By SALINA POST
A veteran of the Smoky Hill River Festival Medallion Quest has won the 2023 quest.
Salina Arts & Humanities announced this morning that Sheri Chase Jones had found this year's medallion. Her win was confirmed on Sunday.
According to information from Salina Arts & Humanities, this year's medallion is a "three-ounce artificially aged, rectangular glass bottle with a metal cap sealed with wax. Inside the bottle was a rolled piece of paper with the medallion information and the message 'You found it' inscribed so it could be seen through the glass. An artificially aged wire was wrapped around the neck of the bottle and used as a hook to hang from the grate."
The medallion was hung in a storm drain in the alley of the 100 block of N. Santa Fe Avenue between the rear entrance of Ad Astra Books & Coffee House and the Townsite building.
How Chase Jones found the medallion courtesy Salina Arts & Humanities
On Sunday morning, Chase Jones waited for clue No. 8 to be released and then headed to the City Lights Stage at N. Santa Fe Avenue and W. Ash Street. The clue, "A great location" had her looking at grates and "Hanging down" directed her to downtown Salina. As she searched the alley behind Ad Astra Books & Coffee House for the first time, she found a grate with a chain and pulled it to discover the medallion around 10 a.m.
"It happened so quickly!" she said.
Chase Jones is no stranger to the Festival Medallion Quest and has participated for 11 years. She is the former director of finance for Global Spectrum and lived in Salina from 2012-2015. This year, her strategy was to stay calm and focused, "more thinking and less walking," she said.
Her son, Logan Jones, lives in Salina and was her partner in the search this year. She drove into town on Friday night, and they headed downtown to the intersection of N. Santa Fe Avenue and Ash Street. Chase Jones looked around Lakewood Park but kept heading back downtown. She used a mirror on an extending stick to aid her search.
Chase Jones is the 17th winner of the Festival Medallion Quest, which was started in 2009 by the Smoky Hill River Festival.
"Never take the clues for face value," she said, sharing that she believes some clues describe the medallion itself.
"Is this a thing or a place?" she asks herself. Or, "how can I twist this [clue] to be something different from what it appears to be?"
Chase Jones thinks about the FMQ all year long and counts down the weeks as she prepares in advance by working on word puzzles. She is a frequent art patron at the Smoky Hill River Festival and is excited to buy art with a larger budget than usual this year.
Chase Jones received a prize package of $1,000 in cash and $2,000 in gift certificates for shopping at the reiver festival Fine Art and Craft Show. Additionally, she received four festival admission wrist bands, a complimentary on-grounds VIP parking pass, an invitation for four to the Thursday evening PREMIERE Art Patron Party, and four 2023 river festival t-shirts.
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The 2023 quest took nearly five days. To view the complete set of this year's Festival Medallion Quest clues, go to festivalmedallionquest.com and click on the Clues page.