Laborious yet lithe lads and lasses have loyally leapt to luminate the lexical labyrinths of logic locking the lucrative lotto, longing to lure the lavish luxury lying latently in local landmarks.
In other words: Veteran hunter Steve Sanftner found the 2026 Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt medallion at Linwood Park on Wednesday, Jan. 28, after 11 clues, in a hunt that had treasure-seekers split between several parks that began with L.
The medallion, inside a Coca-Cola can painted white, was found slightly east of the corner of St. Clair Avenue and Grotto Street, just off the sidewalk into the park.
This year’s particularly vexing hunt comes after a pair of speedier ones: Both the 2024 and 2025 hunts concluded after seven clues, which were the quickest hunts since 2015. This was also one of the coldest hunts in recent memory, with temps at or below single digits most days.
Sanftner’s total $15,000 prize package, sponsored by Cub Foods and the St. Paul Winter Carnival, is also the largest to be awarded in treasure hunt history, marking the Winter Carnival’s 140th anniversary.
This is the first time in the hunt’s eight-decade history that the medallion has been hidden in Linwood Park proper. However, in 1969, the medallion was sandwiched between two rocks at the corner of Victoria Street and what would soon become Interstate 35E, just south of the park.
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