The first time Brad TeGantvoort and Jana Armstead got engaged was at the State Capitol.
Jana Armstead, right, holds up her engagement ring from Brad TeGantvoort, left, near the Quadriga on a roof of the Minnesota Capitol on Aug. 21, 2017. TeGantvoort chose the day of the Great American Solar Eclipse to propose– again — an the two soon after got stuck on the terrace, locked out until the next tour arrived. (Courtesy of Jana Armstead)
It was August 2017, the day of the total solar eclipse, and the pair were on a rooftop tour of the “Progress of the State” quadriga statues. They lingered a few minutes after the tour for TeGantvoort to propose — but when they went to rejoin the tour inside, they found the door had locked.
“We’re pushing the security button, and they’re like, ‘Hello, can we help you?’ and we said, ‘Uh, we’re kind of stuck,” Armstead said, laughing. “But we were just living the dream, being stuck up there together, and then we went and had a celebratory dinner.”
What TeGantvoort didn’t know, though, is that Armstead had also been planning a proposal of her own.
Brad TeGantvoort, right, and Jana Armstead stand in front of the Winter Carnival Ice Palace in 2018, holding up a medallion Armstead created to propose to TeGantvoort. The proposal, which also included a flash mob, was covered by the Pioneer Press as the couple had met in 2002 while participating in the paper’s annual medallion treasure hunt. (Courtesy of Jana Armstead)
During the Pioneer Press’ annual medallion treasure hunt in January 2018 and during a lunar eclipse, Armstead sent TeGantvoort on a mock scavenger hunt that ended at the massive ice palace built for that year’s Winter Carnival. When TeGantvoort came out of the palace, as documented by the Pioneer Press at the time, he encountered a flash mob of people in Vikings jerseys.
On the backs of the jerseys were the words “Will You Marry Me2,” a nod not only to the second proposal but also to the couple’s origin story nearly two decades earlier.
In the 1990s, alongside the Pioneer Press’ annual treasure hunt, the paper hosted an early online forum for hunters called the Water Cooler. Die-hard medallion hunters, a.k.a. the Cooler Crew, adopted virtual screen names. TeGantvoort chose “Cluemaster,” which was frequently shortened to “Cluey.” Armstead went by “Me2.”
They got to know each other on those online forums and met in person for the first time at the “Rehash Bash,” a post-hunt celebration, in 2002. Later, the duo began hunting together with a couple other friends and, eventually, Armstead and TeGantvoort began dating.
Brad “Cluey” TeGantvoort, 60, died unexpectedly at home in Inver Grove Heights on Dec. 8, 2025.
To help support expenses, family friends are hosting a silent auction Saturday, Dec. 20, at Carbone’s in Cottage Grove, with items including a replica of the forthcoming medallion for the 2026 hunt. (The design of the medallion remains a secret and the auction winner will receive it after the 2026 hunt has concluded.)
“When you saw him, you saw his smile, you saw his scruffy face, you saw his kindness,” Armstead said.
He and Armstead were planning to marry on August 8, 2026 — at the State Capitol.
“For a long time, I’ve been working in my head on a wedding speech for when they finally got married,” said longtime friend and Treasure Hunt teammate Jason Michaelson. “And it’s like, damn it, now it’s turning into a funeral speech.”
‘It’s his home’
Brad TeGantvoort, left, smiles with fiancee Jana Armstead during a St. Patrick’s Day celebration. March 17 was also TeGantvoort’s birthday. (Courtesy of Melissa Weeks)
TeGantvoort, who was born March 17, 1965 — on St. Patrick’s Day, and he was proud of it — started hunting for the Pioneer Press medallion in about 1980.
“The man just lived for it. He never missed a hunt,” Michaelson said.
For many years, TeGantvoort worked in skyscraper facility management, and it was not unusual to see him noodling over clues or even hunting in the snow overnight while still wearing the suit he’d worn to work that day, Michaelson said.
Each winter, he’d load up his trunk with champagne and fireworks in case he found the medallion, though he never did. And all throughout the hunt, in whichever park you ran into him, you could count on him offering you a shot of peppermint schnapps and taking too many photos.
In Treasure Hunt spaces, “if Brad wasn’t there, you’d notice,” said friend Melissa Weeks, who met TeGantvoort and Armstead in the early 2000s through the Cooler Crew. “And if he was there, it was like, of course he’s there. It’s his home.”
More than anything, friends said, TeGantvoort wanted everyone to not only enjoy the hunt as much as he did but to genuinely feel included in the treasure-hunting community. When Jerome Krieger found the medallion in 2017 as a solo hunter, it was TeGantvoort in particular who helped Krieger feel welcomed into the Cooler Crew’s traditions, he recalled.
“He was refueled by energy from other people, and just the camaraderie,” Weeks said. “He embraced it more than anybody. I think he just loved bringing people together. I was new once; he welcomed me, and then he would always bring the new people in and introduce them to us.”
You could also probably count on TeGantvoort playing a prank or two. He’d hide “Cluey Coasters,” good for a free beer, for medallion hunters to find. He’d crack jokes. Near the end of the 2018 hunt, as hunters descended on Harriet Island, TeGantvoort got ahold of the phone number of a payphone in the park and kept dialing it, crank-calling unsuspecting treasure hunters as Armstead, Michaelson and hunting teammate Alex Valen watched from the parking lot, laughing.
“Every year, there’s only going to be one winner, but the greatest treasures that 99.9% of us have ever found are the lifelong friendships from people that we’ve met over the years that just don’t go away,” Michaelson said. “Those are the huge treasures. And some of us found romantic relationships out of it.”
One of the last text messages Armstead received from TeGantvoort sums up his personality, she said. TeGantvoort, who had mobility issues in recent years, was watching TV at home, and Armstead texted to let him know her errands were taking longer than expected.
“I’ll wait for you, my everything…,” he wrote, with two heart emojis.
“We had such an entwined love story; anything that was him was me, and anything that was me was him,” Armstead said. “He could have been sitting there for hours, and I’d walk in the door and he wouldn’t be mad. He’d be like, “You’ve done everything you have to do, and I’m just so glad you’re here.” And that’s the kind of guy he really was.”
Brad TeGantvoort is survived by his fiancee Jana Armstead, his daughter Alicia TeGantvoort, his father Larry TeGantvoort and his siblings, cousins and other extended family. A celebration of life will be held at 4 p.m. Dec. 19 at Kok Funeral Home (7676 80th Street S. Cottage Grove), with visitation from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The silent auction will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 20 at Carbone’s (7155 Jorgensen Ln. S.; Cottage Grove), and attendees are invited to wear Vikings or rock music-related t-shirts.
“We are committed this year; we have to be the ones to find the medallion in his memory,” Michaelson said. “But like I said, the greatest treasure any of us found was all those friendships, and this is a big one lost. This is a big one lost.”
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