Lucille Hansen walked into her under-construction basement 50 years ago this month to tell her carpenter she was going out.

"I said, 'Mel, I am going to go out and get the treasure.' He said, 'OK, Lu. I'll turn on the radio and listen."

About an hour later, the announcement came over the airwaves: Hansen, the 35-year-old wife of a St. Paul cop, had turned up the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt medallion at Lincoln Park.

"Melvin actually heard it -- he said he had to stop working for a while after they reported it."

Hansen, now 85 and living in Phoenix, Ariz., called the Pioneer Press out of the blue during this year's hunt because "someone has to hear my story." At her age, she went on, she doesn't know how much longer she has to share it.

"It was one of the most enjoyable things that's happened to me in life."

Hansen recalled that her husband thought she was crazy during the hunts. The East Sider searched each year, beginning with the hunt's early years, when she was in her early 20s.

"I was determined to find it. I sat up all night long with my encyclopedias, and I would look up all the words that you guys had in the clues.

"I went out every year. I was buried in the snow banks. One time, I was out in Como, and my eyes were frozen shut. I loved it. It was just something that I had to do.

"(My husband) would say, 'Why don't you just stay home and shovel snow here?'"

Because Hansen would rather toss snow in a park during the hunt.

That's how it was Jan. 31, 1964, when she grabbed her 5-year-old daughter Dona and 14-year-old babysitter Mary Jane Cepress. They set out for Lincoln Park, now called Beaver Lake Park.

She doesn't recall what it was about the clue on that 12th and final day of the hunt that led her there -- but by 9:30 a.m., the trio was tromping through a field of snow.

"I tell you, I think God directed me right there because it only took me half an hour. The sun was shining right on the spot. I think that gave me a clue. The snow was kind of melting at the time and I stood right on top of it."

At her feet, exposed by the light, was a brick, inlaid with the medallion.

"I stood right on top of it."

Her prize was $2,500.

"That was a lot of money back then."

In fact, it's about $18,000 in today's money, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"All the police department guys couldn't believe I found it. They thought I was nuts."

What about her husband?

"I think he was happy."

She split the money with the babysitter, then put the rest in savings for her family.

The Pioneer Press interviewed Hansen's babysitter, now Mary Jane Hilsgen, in 2012. She said she bought a set of encyclopedias and sewing machine with her winnings.

"Why I did that (bought the sewing machine), I don't know, because I still don't sew well to this day," she said. See the video of her interview at

Hansen's husband has since died, but her daughter, a Woodbury resident, still has the brick. Several of Hansen's cousins go out hunting for the puck each year.

Hansen doesn't follow the hunt online because the internet doesn't always agree with her, she said, but she still holds onto a copy of the Pioneer Press that announced her moment.

"'St. Paul Policeman's Wife finds the '64 treasure.' It's so fragile now."

The memory of the find, though, is as fresh as ever.

"It's just something that is in my memory, while I'm still alive, and it was a lot of fun."

John Brewer can be reached at 651-228-2093.