30 years after quietly vanishing, an original Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt bronze medallion resurfaced.
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They say the identities of the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt clue writers are the best-kept secret in St. Paul.
But tracking down the life stories of the medallions those writers hid during the hunt’s early decades has proven to be nearly as intractable — and has led to a historic reunion for the Pioneer Press.
Earlier this month, an item believed to be an original treasure hunt medallion that was hidden in a majority of hunts between 1958 and 1987 popped up for sale on eBay. The initial asking price? $66,000.
And on Jan. 16, former Pioneer Press promotions manager Diane Moser, who helped run the treasure hunt for nearly two decades between the 1970s and 1990s, donated another original medallion back to the Pioneer Press as a result of this reporting. This may be the first time in 25 or more years that the Pioneer Press is officially in possession of any of the six original bronze treasure hunt medallions.
“I saw this and just about fell off my chair,” said Bill Gough, about the eBay listing. Gough found the hidden medallion as a college student in 1977, and he never expected to see the coin again after handing it over to the paper in exchange for a $1,500 prize, he said.
Comparing nicks and blemishes on the eBay medallion to an archival photo, both Gough and devoted treasure hunter Jake Ingebrigtson, who have met with the seller’s representative and have seen the medallion in person, are all but certain it’s the exact coin that was unearthed in a cigar box at Irvine Park 47 years ago.
A representative for the anonymous seller said the medallion had been purchased by someone in Texas approximately a decade ago, for $10, at a flea market there. That person then gave the medallion to the seller as a gift. The representative said neither he, the seller, nor the person in Texas knows how the medallion ended up there.
The representative declined to make the seller available for an interview, and the Pioneer Press was unable to independently identify the seller. Both the seller and his representative live in or near St. Paul, though neither is particularly familiar with the treasure hunt. This reporter met with the representative and examined the medallion in person in January.
The eBay listing has raised a similar question among treasure hunters and newspaper employees alike: Wait — the Pioneer Press is not still in possession of our original medallions? Where’d they all go?
No, evidently, we’re not. And we don’t exactly know.
Until now. Sort of.
Medallion mystery
Unraveling the medallion mystery feels like a wintertime treasure hunt in itself.
The St. Paul Dispatch started the treasure hunt in 1952 by hiding a slip of paper in a small wooden toy chest. They did not commission medallions until a few years later, once the hunt had proven its popularity.
In 1958, the paper’s promotions illustrator Roman Baltes sketched out a design, which hunt organizer Marshall Genshow gave to the now-defunct Carnes Stamp Co. There, as metalworker Frank Martin explained in the documentary “No Time for Cold Feet,” he cast six medallions: Five, he delivered to the newspaper, and one, he kept for himself.
The medallions were in use until 1987, when hunt organizers switched from bronze to plastic medallions to stop hunters from using metal detectors, treasure hunt historian Jesse Anibas said. And winners were expected to immediately return the metal token to the newspaper, so it could be reused the next year. While modern plastic medallions are occasionally given as gifts to clue writers and hunt winners, the original set of five medallions was not intended to leave the Pioneer Press’ ownership.
However, the medallions appear to have all vanished by at least the mid-1990s, according to conversations with more than a dozen former Pioneer Press employees, many of whom were either directly involved with or adjacent to the treasure hunt.
So what happened?
In the mid-1970s, the treasure hunt’s early leaders, Marshall and Ethel Genshow and Bob and Yvonne Momsen, passed the responsibility of hiding the medallion and writing cryptic clues to a new group of leaders: Bill Schneider and Jack and Diane Moser. Each of them except Diane Moser has since passed away. Others involved in hunts past, like Jim Ragsdale, have also died.
By that changing of the guard, Diane Moser believes the Pioneer Press only had two medallions left, she said. In fact, Moser was surprised to learn just this month that the metalworker said five medallions — not two — had initially been given to the paper. How those three medallions went missing much earlier remains unclear.
When Jack Moser retired in 1990, he took home a ‘backup’ metal medallion that hadn’t actually been hidden in several decades, Diane Moser said. It’s not unexpected, former staff recalled, that committed employees would keep obsolete newspaper memorabilia.
This is the medallion that Diane Moser elected to give to the Pioneer Press.
The second medallion in the newspaper’s hands during the Moser era was the primary one, which she said was used for at least every hunt under her purview until 1987, if not many more before her. This would therefore be the coin Gough found in 1977, which he believes is the same medallion as is currently listed on eBay.
As for the others: Ingebrigtson, a longtime hunter and two-time finder, owns a medallion he believes to be a third original one. Gough said a friend owns what could be the fourth; that person did not agree to an interview. The fifth medallion’s whereabouts remain unknown. The sixth medallion was kept by Martin, as the metalworker attested in a notarized 2006 affidavit reviewed by the Pioneer Press. It still remains with the family, as confirmed by a close relative who requested their privacy be protected.
When Diane Moser retired in 1991, she left the primary medallion in her desk drawer so it could stay with the paper. But a series of shorter-tenured staffers subsequently took over Moser’s desk, said former research director Jeanine Pearson, who worked at the paper from 1977 to 2012. If any of them noticed the medallion — or kept it — they didn’t speak up, she said.
As promotions department leadership changed somewhat frequently in the early to mid-’90s, the coordination of the hunt’s logistics was a bit unstable, former employees said. By the time the late columnist Don Boxmeyer and architecture critic Larry Millett were tapped to write clues in 1994, the medallion was likely gone.
“I don’t recall ever seeing it,” said Millett, who hid the medallion with Boxmeyer until 2001 and retired in 2002. “That’s not to say it wasn’t there, but I don’t recall seeing it. But newspapers aren’t very good at hanging on to stuff. It’s not our strong suit.”
Current treasure hunt coordinator Lori Swanson said she’s not aware of any bronze medallions being in the Pioneer Press’ hands during her tenure, which began in 2000. She does possess what she understands to be a set of letterpress blocks that match the bronze medallion’s design.
Besides the medallion’s murky disappearance, how it ended up making a surprise reappearance some 20 years later in Texas is also still a mystery.
Many longstanding or senior employees across nearly all departments in the 1990s have each said they do not remember seeing the medallion nor hearing discussions about where it went. Kathy Boxmeyer, Don Boxmeyer’s widow, said she doesn’t believe her husband knew the whereabouts of any metal medallions when he was running the hunt, either.
As of Jan. 20, the medallion’s listing on eBay is still active, and offers are being considered.
As the seller’s representative learned more about the treasure hunt and got to know Ingebrigtson and Gough, he became convinced the medallion should stay in St. Paul. He persuaded the seller to entertain lower offers in order that the medallion might be sold to someone local, rather than going to a high-rolling collector on the other side of the globe.
The representative and the seller are currently evaluating a credible offer for $10,000, he said.
“It’s important to stay here. It’s too meaningful to the city,” he said.
And to fill in the missing details of the whereabouts of the other medallions, former Pioneer Press research director Pearson tossed out one final idea with a laugh:
“Do you know any good mediums?”
