TC Treasure

The Great Twin Cities Treasure Hunt VIII — July-August 2020 (XXXIV)

TCTreasure

INTRODUCTION

Great Twin Cities Treasure Hunters! The time is growing near—
So form your squads, unfold your maps, and prep your hunting gear!
If you've got panache for spittin' trash, and think you're ready to rock,
You might be tempted to talk a big game—but can you walk the walk?

Team Jem outshone the rest last year, and took the hardware home;
Once again, our prize is grand—will they reclaim the chrome?
This year, it's clear the atmosphere is thick with anticipation—
Remember: your winnings could double, given timely registration!

Our big adventure starts the twenty-second of July;
It runs twelve days, but you could end it sooner—if you're sly:
To solve the case of the remarkable race for the jewel of the city twins,
Invite your friends and share the love before the hunt begins!

TCTreasure

CLUE #1

The hunt's begun! The chase is on! The labyrinth has been built!
To reach the unreachable, saddle up—and gallop at full tilt!
Leave the links and beaches be, and don't go fishing for herring;
Our secret container could be a no-brainer if you find the proper bearing,

Wherever you hunt, whatever you do—seek, but don't destroy;
Our parks and trails ARE meant for everybody to enjoy!
So don't be rubes; a series of tubes will help you find your way—
But you'll have to work to fill in the blanks IF you hope to win the day!

TCTreasure

CLUE #2

Once upon a time, we found a passage in the shade;
Examine closely THE language we use and you could have it made.
With nothing to lose, how can you refuse? The siren song, it calls;
Learn how it feels to spin your wheels: search where darkness falls.

TCTreasure

CLUE #3

However pointless or useless one might estimate the knowledge,
Paying tuition won't bring to fruition your courses at treasure college—
So use your noodle (and bring your poodle) to solve our sweet, pretty clues;
A shady plot could help hit the SPOT to cure the summertime blues.

TCTreasure

CLUE #4

It takes a lot to claim the pot—don't say we never warned ya!—
So take a hike or ride your bike, lest YOU feel we scorned ya.
Hark, a tune, by the dark of the moon—shining through the trees;
The distant wail of the lonesome rail as it echoes on the breeze.

TCTreasure

CLUE #5

Break through the tape and make your escape on an evacuation route;
Appraise the stakes when the pipeline breaks if you want to claim the loot.
You can always depend on man's best FRIEND (you know we keep him hid);
Just follow your heart, all cracked apart—you'll find it by going off-grid.

TCTreasure

CLUE #6

"What does this mean?" "Is this where it is?" "How come I'm here all alone?"
A tubular series will answer your queries and lead you to the stone:
Everyone's hopin' to break it open, and take the lead in the race,
But, SADLY, only one may decide the course of our parallel chase.

TCTreasure

CLUE #7

If we've cut to the quick and you're getting sick of all this repetition—
Are we being too vague?—perhaps you're plagued by hunters' indecision.
To spot our allusions, more drastic conclusions could be your key to the trove—
On second THOUGHT, we've explained a lot to reveal the shady grove.

TCTreasure

CLUE #8

Left in the lurch? Constrain your search to the capital city's parks;
Take a gander and make the meander along a trail of our MARKS:
A chance, we took, to revisit our look, and tweak it just a smattering;
The original logo was a symbolic no-go—not enough foreshadowing.

TCTreasure

CLUE #9

Look around where there's nobody there (even to call MY bluff);
To find our indenture, set out for adventure in search of the secret stuff:
Gray and sclerotic, though no less quixotic, he charged with reckless abandon—
The ingenious gentleman, with trusty steed and noble companion.

TCTreasure

CLUE #10

Tip to tip, it's a five mile trip (or somewhere thereabouts);
Explore AN enclave in the west to find the whereabouts.
Loop to loop, direct your troop down desolation row—
Cracked and cryptic, apocalyptic; follow it to the dough!

TCTreasure

CLUE #11

Our poets showed a way with roads; their subjects here, one and the same
(One surmises the Pulitzer Prizes have something to do with their fame)—
Crumbling and broken, rarely spoken, and riddled with knots and twists;
Sixty years on—though nearly gone—the route you seek still exists.

Good old Alonso and trusty Sancho wait for you near the place
Where our Cervantes' Rocinante tilted at full pace;
Apocryphal? Specious? Phony? Facetious? MISTAKEN? Confabulated?
Read the signs between the lines, BUT keep our words tabulated.

TCTreasure

CLUE #12

Enter the scrum by finding the sum of sixty-one and ten;
You'll find the sack if YOU hearken back to Steinbeck's road trip—when
He crossed the nation on Operation Windmills in search of adventure;
Unseal the container—become the claimer of the Great TC debenture!

To spot an X and swipe our effects, you'll have to persevere:
Examine a byway alongside the highway—a road designed by fear.
Doing laps out and back on the single track—mountain bikers' pleasure—
Make like a streak to the north of the creek and claim the hidden treasure!

Still in doubt? Just spell it out, one letter per stanza;
Move down the line (shift once each time); end our extravaganza!
Keep your wits for the final blitz—a battle to the end—
___ __ ___ _______ __ _ _____ ___ ____, ___ ___ _____ ________ __ ______!

TCTreasure

CLUE EXPLANATIONS

INTRODUCTION

The first letters of the first line in the first stanza, second line in the second stanza, and third line in the third stanza—"G," "O," and "T"—are the first three letters of a secret message hidden in this hunt's clues.
"unfold your maps" could be taken to suggest searching for the jewel in a park referenced in one of Steve "Map Guy" Worthman’s two current editions of The Treasure Hunter’s Guide—specifically Battle Creek Regional Park (The section in which the jewel was hidden is not covered in depth in the Guide, as it was under construction as of the book's last printing).
"panache for spittin' trash" is meant to suggest this hunt takes place in Saint Paul, where—lest we forget—the 2019 election cycle was largely dominated by a vigorous debate over organized garbage collection.
"ready to rock" is meant to foreshadow this hunt's many references to Highway 61 Revisited—Bob Dylan's legendary 1965 ode to the titular U.S. Route, which runs through Saint Paul's East Side, and until the 1940s ran along a route through present-day Battle Creek Regional Park; a segment of this old, bypassed route remains intact, and leads directly to this hunt's hiding place.
"You might be tempted to talk a big game—but can you walk the walk?" is meant to suggest hunters should expect to search larger parks this go around; we've been criticized for shirking large parks in the past, so we threw in a little good-natured trash talk for good measure.
"but can you walk the walk?" is also meant to suggest the roughly half-mile hike to the jewel from either of the parking lots nearest to it.
"This year it's clear" is meant to suggest that, for this hunt, we brought back the original flat, translucent design for the official TC Treasure jewel.
"Our big adventure" is meant to reinforce that hunters should search for the jewel in larger parks.
"It runs twelve days, but you could end it sooner—if you're sly" is meant as a hint at this hunt's Goose Chase—a rapid-fire, crosstown race comprised of 13 bonus clues hidden throughout Saint Paul, leading directly to the jewel's hiding spot (The Goose Chase remained hidden until after the hunt had ended). It was also meant to suggest that a hint at the jewel and first Goose Chase clue's locations had in fact already been published—in the way of a slight tweak to the TC Treasure logo across social media. The logo was updated to include a drop shadow, which was intended to hint at the first Goose Chase clue's location at Shadow Falls Park. Additionally, it was meant to suggest the general location of this hunt's jewel: The shadow is cast across the lower right section of the logo; this is in turn meant to suggest using the logo as a rough map—limiting the search area to the southeastern portion of the Twin Cities.
"the city twins" could be taken to suggest our primary hunt and its parallel Goose Chase hunt, which was designed as a "twin" to—and relies on words published in—the primary hunt. In addition, several of this hunt's clues were written to suggest the location of both the jewel and the first Goose Chase clue at once.

CLUE #1

The first letters of the fourth line in the first stanza and first line in the second stanza—"O" and "W"—are the fourth and fifth letters of a secret message hidden in this hunt's clues.
The words "ARE" and "IF" are printed in all capital letters; they are the first two words in this hunt’s scrambled final line: "___ IF ___ _______ __ _ _____ ___ ____, ___ ARE _____ ________ __ ______!"
The words printed in all capital letters throughout this hunt are also meant to suggest that it takes place in Saint Paul—the capital city.
"The chase is on!" is meant to confirm for hunters that his year's hunt includes a "Goose Chase"—a parallel hunt designed to give the lucky finder(s) a secret, cross-town passage to the jewel.
"The labyrinth has been built!" is meant to suggest the metaphorical maze of scrambled words, printed in all capital letters in clues throughout the hunt—as well as its physical counterpart: the same words were engraved on aluminum tags tacked to utility poles, forming a trail between the west Battle Creek parking lot and the jewel’s hiding spot at the end of an old segment of Point Douglas Road.
"To reach the unreachable, saddle up—and gallop at full tilt!" and "secret container" are intended as allusions to Miguel de Cervantes’ pivotal work, Don Quixote: "To reach the unreachable star" is a lyric from "The Impossible Dream," a well-known standard from Man of La Mancha (a musical interpretation of the Cervantes work), while "saddle up—and gallop at full tilt" references a famous episode from the story wherein Don Quixote "tilts at windmills," believing them to be giants. In turn, all of this is meant to suggest John Steinbeck’s famous—and likely apocryphal—"travelogue" recounting a 1960 road trip across the United States, titled Travels with Charley: In Search of America. In the book, Steinbeck makes frequent reference to Don Quixote, designating his road trip "Operation Windmills"—a self-referential jab at his own quixotic journey—and naming his camper "Rocinante," after Don Quixote’s horse. Steinbeck’s Travels took him through Saint Paul on an "evacuation route" along U.S. 10—which would have most likely located him along the small stretch of Point Douglas Road located in present-day Battle Creek Regional Park. Our jewel was hidden near the very end of a remnant of the old route, in a "secret container," which held the official TC Treasure Jewel, a message for the finder, a photo of John Steinbeck and Charley, and an insert marked "Rocinante," traced from Steinbeck’s own hand-painted script (on the obverse was a photo of the camper itself); "container" anagrams to "Rocinante."
"To reach the unreachable" is also meant to suggest the general search area for this hunt: an "unreachable" stretch of Point Douglas Road—rendered largely inaccessible to vehicular traffic due to a locked, chain-link gate, which blocks public access from the highway.
"don't go fishing for herring" is a warning to hunters that would attempt to gain an advantage by abusing contact with Johannes. Since the 2015 beginning of the Great TC Treasure Hunt, hunters who adhere closely to the official rules—and contact us during the hunt with actionable information—have been rewarded with "custom clues" (small hints that nudge hunters away from the wrong path and toward the correct one). Last year, we saw an uptick in a certain hunter's attempts to abuse custom clues; so this year, any hunter that asked too directly (or often) for assistance—rather than simply sharing some intel—was given custom clues that hinted more heavily at the location of the first Goose Chase clue than that of the jewel.
"Our secret container could be a no-brainer if you find the proper bearing" is meant to suggest the Don Quixote-John Steinbeck conduit, as well as our parallel Goose Chase hunt; either "bearing" could point a hunter to the jewel.
"the proper bearing" is also meant to suggest White Bear Avenue, which terminates at Battle Creek Regional Park. It could also be taken to suggest searching in Saint Paul—where there have been several recent and well-publicized bear sightings.
"parks and trails" is meant to suggest searching in a park, on a trail—specifically Battle Creek Regional Park, along the North Run/Point Douglas Trail. It could also be taken to suggest the "trail of parks" (and other public spaces) represented by our Goose Chase, or more generally that two or more parks and/or trails are involved in the overall fabric of this hunt (and chase).
"a series of tubes will help you find your way" is meant to suggest our parallel Goose Chase hunt: 13 plastic tubes with screw-top caps—each containing a clue leading to the next—were hidden in parks and public spaces in a trail leading from Shadow Falls to Battle Creek. This line could also be taken to suggest using the internet to solve our clues; "a series of tubes" was a term for the internet coined by the late Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens. [Deep Cut: Stevens’ full quote—"The internet is not something that you just dump something on. It’s not a big truck; it’s a series of tubes!"—could be taken to suggest the idea that if our Goose Chase is, in fact, a "series of tubes," and "not a big truck," then perhaps your MacGuffin in our primary hunt is a big truck—such as Steinbeck’s camper Rocinante.]
"you’ll have to work to fill in the blanks" is meant to suggest the last line of the twelfth clue—where hunters would have to "descramble" the words in capital letters dispersed throughout the hunt’s twelve clues in order to decipher the final line of the hunt (the words were also tacked to utility poles in the search area south of the jewel). Additionally, it is meant to suggest filling in the blanks on Goose Chase clues with the capitalized words found in corresponding clues from the primary hunt—then using them again in the final line of the last Goose Chase clue, in the same manner as with the primary hunt.

CLUE #2

The first letter of the second line of this stanza—"E"—is the sixth letter of a secret message hidden in this hunt’s clues.
The word "THE" is printed in all capital letters; it is one of the words in this hunt’s scrambled final line: "___ IF ___ _______ __ _ _____ THE ____, ___ ARE _____ ________ __ ______!"
"Once upon a time," "the language we use," "have it made," "nothing to lose," "can you refuse," "song," and "how it feels" are intended as allusions to Bob Dylan’s song "Like a Rolling Stone"—the first song from the album Highway 61 Revisited—while "siren song" could be taken to suggest the police whistle-featuring title track off the same album. The many allusions to the album throughout the hunt are intended to suggest hunters "revisit" "Highway 61"—and take a look at the U.S. Route’s history—including its former path along an abandoned route through present-day Battle Creek Regional Park, where the remaining section of road leads straight to the jewel’s hiding place.
"a passage in the shade" is meant to suggest the hiding spot—a shady grove of trees along a mountain bike/hiking trail on the west side of Battle Creek Regional Park; it is also meant to suggest the location of Goose Chase Tube #1 at Shadow Falls Park—in a stand of oak trees, near a footpath leading down to the falls.
"Examine closely the language we use" is meant to suggest paying close attention not just to the capitalized words found dispersed throughout the clues, but also to our "letter-spell" longshot.
"Learn how it feels to spin your wheels: search where darkness falls." is meant to suggest the location of our first Goose Chase tube at Shadow Falls—as well as the jewel’s hiding place in the shade of a large tree, just across the highway from the east side BNSF railyard—where the high-pitched squeal of railcar wheels spinning steel-on-steel can be heard all day and all night long.

CLUE #3

The first letter of the third line of this stanza—"S"—is the seventh letter of a secret message hidden in this hunt’s clues.
The word "SPOT" is printed in all capital letters; it is one of the words in this hunt’s scrambled final line: "___ IF ___ _______ __ _ _____ THE SPOT, ___ ARE _____ ________ __ ______!"
"useless… pointless... knowledge," "sweet, pretty," and "blues" are intended as allusions to Bob Dylan’s song "Tombstone Blues"—the second song from the album Highway 61 Revisited, while the first two lines from this stanza could be taken to suggest additional lyrical content from "Like a Rolling Stone" ("finest schools," etc.)
"pointless" is meant to suggest our jewel’s hiding spot along a "phantom section" of Point Douglas Road—which has essentially ceased to exist for nearly all past intents and purposes.
"bring your poodle" is meant to suggest John Steinbeck’s "Sancho" and 1960 travelling companion: a brown standard poodle named Charley.
"A shady plot could help … cure the summertime blues" is meant to suggest the location of both our first Goose Chase tube, at Shadow Falls, and the jewel itself, in a shady grove at the base of a large tree.

CLUE #4

The first letter of the fourth line of this stanza—"T"—is the eighth letter of a secret message hidden in this hunt’s clues.
The word "YOU" is printed in all capital letters; it is one of the words in this hunt’s scrambled final line: "___ IF YOU _______ __ _ _____ THE SPOT, ___ ARE _____ ________ __ ______!"
"It takes a lot," "don’t say we never warned ya!," "a tune," "the moon—shining through the trees" and "The distant wail of the lonesome rail" are intended as allusions to Bob Dylan’s song "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry"—the third song from the album Highway 61 Revisited.
"It takes a lot to claim the pot" is meant to suggest hunters leave their vehicles in a parking lot and proceed on foot—whether seeking the jewel or the first Goose Chase tube.
"don’t say we never warned ya!" could be taken to suggest one of the parking lots closest to the treasure—at Burns Avenue Overlook, located where Warner Road terminates (The route from this lot is quite a bit more challenging—far narrower, muddier, and more frequented by mountain bikers—than the "intended" route from the west Battle Creek lot, north along old Point Douglas Road).
"So take a hike or ride your bike" is meant to suggest searching an area designated for pedestrian and bicycle traffic—such as the path along which the jewel and first Goose Chase tube were hidden.
"Hark, a tune, by the dark of the moon—shining through the trees / The distant wail of the lonesome rail as it echoes on the breeze" is meant to suggest the "rail-squeal" from the East Side BNSF railyard—audible day and night from the jewel’s hiding spot. It could also be taken to suggest the less-frequent sound of train horns, audible from the hiding spot of the first Goose Chase tube (though under the right circumstances that type of "wail" could probably be heard from just about anywhere in either city, so… whatever).

CLUE #5

The first letter of the first line of this stanza—"B"—is the ninth letter of a secret message hidden in this hunt’s clues.
The word "FRIEND" is printed in all capital letters; it is one of the words in this hunt’s scrambled final line: "___ IF YOU _______ __ _ _____ THE SPOT, ___ ARE _____ ________ __ FRIEND!"
"when the pipeline breaks," "you know we keep him hid," and "all cracked apart" are intended as allusions to Bob Dylan’s song "From a Buick 6"—the fourth song from the album Highway 61 Revisited.
"Break through the tape" is meant to suggest the tape that secured the lid of our "secret container." It could also be taken to suggest searching in a park down the road from 3M’s Maplewood Headquarters—as 3M engineers are responsible for the invention of Scotch tape.
"make your escape on an evacuation route" is meant to suggest John Steinbeck’s path through present-day Battle Creek Regional Park—as referenced in Travels with Charley—on an "evacuation route" along U.S. 10 (Point Douglas Road).
"Appraise the stakes" is meant to suggest a pair of wooden stakes visible from the jewel’s hiding spot (The stakes once held up a sign warning park-goers not to disrupt nearby mitigation efforts against an invasive plant species).
"Appraise the stakes when the pipeline breaks" is meant to suggest our "series of tubes" Goose Chase—and that a hunter who discovers the first Goose Chase tube would have to decide whether their quickest route to the jewel would be to follow the Goose Chase clues, or disregard them for favor of the primary hunt.
"You can always depend on man’s best friend (you know we keep him hid)" is meant to suggest the photo of John Steinbeck and his poodle Charley that was hidden with the jewel. It is also meant to suggest searching in a park or area that has (or is associated with) a dog park.
"Just follow your heart, all cracked apart" is meant to suggest John Steinbeck’s health problems, and cause of death; he had congestive heart failure, and suffered an episode in 1960; it is widely believed that the impetus for his Travels With Charley road trip was Steinbeck’s knowledge that he was nearing the end of his life.
"all cracked apart" is also meant to suggest the old stretch of Point Douglas/U.S. 61/U.S. 10 that led to the jewel, which has certainly seen better days; the road is desolate and dilapidated, riddled with weeds, potholes, and cracks.
"going off-grid" is meant to suggest searching just past the end of the power lines that run alongside the old section of Point Douglas Road, and to further reinforce its desolate, abandoned, and less-accessible qualities.

CLUE #6

The first letter of the second line of this stanza—"A"—is the tenth letter of a secret message hidden in this hunt’s clues.
The word "SADLY" is printed in all capital letters; it is one of the words in this hunt’s scrambled final line: "___ IF YOU _______ __ _ _____ THE SPOT, ___ ARE SADLY ________ __ FRIEND!"
"What does this mean?," "Is this where it is?," and "How come I’m here all alone?" are intended as allusions to Bob Dylan’s song "Ballad of a Thin Man"—the fifth song from the album Highway 61 Revisited.
"A tubular series will answer your queries and lead you to the stone" is meant to reinforce our "series of tubes" Goose Chase (while again reminding hunters that some quality Google-Fu might help them with their solves, and again secretly hinting at a "big truck" MacGuffin.)
"Everyone’s hopin’ to break it open, and take the lead in the race, / But, sadly, only one may decide the course of our parallel chase." is meant to suggest our Goose Chase—and informs hunters that, as designed, it was very likely only one hunter would gain access to the Goose Chase clues. It could also be taken to suggest the location of the primary treasure.
"parallel" is meant to suggest the first Goose Chase tube’s location near Summit Avenue, which terminates in parallel one-ways at Shadow Falls Park. It could also be taken to suggest the power lines running alongside the road to the jewel—the utility poles between which are each tagged with another of the capitalized words from our clues; heading north from the west Battle Creek parking lot, the tags read in the same order they were published in the clues, terminating with X’s.

CLUE #7

The first letter of the third line of this stanza—"T"—is the eleventh letter of a secret message hidden in this hunt’s clues.
The word "THOUGHT" is printed in all capital letters; it is one of the words in this hunt’s scrambled final line: "___ IF YOU THOUGHT __ _ _____ THE SPOT, ___ ARE SADLY ________ __ FRIEND!"
"and you’re getting sick of all this repetition" and "more drastic conclusions" are intended as allusions to Bob Dylan’s song "Queen Jane Approximately"—the sixth song from the album Highway 61 Revisited.
"To spot our allusions, more drastic conclusions could be your key to the trove" is meant to suggest hunters might need to look more carefully for—or at—our Cervantes, Steinbeck, and/or Dylan allusions.
"we’ve explained a lot to reveal the shady grove" is meant to reinforce the hiding spot for both our first Goose Chase tube (a small grove of oak trees above Shadow Falls) and the jewel itself (in the shade under a large tree, in the woods just off the end of old Point Douglas Road), while reminding auto-driving hunters to park their vehicles in a designated lot, and proceed on foot to either the jewel or the first Goose Chase tube.

CLUE #8

The first letter of the fourth line of this stanza—"T"—is the twelfth letter of a secret message hidden in this hunt’s clues.
The word "MARKS" is printed in all capital letters; it is one of the words in this hunt’s scrambled final line: "___ IF YOU THOUGHT __ _ MARKS THE SPOT, ___ ARE SADLY ________ __ FRIEND!"
The word "revisit" is intended as an allusion to Bob Dylan’s song "Highway 61 Revisited"—the seventh song from the album of the same name.
"Constrain your search to the capital city’s parks" is meant to suggest searching for both the jewel and the first Goose Chase tube exclusively in Saint Paul parks.
"Take a gander and make a meander along a trail of our marks" is meant to offer some background on the Goose Chase "series of tubes" (each tube had a "TC" sticker on its cap), while also hinting at the stretch of old Point Douglas Road that leads to our jewel—where the capitalized words from our clues were tagged to utility poles along the route.
"A chance, we took, to revisit our look, and tweak it just a smattering; / The original logo was a symbolic no-go—not enough foreshadowing" is meant to suggest the slight change we made to the TC Treasure logo across social media in late June—intended to "foreshadow" the location of not just our jewel (in the southeastern corner of the Twin Cities), but also the location of our first Goose Chase tube (in Shadow Falls Park).

CLUE #9

The first letter of the first line of this stanza—"L"—is the thirteenth letter of a secret message hidden in this hunt’s clues.
The word "MY" is printed in all capital letters; it is one of the words in this hunt’s scrambled final line: "___ IF YOU THOUGHT __ _ MARKS THE SPOT, ___ ARE SADLY ________ MY FRIEND!"
"there’s nobody there (even to call my bluff)" is intended as an allusion to Bob Dylan’s song "Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues"—the eighth song from the album Highway 61 Revisited.
"indenture" is meant to suggest the small indentation at the base of a tree that concealed our "secret container", as well as the writ of debt to the finder it contained.
"set out for adventure in search of the secret stuff" is meant to reinforce John Steinbeck’s 1962 work of (likely apocryphal) non-fiction Travels With Charley: In Search Of America as a crucial text for this hunt.
"Gray and sclerotic, though no less quixotic, he charged with reckless abandon— / The ingenious gentleman, with trusty steed and noble companion" is meant to further reinforce the Don Quixote parable for John Steinbeck, whose hardening heart had begun to fail him at the outset of his Travels; his "trusty steed" was the 1960 GMC truck and camper he dubbed "Rocinante;" his poodle—the titular Charley—accompanied him for the journey. Steinbeck has been posthumously "charged with reckless abandon"—and accused of fictionalizing or fabricating many of his experiences in Travels (Of course, even within the text, he was candid about the quixotic framework of his mission, openly referring to it as "Operation Windmills;" holding a novelist to a journalistic standard seems a fool’s errand at best).

CLUE #10

The first letter of the second line of this stanza—"E"—is the fourteenth letter of a secret message hidden in this hunt’s clues.
The word "AN" is printed in all capital letters; it is one of the words in this hunt’s scrambled final line: "___ IF YOU THOUGHT AN _ MARKS THE SPOT, ___ ARE SADLY ________ MY FRIEND!"
"desolation row" is intended as an allusion to Bob Dylan’s song of the same name—the ninth and final song from the album Highway 61 Revisited—and is meant to suggest searching along a desolate former stretch of the route.
"Tip to tip, it’s a five mile trip (or somewhere thereabouts); / Explore an enclave in the west to find the whereabouts." is meant to suggest Battle Creek—which runs about five miles from its source at Battle Creek Lake to its mouth at Pig’s Eye Lake; the jewel’s hiding spot in Battle Creek Regional Park (and the park itself) can be found near the west end of the creek. Alternatively, this could be taken to suggest the first Goose Chase tube’s hiding spot at Shadow Falls—at the west end of Summit Avenue (which runs just under five miles from end to end).
"Loop to loop" is meant to suggest searching an area north of Battle Creek, between two traffic "loops"—one at the entrance to the west lot and the other at the lot for Burns Avenue Scenic Overlook; the treasure was roughly midway between the two.
"direct your troop down desolation row" is meant to suggest searching the abandoned stretch of Point Douglas Road on the west side of Battle Creek Regional Park.
"direct your troop" is meant to suggest going into battle—specifically Battle Creek Regional Park.
"Cracked and cryptic, apocalyptic" is meant to suggest the abandoned, dilapidated stretch of old Point Douglas Road—while hinting at the scrambled message that runs parallel to it—both literally, on the aluminum tags we tacked to the utility poles along the road, and figuratively, within our clues.

CLUE #11

The first letters of the third line in the first stanza and fourth line in the second stanza—"C" and "R"—are the fifteenth and sixteenth letters of a secret message hidden in this hunt's clues.
The words "MISTAKEN" and "BUT" are printed in all capital letters; they are two of the words in this hunt’s scrambled final line: "BUT IF YOU THOUGHT AN _ MARKS THE SPOT, ___ ARE SADLY MISTAKEN MY FRIEND!"
"Our poets showed a way with roads; their subjects here, one and the same" is meant to suggest the two "poets" we referenced throughout this hunt (John Steinbeck and Bob Dylan), the local routes they wrote about (U.S. 10 and U.S. 61, respectively), and the fact that, adjacent to the hiding spot, those routes run an identical path.
"(One surmises the Pulitzer Prizes have something to do with their fame)" is meant to suggest Steinbeck and Dylan’s Pulitzer Prizes—Steinbeck won the 1940 fiction award for The Grapes of Wrath, while Dylan won a special citation in 2008 (Fun fact: Both also won Nobel prizes for literature—Steinbeck in 1962 and Dylan in 2016—but we neglected to shoe-horn that tidbit into this hunt).
"Crumbling and broken, rarely spoken, and riddled with knots and twists; / Sixty years on—though nearly gone—the route you seek still exists." is meant to point at the section of the old route followed by U.S. 10 and U.S. 61, along the path of Point Douglas Road in Battle Creek Regional Park. 2020 marks 60 years since Steinbeck claimed to have traveled the route.
"knots" is meant to suggest the Japanese knotweed mitigation in progress immediately adjacent to the jewel’s hiding spot (and referenced on the fallen sign nearby).
"Good old Alonso and trusty Sancho wait for you near the place / Where our Cervantes’ Rocinante tilted at full pace; / Apocryphal? Specious? Phony? Facetious? Mistaken? Confabulated?" is meant to drive home the Steinbeck-Don Quixote connection from Travels With Charley, while also referencing the photos of Steinbeck with Charley and the camper Rocinante, both hidden with the jewel.
"Read the signs between the lines, but keep our words tabulated" is meant to suggest the sixteen aluminum tags we tacked to utility poles along the road to our jewel. Each tag had another of the capitalized words from our clues on it; they were arranged south to north along the route in the same order as their publication; hunters would need to "descramble" the words and place them in the proper order to reveal the final line of the last clue in both the primary hunt and the Goose Chase.

CLUE #12

The first letters of the first line in the first stanza, second line in the second stanza, and third line in the third stanza—"E," "E," and "K"—are the last three letters of a secret message hidden in this hunt's clues.
The words "YOU" and "X" are printed in all capital letters; they are the final two words in this hunt’s scrambled final line: "BUT IF YOU THOUGHT AN X MARKS THE SPOT, YOU ARE SADLY MISTAKEN MY FRIEND!"
"Enter the scrum" is meant to suggest the likelihood of a "mad dash" or "mosh pit" for Clue #12—and could be taken to suggest searching on parkland adjacent to Afton Heights Park in Maplewood, where the Saint Paul Pigs professional rugby team plays its home games (though not a great twelfth clue noodle, the potential is there).
"finding the sum of sixty-one and ten" is meant to suggest searching adjacent to the congruously-aligned U.S. Routes 61 and 10—specifically at Battle Creek Regional Park.
"You’ll find the sack if you hearken back to Steinbeck’s road trip—when / He crossed the nation on Operation Windmills in search of adventure" points directly at Travels With Charley for solutions to both the hiding spot and our MacGuffin.
"Unseal the container—become the claimer of the Great TC debenture!" is meant to suggest cracking the "container" anagram for "Rocinante" to find its location, then peel the tape sealing it shut to reveal the prize and end the hunt.
"you’ll have to persevere" is meant to suggest hunters will have to hike all the way to the end of the old Point Douglas pavement to find the jewel, while hinting that no precise pinpoint to the jewel will be given.
"Examine a byway alongside the highway" is meant to narrow the search area to the old, bypassed stretch of Point Douglas Road, adjacent to U.S. 10/61.
"a road designed by fear" is a quote referencing the old Point Douglas "evacuation route" from Travels With Charley (also referenced in Clue #5); this was Steinbeck’s view of such a route—leading him to the dim observation America is "a nation ruled by fear."
"Doing laps out and back on the single track—mountain bikers’ pleasure—" is meant to suggest the many mountain biking trails at Battle Creek Regional Park—namely those along old Point Douglas Road ("Doing laps out" anagrams to "Point Douglas").
"Make like a streak to the north of the creek" is meant to suggest hunters take the "North Run Trail" to old Point Douglas Road, north of Battle Creek.
"Still in doubt? Just spell it out, one letter per stanza; Move down the line (shift once each time)" is meant to suggest following our "letter-spell" pattern to reveal the search area, as outlined in the "Longshot" below.
"a battle to the end" is meant to suggest searching near the end of the paved section of old Point Douglas Road in Battle Creek Regional Park.
As published, the final line of this clue is comprised entirely of blank spaces and punctuation; hunters would be expected to "descramble" the words printed in capital letters throughout the hunt to solve this final line (which also appears as the last line of the final Goose Chase clue): "BUT IF YOU THOUGHT AN X MARKS THE SPOT, YOU ARE SADLY MISTAKEN MY FRIEND!"

LONGSHOT

Using the first letters of the first line of the first stanza, the second line of the second stanza, the third line of the third stanza, and the fourth line of the fourth stanza, then repeating that pattern—cycling back to the first line of every fifth stanza—reveals the directive "GO TO WEST BATTLE CREEK," which describes the jewel's general location on the west side of Battle Creek Regional Park (in turn located at the west end of the Battle Creek neighborhood); the Saint Paul-located portion of the park is frequently referred to as "West Battle Creek" or "Battle Creek West."
- Introduction: GXXX XOXX XXTX
- Clue #1: XXXO WXXX
- Clue #2: XEXX
- Clue #3: XXSX
- Clue #4: XXXT
- Clue #5: BXXX
- Clue #6: XAXX
- Clue #7: XXTX
- Clue #8: XXXT
- Clue #9: LXXX
- Clue #10: XEXX
- Clue #11: XXCX XXXR
- Clue #12: EXXX XEXX XXKX

TCTreasure

BONUS CLUE EXPLANATIONS

SPECIAL BONUS CLUE

The special bonus clue depicts this hunt's "Rocinante" MacGuffin inside its camouflage bag, in situ at the hiding spot (before being covered with leaves). Coincidentally, a quirk of the printing process makes the letters "SP" seem to appear in the camouflage pattern on the bag; this was intentionally accentuated in the bonus clue photograph as a hint to hunters they limit their search to Saint Paul.

BONUS CLUE #1

"a forest green" is meant to suggest Woodlawn Avenue, which terminates at East River Parkway just south of the second tube's hiding spot, "overlooking a gorgeous dale" at Mississippi River Gorge Scenic Overlook.
"Take a hike or ride your bike; you (are) already on the right trail!" is meant to suggest searching for the second tube somewhere along the same bike/pedestrian trail as the first tube.
"Southward, follow it down to the hollow" is meant to suggest following the trail south to Mississippi River Gorge Scenic Overlook—just across the street from Sunny Hollow Montessori School.
"Search along the mighty stream of righteousness and justice" is meant to suggest the Herbert Ferber sculpture that adorns the west exterior wall of the Temple of Aaron, visible from across the street at Mississippi River Gorge Scenic Overlook; the work includes a verse from the Bible (Amos 5:24)—"Let justice well up like water and righteousness as a mighty stream."
"Make hay while the sun still shines" is meant to suggest searching for the second tube near a plaque that reads: "In memory of Laura Wegner Hay—1996. Forever in our hearts."
"keep north of the bridge and locks" is meant to suggest searching for the second tube north of the Ford Dam and Ford Parkway bridge (and the recently-dubbed "Highland Bridge" development at the old Ford plant site).
"Minnesota Rocks!" is meant to suggest searching near one of the stone carvings commissioned by Public Art Saint Paul as part of their 2006 initiative of that name; the word "guarded by sentinels" singles out the piece titled by Juergen Zaun—titled "Sentinels"—located just east of the second tube's hiding spot at Mississippi River Gorge Scenic Overlook.
"concealed at the root of a tree" narrows the location of the second tube to the area near the bottom of one of a handful of trees near the bike/pedestrian trail, the Zaun and Ferber sculptures, and the Hay plaque—in particular, one with a sizable crevice at its base, close to the parking lot.

BONUS CLUE #2

"Stick to this side of the river while maintaining a downstream tack" is meant to suggest to hunters not to cross the Ford Parkway bridge, while continuing southward along East River Parkway to search for the third tube.
"Search for a circle above the creek, just off (the) beaten track" is meant to suggest searching for the third tube in a small circle of grass and weeds in a paved overlook area above Hidden Falls, just off the East River Parkway bike/pedestrian trail.
"To find your place, once more embrace our local arts and culture" and "near another stony sculpture" are meant to suggest searching for the third tube near another "Minnesota Rocks!" carving—in this case "Family Hug," by Salah Hammad.
"My next clue's Hidden in the grass" is meant to suggest searching a small circle of grass and weeds at the Hidden Falls overlook.

BONUS CLUE #3

"For site number four on the overlook tour, continue heading south" is meant to suggest searching for the fourth tube at Two Rivers Overlook, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.
"(spot) the old abutment of an arch that crossed the mouth" is meant to further suggest Two Rivers Overlook, which is architecturally comprised largely of a bridge abutment from the demolished Fort Snelling Bridge.
"Just off the Great Road" is meant to suggest searching for the fourth tube along the "Great River Road" National Scenic Byway.
"there lies" is meant to suggest the fourth tube is hidden on the ground, in the small notch of a large, cut stone.
"Wrist over" anagrams to "Two Rivers;" "just give it a twist" is meant as a hint at rearranging some of the words preceding the phrase.

BONUS CLUE #4

"Take a stroll to a secret knoll on a quest for the ring of truth" is meant to suggest searching for the fifth tube near the top of a small hill, near the edge of a fire ring.
"It waits for (you), obscured from view" is meant to suggest that the fifth tube is hidden from view, and that moving a small piece of wood will be required to uncover it.
"at the mystical fountain of youth. / With a Latin name for the goddess of same" is meant to suggest searching near Circus Juventas (and Highland Pool).
"Concordia Salus!" is the motto of the city of Montréal; this is meant to suggest searching just south of Montreal Avenue, in Highland Park.
"Your search is bound for lofty ground; away from the river! Vamoose!" is meant to suggest searching at Highland Park—the first Goose Chase location not situated along the Mississippi River.

BONUS CLUE #5

"Hello old (friend)," "full belt," and "a sign of a sign" are meant to suggest a billboard—at the intersection of West 7th Street and Jefferson Avenue—commemorating the 2017 re-lighting of the Grain Belt Beer sign in Minneapolis, with the tagline "Hello old friend."
"along the lucky line" is meant to suggest searching for the sixth tube on West 7th Street.
"Pull a three-sixty" is meant to suggest the address of the tiny "Prehistoric Pit" parklet located at 360 Oneida Street (and the intersection of West 7th and Jefferson).
"bottle" is meant to suggest the large, promotional Clutch Brewing Company bottle located just across the street from the hiding spot (and immediately adjacent to the aforementioned Grain Belt Sign sign). Additionally, it's meant as a reference to the sixth tube itself.
"This Goose Chase Classic just went Triassic—How do you get to Pangaea? / Now there's a true mystery of our prehistory" is meant to suggest searching for the sixth tube atop one of the "geologic formations" (for lack of a better term) at the tiny Prehistoric Pit parklet at West 7th and Jefferson. "Triassic" could additionally be taken to suggest searching a triangular area (such as Prehistoric Pit).
"no idea" anagrams to "Oneida"—one of the three streets along which Prehistoric Pit is situated.

BONUS CLUE #6

This clue recounts the story of the "Rusalka"—a mythical figure of Slavic folklore, and subject of a famous Antonín Dvořák opera. It is meant to suggest searching for the seventh tube near the base of a birch tree behind the "Czech/Slovak Memorial Gate" at North High Bridge Park. The "Gate" sculpture includes a figurative representation of Dvořák's aria "Ode to the Moon," from Rusalka. As goes the legend, Rusalki linger in birch and willow trees, luring unwary men into lakes and streams with their beautiful song—then drag them into the depths, never to be seen or heard from again.

BONUS CLUE #7

The first letters of each line in this clue—"P," "O," "P," and "S"—are meant to suggest searching for the eighth tube in privately owned public space—specifically West Travelers Plaza.
"the yard of Democracy's Bard—a poetic kind of fella" and "The calming (thought) of all" are meant to suggest searching a location related in some way to Walt Whitman—the legendary American poet known as "The Bard of Democracy"—and his poem "The Calming Thought Of All." At West Travelers Plaza, on the west end of Downtown Saint Paul, a sculpture of a giant braille book is "opened" to the poem (which is also inscribed on the back for sighted non-giants). "On a bumpy ride" is meant to reinforce the braille nature of the book represented in the sculpture.
"On a bumpy ride to a rocky slide" and "Plaza gravel" are meant to suggest a small, rock landscaping feature that serves as a buffer between a stairwell and the building at West Travelers Plaza; the eighth tube was located near the bottom of the "rockslide," and accessible from the sidewalk.
"beneath a red umbrella" is meant to suggest searching for the eighth tube under the giant, iconic, red-umbrella "Travelers" logo, on the west side of the corporation's Saint Paul headquarters.
"travel" is meant to suggest searching near Travelers Insurance, at West Travelers Plaza.
"be our guest" is meant to suggest searching just across the street from a sign advertising the Ordway's upcoming production of Beauty and the Beast that prominently features the words "Be our guest!"

BONUS CLUE #8

"The next hiding place is an urban oasis—a downtown chill-out station" is meant to suggest staying in downtown Saint Paul to search for the ninth tube, at Mears Park—which is referred to as an "urban oasis" on both Google Maps and the "Friends of Mears Park" website.
"Find the spot along an edge; a small notch (marks) the location. / Search rocks in rows" is meant to suggest searching for the ninth tube along the eastern edge of Mears Park, in a notch along the top of a stone wall.
"near concrete prose on sidewalk stationery; / 'Dear heart, Let go; It's too heavy—It was never yours to carry.'" is meant to suggest—by quoting the work in its entirety—a poem by Lidiya Girma embossed in the sidewalk concrete adjacent to the ninth tube's hiding spot.

BONUS CLUE #9

"mettle" is meant to suggest searching near six large, milled steel educational displays at the entrance to Bruce Vento Nature Santuary—behind one of which was hidden the tenth tube.
"Pass beneath five bridges on your way to claim (my) vial" is meant to suggest hunters head to Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary—passing under the Highway 52 bridge, a pair of railroad bridges, a pedestrian bridge, and the Kellogg Avenue/Third Street bridge along the way.
"It's a musical migration: head down the great white way; / Show loyalty to royalty—with an affirmative display" is meant to suggest the likeliest route from Mears Park to the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, including stretches on Broadway Street, Prince Street, and "Positively" Fourth Street (ironically named in honor of the heart-shattering Bob Dylan song).
"musical migration" and "affirmative display" are also meant to suggest searching for the tenth tube behind the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary educational display referencing native and migratory birds.

BONUS CLUE #10

"High up on the bluff—the climb's a bit rough—lies another treasured stead" is meant to suggest searching for the eleventh tube in the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood, in Indian Mounds Park (which overlooks the Vento Sanctuary).
"Make your sweeps northeast of the heaps; do not awaken the dead!" is meant to suggest to hunters searching in Indian Mounds Park not to hunt near the Dakota people's sacred burial mounds, and narrow the search area to that bounded by Mounds Boulevard, Earl Street, and Thorn Street.
"Aim your ramble at the hill with the bramble—(an) arboreal location" is meant to suggest searching around the hilltop grove near the intersection of Mounds Boulevard and Thorn Street.
"Feel with your glove for a cranny above the stony sinuation" is meant to suggest searching for the eleventh tube in a depression atop a large, curved, stone retaining wall that runs alongside Mounds Boulevard.

BONUS CLUE #11

"follow the arrows to the winding narrows of a peaceful, wooded trail" is meant to suggest searching for the twelfth tube along the Fish Hatchery Trail, just east of the Pig's Eye Park archery range, where both "frogs and logs" are a common sight.
"big cats and dogs" and "lets out his roar" are meant to suggest the Fish Hatchery trail's only real amenity in Pig's Eye Park: a bench with a plaque reading: "In memory of Dr. Thomas D. Lyons (1927-2005)—Beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend. He walked his dogs here daily."
"the size of the place amazes" is meant to suggest searching for the twelfth tube in Pig's Eye Park—the largest in the city.
"boar" is meant to reinforce searching in Pig's Eye Park.
"what in blazes?" is meant to suggest departing Indian Mounds Park via Burns Avenue (before doubling back on Warner Road to search for the twelfth tube at Pig's Eye Park).

BONUS CLUE #12

The first letters of each line in this clue—"B," "C," "R," and "P"—are meant to suggest searching for the thirteenth and final tube in Battle Creek Regional Park (which is also the location of this hunt's jewel).
"there's a final place—and it's right before your eyes" is meant to suggest searching for the final tube in a traffic circle shaped like the goose's speech bubble from the lower-right corner of each of the thirteen Goose Chase clues; this "tiny plot by the western lot" is also referenced on the first piece of a map, enclosed with the twelfth clue.
"Ride off, on your horse, to the final course—then follow the poles to the (X); / Prophets forbode an apocalypse road as the last of your Goose Chase treks" is meant to suggest the final stretch of the Great Twin Cities Treasure Hunt, along an old, abandoned stretch of Point Douglas Road on the west side of Battle Creek Regional Park. The missing words from the 13 goose chase clues (and provided by the 12 clues of the primary hunt) were engraved on aluminum tags nailed to utility poles running alongside the old highway.

BONUS CLUE #13

The final line—of both the primary hunt and Goose Chase—is "But if you thought an X marks the spot, you are sadly mistaken my friend!" These words were found in scrambled order throughout the primary hunt, as well as nailed to utility poles along the old stretch of Point Douglas Road that served as the hunt's immediate search area, and the final path to the jewel.
"north of the creek" and "a fight to the end" are meant to suggest taking the North Run Trail to old Point Douglas, and following the old section of road north to its end; the second piece of the map from the twelfth tube was enclosed, showing the search area and "apocalypse road" referenced in Bonus Clue #12.