that ball needed to look closer.
“We came across so many balls while searching at Jefferson,” Gavin said. “Especially today. It was like somebody scattered more softballs around the park.”
This is the first time the search has gone nine days, with the eighth clue coming 6:01 p.m. Friday. Saturday’s clue would have been:
There are trees and shrubs everywhere you turn,
Find one that is bare and this search will adjourn.
The clues may seem like they are out of left field,
Near a homerun ball is where the medallion is concealed.
Taylor, Cole and Gavin established from the very beginning 13 years ago that they would share the prize money equally if they ever found the medallion.
Gavin said they were so close last year at Stones Park that they were “on top of it. We were inches away. We told ourselves we were not going to let it get away this year.”
“Today we said we were not going home until we found it or someone else found it,” Taylor said.
They are not sure how they are going to spend the loot.
13th Annual Winterfest Medallion Hunt Rules
Find the Medallion somewhere in St Peter, and you will win $1,000 in St. Peter Chamber Bucks!
There are a few simple rules to remember when searching for the St. Peter Winter Medallion:
- The Medallion is located within the St. Peter city limits and on public property.
- Do NOT dig in the soil.
Clues will be listed on the following websites:
If you find the Medallion, you can turn it in at the St. Peter Area Chamber of Commerce office located at 101 S. Front Street in St. Peter. If you find the Medallion outside of the normal Chamber of Commerce business hours, please call Ed at 507-766-4560 so, as a courtesy to all Medallion hunters, we can report via the Chamber Facebook Page that it has been found. An e-mail also will go immediately to the St. Peter Herald and Mankato Free Press.
Special Thank You to the St. Peter Area Tourism & Visitors Bureau for donating the St. Peter Chamber Bucks for the Medallion Hunt once again this year!
2017 Medallion Hunt Blog Entries
12:22 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3 -- Maybe the trick is to pack your brain with as much seemingly meaningless information as possible so that something clicks with a clue word or random thought.
For instance, some parks are larger than they appear in person. A map shows their boundaries.
Or reading about a namesake -- really packing it in with internet research -- could lead to good things.
8:38 a.m. Friday, Feb. 3 -- The Rapscallion can be so literal with the clues.
Remember last year when reasonably early in the hunt the Rapscallion was spewing out references to Sly and the Family Stone?
Was Stone to be interpreted as the big stone by the slide in McGill Park, or the stone planter in Minnesota Square Park, or the stone signs at both ends of town, or Treaty Rock?
Nope.
The Rapscallion might as well have painted red arrows all over town pointing to Stones Way Park, because that is where the medallion turned out to be.
So what might that tell us about this year’s hunt, with the most recent clue being $2 bill but earlier clue words being sage, survey this great land, make a big purchase …?
Last night there were several – ok, many – cars around the park that might as well have had flashing neon arrows and signs saying, “the medallion is here somewhere.”
Then again, the Rapscallion reserves the right to remain mysterious.
It just seems like the clues point to the right park and “outside the fence” points to the right place.
But it’s cold out there, and with so much public property already searched with a fine-tooth comb, there’s one sure way to get closer to the medallion: Watch for Clue 8 at 6:01 p.m. this afternoon.
2:55 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2 -- Can you believe the medallion was not found yesterday evening at 6:02 p.m.
Outside the fence and 1,2,3 seemed to be clues so telling that it was only a matter of time before the phone rang with the finder on the other end.
Wow. If you did any googling around the clue word sage, it probably would have led you to two parks.
But here's where logic goes astray: By appearances, every square inch of both of those areas has been searched.
Can't you just picture yourself in a staredown with the Rapscallion, whose grin is wry and left eyebrow is as high as it can get on the forehead?
As soon as the disc is finally found, we will let you know via this website and Facebook. If you find it, call 507-766-4560 to report it right away so we can get the word out!
3:31 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1 -- Wikipedia and Google Earth.
Are you using those tools in your search?
You can bet the Medallion Rapscallion certainly hopes you aren't.
Wikipedia answers so many questions you might have. Google Earth is basically a helicopter from the comforts of your living room couch.
Yup, it's going to come down to how awesome your ground game is. But, playing the Medallion Rapscallion's mind game is a big part of this thing.
Where do you suppose the Rapscallion is leading you with meaningful-or-not clue words like passing, old sage, beaten path and very wise? The advise is to keep your eye to the ground or you might miss the prize.
However, a brainy strategy and a bird's eye view -- a la Wiki and Earthy -- might get you to the right park or other public land.
Many hunters are googling song lyrics. Hmmmmm. It's worth wondering whether that is leading them anyplace.
9:27 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 31 -- The theories are rolling in.
What those theories are, we are not at liberty to share.
After all, sleuths invest deep thought into cracking the Rapscallion's code. They don't want us blabbing to the Cyberverse.
We will say there have been interesting theories about the clue words John, survey and way. Okay okay, since you are twisting our arm, interpretations of John have linked to a famous singer with St. Peter ties. St. Peter had a famous surveyor. Way could be part of a larger word.
But again, and we keep saying this, the Medallion Rapscallion is motivated to lead us astray.
9:27 a.m. Monday, Jan. 30 -- We did some figuring to learn the medallion has been hidden twice in Gault, Stone's Way, McGill, Warren and Mill Pond. It has been hidden once in Veterans and Minnesota Square.
So what does that mean? Not a thing, really.
We're just trying to think like the Medallion Rapscallion.
6:02 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 29 -- Well, hunters, what do you suppose?
Disc, grace and John would obviously be among the most attention-grabbing words in the first three clues.
You know we have a disc golf course in town, right? And you are aware there's a park along Grace Street, aren't you? You see the statue of John A. Johnson on the courthouse lawn everytime you drive past, don't you?
Surely you have combed all of those places searching for the solid plastic band that nets the $1,000 booty.
Or maybe you have learned from past hunts that the Medallion Rapscallion is playing you like a puppet on a string. Perhaps you are waiting in the wings while watching others wander like zombies the wrong way. It's possible you are gambling the medallion's hiding place is so sound that searching too early is for the rookies who have not yet learned the intricacies of the mind of the Medallion Rapscallion.
But do you know who has? Rick Wright and Tom Weisgerber, both of whom have found the medallion twice. Rick's fishing expeditions have been fruitful in Mill Pond Park. Tom extracted the disc from snow in Minnesota Square Park and Stone's Way Park.
Tom's Stone's Way hunch is still fresh in our minds. It was just last year that he froze himself in Winterfest history by scooping up the little flat orb within inches of Washington Avenue near a crosswalk sign. The feat came after Clue #7.
We are three clues into the 2017 hunt. Let's look back at last year's hunt to see just how giving -- just how generous -- the Rapscallion was through the first three clues. After the medallion was found, the Rapscallion told us the words "skipping," "stepping," "throwing," and "gem" were meant to get you thinking Stones, as in Stone's Way Park. Those words were embedded in the first three clues, as were "diamond" and "game" to get you to the softball diamond. "State" meant Washington, as in Washington Avenue.
Know this: The Rapscallion is giggling at you. As the clues writer, of course those words are going to seem like give-aways.
Know this also: The Rapscallion loves double meanings and red herrings. Disc could refer merely to the shape of the medallion. Grace could be the name of an actress in the same way Warren Beatty clues did a few years back did. And for all we know, "John" could be a restroom.
If there were a computer program to analyze clue words, it might spit out a slip advising a search of all things round near the Gorman Park bathrooms.
Silly! That's just silly. The Rapscallion is planting crazy ideas into our heads. We just don't know!
As we said after Clue 3 last year, it holds true again that clues get more specific as the hunt goes on.
Remember the Sly and the Family Stone songs in last year's clues?
1:45 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26 -- Excitement abounds!
And anticipation is high for the 13th annual Winterfest Medallion Hunt, which begins a little over a day from now.
We call this blog "Medallion Rapscallion," which mirrors the nickname of the medallion hider(s)/clue writer(s). They say their clue words are pointing you in the right direction. We'll see if that's true or not. They might have you zagging when you should be zigging.
Each year the medallion has always been hidden in or very close to a park. Safety and rights of property owners (private and public) are paramount. For instance, the medallion won't be too close to the river or anyplace that would require digging in the dirt.
Last year the medallion was found in Stone's Way Park very close to Washington Avenue. The first year it was in the middle of Veteran's Park, while two years it was in Mill Pond Park and another two years it was in Warren Park, while still another two years it was in McGill Park.
Do you remember the year it was in Minnesota Square Park just a few feet away from the sidewalk ... or the year it was taped to the underside of a bench in Gault Park?
Some hunters might surmise that past hiding places are strong clues to the medallion's present hiding place. Does it even matter that the medallion has never been hidding in Johnson Park, Ramsey Park, Gorman Park or Jefferson Park?
The medallion, pictured above, resembles an air hockey puck.
To find the medallion, you must think like the Rapscallion, and that is precisely what this blog aims to help with.
