Joe Horwath, and daughter Jessica Horwath, both of Maplewood, at the St. Paul Pioneer Press building after confirming they are the winners of the 2009 Treasure Hunt on Jan. 28, 2009. (Pioneer Press:Sherri laRose-Chiglo)
The puck has been plucked from its watery perch.
Father-and-daughter team Joe and Jessica Horwath of Maplewood found the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt medallion in Swede Hollow Park at 9:30 a.m. this morning.
The Horwaths brought the medallion and 11 days worth of clues to the newspaper early this afternoon. Jessica also had a registered Winter Carnival button, so the two will get the full $10,000 in prize money, along with $1,200 good toward groceries from Cub Foods.
Now, don't get mad: This was their first day out looking with tools (they didn't have their shovel and pitchfork Wednesday night when they scoped out the park) and they had only been poking around for an hour when the prize unearthed itself.
Actually, it floated
| Judging The Hunt |
| How would you rate this year's hunt? |
| Total Votes = 314 |
| Best... Hunt... EVER! |
 22.92 % |
| Much more fun than hunts I can remember. |
| 36.62 % |
| It was only OK. |
| 19.42 % |
| It could have been better. |
| 21.01 % |
|
to the surface of a little creek that runs in the park as Jessica, 21, stirred the waters.
"I saw this little pair of lips pop up," said Jessica, referring to a laminated picture of the Pioneer Press bulldog mascot — prettied with a pair of bright red lips — that was taped to the medallion.
But Jessica at first thought the item was a makeup compact.
"I was going to keep on going," she said.
Luckily, she was curious.
"I read the back [of the medallion]," she said. "It said 'You've found it.' I whispered, 'Dad ...'"
Joe, 45, has hunted since he was a little kid but has never before found the prize.
"You're s******' me!" he said.
"He goes, 'Shhh,'" said Jessica.
She took the palm-sized disc and zipped it into her coat pocket.
Another hunter, about 10 feet away, didn't notice what had transpired.
But the gaggles of hunters in the park that saw the father and daughter speed-walking back to their car — with giant smiles on their faces — started asking questions.
By the time they exited the park, a small crowd was forming around them.
"We didn't want to say anything because we didn't know if it was the real thing," Joe said. "We wanted to be sure we had
it."
They did.
The Horwaths will be presented with their prize money during a 3:30 p.m. press conference in the lobby of the Pioneer Press headquarters at 345 Cedar St. in downtown St. Paul.
The find was lucky for the Horwaths — the puck traveled somehow from its original position next to the spring-fed creek by a tree and into the water. The move was reminiscent of the 2004 Phalen hunt, when the puck, initially tucked into a green donut, ended up naked some distance from its original hiding place.
The find came on the 11th day of the 12-day annual hunt. This year, searchers swarmed Swede Hollow Park.
If the medallion had not been found by 11:59 p.m. Thursday, the paper could have ended the hunt and donated the prize to a local charity. But that has never happened.
"It has always been found," said Pat Effenberger, the paper's spokeswoman. "Never in the history of the hunt — since 1952 — has it not been found."
This is the first time the medallion was found in Swede Hollow.
Past medallions have turned up in most unusual ways:
- 1983: Substituted as filling in an Oreo cookie in Lake Phalen Park
- 1971: Attached to a baby buggy wheel at Wakefield Lake Park in Maplewood
- 1960: In the heel of a boot at Harriet Island Park
- 1952: In a clump of weeds at Highland Park
As in past years, avid medallion hunters have lined up at the paper's offices in downtown St. Paul long before midnight, when the next day's clue is published. Others wait by their computers to log on to twincities.com to get the clues electronically.
And no wonder.
The prize is $2,500 cash and $1,200 worth of groceries from Cub Foods. But if the lucky finder presents the medallion and clippings or copies of the dozen daily clues from the Pioneer Press or twincities.com, the winner will get an extra $2,500. They get additional $5,000 if they have a correctly registered Winter Carnival button.
Several times, the hunt went all the way to Day 12 before someone found the medallion, Effenberger said.
Copyright 2009 Pioneer Press.
