THE JEWEL HAS BEEN FOUND!
Congratulations, Melanie Hendrickson,
Tammy Mohn, and Matt Smith!
Winners of the 2026 Great Twin Cities Treasure Hunt
Read the Clue Explanations »
On the top floor of the Institute
In the halls of history
There hangs a lucent landscape
On a wall in three-oh-three
Of deftly earnest mise-en-scène
And haunting rêverie
A primal panorama
With strange fidelity Its hand pursued perfection
Translating the gloam
To subtle tones of sepia
In muted monochrome
Funnel cloud of murky gray
And sky of ghastly roan
"Tornado over St. Paul"
Painted by Julius Holm On that fateful afternoon
When summer skies turned black
The twisting turning tempest
Carved a cataclysmic track
It crossed the northern waters
With an awful thunderous crack
As nervous eyes looked skyward
To witness the ruin and wrack A shutterbug went out that day
And set up all his stuff
To photograph the skyline
From a perch atop the bluff
He climbed the stony staircase
And lingered long enough
To capture a moment in history
Like a diamond in the rough Mister William Koester
Alone in darkened room
Developed the emulsion
To reveal the scene of gloom
Printed as a postcard
And then before too soon
It found its way to painter's hand
One fateful afternoon He held it up against his work
A fair interpretation
Smiling as he signed the piece
Proud of his creation
He framed it in a humble wood
Then back to his vocation
A life of painting houses
In quiet desperation He would not live to see his art
Adorn museum walls
Now it hangs as a reminder
To heed adventure's calls
So seek out secret stories
And haunt the hallowed halls
To find the precious treasures
Where hidden history falls
The Great Tau Ceti Treasure Hunt
The Great Tau Ceti Treasure Hunt
July 21-August 9, 2026 CLUE #1Somewhere in the cities
Awaits a hidden treasure
Clue by clue find your way
All things in equal measure CLUE #2
Blast off for adventure
On a cosmic quest for fun
Traveling the territory
While soaking up the sun CLUE #3
Take note as you proceed
To pursue the purple prism
It's not the size of the gem
It's how you keep it hidden So locate the container
Inside which it's stored
The tinier the package
The greater the reward CLUE #4
Experiment, investigate
Search for the unknown
Navigate the mystery
To zero in on the zone CLUE #5
To find the pH of acid
Just listen to the bass
Reflecting on the skyline
To catch a fleeting trace CLUE #6
Following a line of light
Match your path to ours
Look out on the heavens
Across a river of stars With eye to the horizon
Wherever you may roam
Peer into the distance
To find a way back home CLUE #7
A place in Minneapolis
Merits close inspection
So take another sample
To add to the collection Extend the apparatus arm
And flip open the shutter
Expose the hidden substrate
To capture the dark matter CLUE #8
Braving the violent vortex
On an extravehicular mission
Turn toward the maelstrom
Bring our project to fruition CLUE #9
Rolling like a coaster
Twisting out of form
Flying blind into the dark
Spinning through the storm Things are looking grim
So to the occasion rise
Hit the cosmic jackpot
And claim the TC prize CLUE #10
Transporting Taumoeba
To fight the Astrophage
Grace Rocky save stars
AMAZE AMAZE AMAZE! So solve the final mystery
Secreted by the stone
Uncover the MacGuffin
To claim it as your own Angle your Petrovascope
Across the western bluff
To rescue your companion
And secure the special stuff Spotting the reflection
Of an infrared emission
Ascend the stony staircase
Make fact of science fiction Looking through the glass
Regale us with your story—
A stellar voyage to collect
The Great Tau Ceti Quarry!