The Search is over: Nevada Day Treasure Hunt ends with Medallion found

According to the Nevada Day Treasure Hunt website, this year's medallion has been found in Kahle Park on Kingsbury Road in Lake Tahoe.

The winner's name has not been announced, but we will update with that information as it becomes available by the Nevada Day Treasure Hunt committee.

Here are the 2021 Nevada Day Treasure Hunt Clues and Explanations:

Clue no. 1
Making an appearance in 2016
Joining seven from before
This year it won’t be
The place for the score
In 2016, The Nevada Day Treasure Hunt Committee added Pershing County to the list of seven other locales the medallion could be found. This clue tells hunters the medallion is not hidden in Pershing County.

Clue no. 2
We are rooting for you
To find the treasure
Use your wings
At your leisure
In Kahle Park there is a statute of a young boy with the quote “There are two lasting gifts we
can give our children. One is roots the other is wings.” This clue tells hunters the medallion is
hidden at Kahle Park in Stateline, Nevada.

Clue no. 3
The medallion returns once more
To what is becoming a favored home
Not looking to explore new places
Or go too far to roam
This clue tells hunters the medallion is hidden in a county, in which the medallion has been
hidden previously.

Clue no. 4
The people from here
They managed to stay
Even though their home
Was taken away
The Washoe or the "people from here as transliterated in older literature as Wa She Shu” live
near Lake Tahoe. They adapted to the presence of ranchers and miners, and managed to stay in
their home territory rather than being sent to reservations. The Washoe have withstood the test
of time and continue to be near or on their aboriginal lands. Today many inhabit small tribal
acreage sites, known as colonies, having lost all most all of their ancestral lands. This clue tells
hunters the medallion is hidden someplace the Washoe have called home.6

Clue no. 5
Rogers and Christopherson
Were pioneers in their own right
Plunging into all twenty-two
To earn the limelight
Fred Rogers was the first person to swim the length of Lake Tahoe, 22 miles, in 1955 and Erline
Christopherson was the first woman to do so in 1962. This clue tells hunters the medallion is
hidden near Lake Tahoe.

Clue no. 6
Named for a Greek God
And earning notoriety
Guilty of baldness
Don’t get anxiety
Both Mark Twain and Dan DeQuille wrote about the strong west winds that blow over Lake
Tahoe and called them a “Washoe Zephyr,” after the Greek god of the west wind, Zephyrus. In
fact, Zephyr Cove was named after the Washoe Zephyr. Mark Twain wrote of the Washoe
Zephyr that “the reason there are so many bald people there is, that the wind blows the hair off
their heads while they are looking skyward after their hats” and that it is responsible for the
disappearance of “chickens, and parasols sailing in the remote heavens; blankets, tin signs, sage
brush, and shingles a shade lower; door-mats and buffalo-robes lower still; shovels and coalscuttles on the next grade; glass doors, cats, and little children on the next; disrupted lumber
yards, light buggies, and wheelbarrows on the next; and down only thirty or forty feet above
ground was a scurrying storm of emigrating roofs and vacant lots.” This clue tells hunters the
medallion is hidden near Lake Tahoe.

Clue no. 7
Having had many names
Maheon is one we prefer
But only Baker
Would concur
Lake Tahoe has had many names over the years. One of the least popular names was Maheon
Lake as published in Baker’s 1855 “Map of the Mining Regions.” Because the Nevada Day
Treasure Hunt is put on by the Mahe family, obviously Lake Maheon would be the Nevada Day
Treasure Hunt Committee’s favored name…and is appropriate any time a Mahe is on the Lake.

Clue no. 8
Based on this Lady’s status
Rather than her rights
She no longer permits
Climbing to great heights
The Washoe tribe has always referred to Cave Rock as the Lady of the Lake because the profile
of a woman’s face gazing out toward the lake is visible from the lake. The Forest Service’s
management plan is designed to “protect the Cave Rock heritage resource” and in doing so,
rock climbing is now prohibited. While this ruling is a step in the right direction, the Washoe
Tribe points out that the Forest Service’s decision is not based on tribal rights to practice their
tradition, but rather on National Register historic status, and that the management plan still
allows other activities such as hiking and picnicking that adversely impact traditional cultural
uses of the area. This clue tells hunters the medallion is hidden near Lake Tahoe.

Clue no. 9
The 1939 Harvard frat initiation
Would have helped the equation
Involving our host’s problem
With this giant invasion
The goldfish is considered an invasive species in Lake Tahoe and some grow to a giant size. For
many years American college students swallowed goldfish as part of a fraternity initiation
process, which was first recorded in 1939 at Harvard.

Clue no. 10
When it lost 19
It gained three
But only for five
As you can see
Kingsbury Grade use to be known as SR 19. When it became SR 207 in 1978, the three miles
connecting Kingsbury Grade to SR 88 through Mottsville Lane were considered part of
Kingsbury Grade. However, five years later, in 1983, the three-mile section was removed from
the route. This clue tells hunters the medallion is hidden near Kingsbury Grade in Lake Tahoe.

Clue no. 11
First toll master, then owner
He shot old Brown
Was exonerated but had
To pay to put him down
Henry Van Sickle was the original toll master of the Kingsbury McDonald toll road. He also
financed the road and eventually owned it before he sold it to Douglas County. Van Sickle and
outlaw Sam Brown became enemies and Brown knocked on Van Sickle’s door and shot at him,
attempting to kill him. Because Van Sickle was entertaining a large number of guests at the time
and Brown was outnumbered, he ran. Van Sickle tracked him down and shot him in the chest,
killing him instantly. He was exonerated with the court finding the “[d]eath by just dispensation
of all-wise providence at his own expense.” The court, nevertheless, ordered Van Sickle to pay
Brown’s funeral expenses. This clue tells hunters the medallion is hidden near Kingsbury
Grade.

Clue no. 12
They discarded their belongings
On their way to Georgetown
But unlike the packers,
You can keep yours and win the crown
Kingsbury Grade was originally a trail that led to Georgetown, California. Salesman sold
emigrants on the short-cut, but because the trail was narrow and not well-established, many had
to discard their belongings at the trailhead. They became known as packers. This clue tells
hunters the medallion is hidden near Kingsbury Grade.