Note: To see more images from the weekend Farm City Days celebration, please go to https://iolaregister.smugmug.com/Farm-City-Days-2025
A little persistence paid off for Jordan Crossfield Sunday afternoon.
In fact, it was during her second trip of the day to the “Welcome to Iola” sign on the west edge of town when she found the suddenly mystical Farm-City Days medallion that had eluded treasure hunters over the previous 10 days.
It took a few extra clues before the 2025 Farm City Days medallion was found Sunday afternoon.Courtesy photo
“Honestly, I was leaving and thought it might have been at the other end of town,” Crossfield told the Register afterward. “It was just there on the tree. It was kind of flat, but it was easy to see if you were looking for it.”
Finding the medallion nets Crossfield the $500 grand prize.
The find capped the first ever medallion hunt to not be wrapped up until after the fall festival had taken place.
Clue master Chelsea Lea had released eight clues, one a day, up through Saturday’s activities.
With no finder, she began releasing the clues more frequently, starting Sunday morning.
“We really wanted somebody to find it before people had to start going back to work on Monday,” Lea said.
Lea carefully crafted her clues, integrating several references to the theme of this year’s celebration, “Out of This World.”
As is custom, the first few clues were designed to keep hunters guessing.
It wasn’t until Clue no. 6, that Lea started pinpointing the medallion’s location: “A star has five points, but this town has four. This number is important, but do you know what for?”
(Lea was referring at this point to each of the four “Welcome To Iola” signs.)
The seventh clue, noted the medallion was near U.S. 54: “Shoot for the moon, and you’ll land among the stars. Sit next to me, and we can count the red cars.”
Lea noted the “red cars” clue was a bit of a “red” herring.
“I just meant counting cars,” she chuckled.
