CoolerCrew.com - Legend of the Carnival

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Legend of the Carnival

St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation

A long, long time ago, Astraios, the god of Starlight, and Eos, the goddess of the Rosy-Fingered Morn, were wed. The union was blessed with five sons: Boreas, Titan, Euros, Zephyrus and Notos. As the eldest, Boreas was granted the title of "King of the Winds," and he assigned to each brother a permanent grant of great force and power.

Titan was assigned the blustery North Wind. Euros was granted control of the irresponsible East Wind. Zephyrus was given custody of the bountiful West Wind. Notos was presented the balmy South Wind. The brothers cavorted gaily over land and sea.

Boreas, while on his extensive travels, came upon a winter paradise known as Minnesota. He paused to behold the enchanting beauty of a magnificent group of seven gently sloping hills in whose embrace nestled a beautiful city. Boreas whistled in sheer ecstasy, "Historic St. Paul and her seven hills! An ideal place. I will make St. Paul the capital of all my domains. It will henceforth be emblazoned to the world as the winter playground of the Realm of Boreas."

Meanwhile, Vulcanus, the god of Fire, and the implacable enemy of Boreas, vowed: "By the great sword of Mars, I will temper the blusterings of Boreas with the heat and roar of my forces."

Undaunted, Boreas proclaimed a celebration in the spirit of gay Carnival. "So be it!" shouted Boreas, "There will be a Carnival in old St. Paul!" Boreas selected a Prime Minister to coordinate preparations in all the Principalities, Provinces and Royal Houses within the realm of St. Paul.

And so, for 10 glorious days, there was Carnival and joyous celebration in St. Paul. Boreas and the Queen of the Snows, the fairest maiden of the realm, reigned with the four Winds, accompanied each by a Princess from the realm of Boreas. Klondike Kate, a lady of song and merriment, added her sassy but enchanting voice to the festivities by singing songs of desire and sentiment.

On the 10th day of celebration, Vulcanus Rex and his Krewe stormed the magnificent ice castle and confronted the King's Guard. Upon the good counsel of the Queen, Boreas bade farewell to the people of his winter capital in the interest of peace and goodwill and returned to dwell among the gods of Olympus, until summer's warmth was relinquished again.

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This page was last modified on Oct 11 2005 2:59PM.

This site is dedicated to the St. Paul Pioneer Press Medallion Hunt, a main attraction of the annual St. Paul Winter Carnival that takes place every year in the smaller of the Twin Cities. For more on the Winter Carnival, try the following:

Cooler Crew Medallion Hunt Discussions (This link is for Coolerheads who have already registered at ableminds. The registration link is below

-- If you are not registered on the Discussion board, click here

Winter Carnival HQ

Treasure Hunt Headquarters

Treasure Hunter's Guide

Kings Commons

Camo Crue

For a complete list of treasure hunting resources, visit our links page.

The Here and Beyond

All the clues from all the years are now available. They're not currently as perfectly explained as they ought to be, but we're getting there. As time permits, the clue descriptions will be cleaned up and anecdotes will be added to make you laugh and clap. The individual hunt pages through the 1970s are dynamically generated by the web server, and may contain links to the more recent hunts, whose content differs from the static pages; At the moment, we're working on getting all of the supplemental information into the same dynamic page engine as the clues are. As we do, more of the site will be converted to the dynamic pages you currently see, and links may be temporarily broken as a result. If you ever find anything that offends you, don't hesitate to write and complain. No malice or poor taste is ever intended in these family-friendly pages.

One of the more recent representative images of the hunt from the Pioneer Press. For a look at Winter Carnival button designs from past years, see Ron Young's excellent St. Paul Winter Carnival button collection or another keep-it-simple button index reminiscent of the earliest days of the Web.