Wichita Eagle Medallion Hunt solved by two seasoned puzzle lovers

It was the eighth and final clue that tipped off medallion hunters Bryan Edwards and Justin Selby to the true hiding spot of the Wichita Eagle Medallion.

Both men thought they had a pretty good idea where the last clue would lead them. Both men were wrong.

Edwards started Thursday morning searching Air Capital Memorial Park. Selby was stationed at Herman Hill Park. When the clue posted online at 7 a.m., Edwards said he knew exactly where to go because he had already been there on Tuesday.

Edwards found the medallion around 8 a.m. It was stuck to the bottom of a wooden bench along a nature trail at Idlewild Park next to the Oaklawn neighborhood. Although Edwards and Selby work as a team, the contest can have only one winner. This year it was Edwards.

The Wichita Eagle Medallion Hunt is an annual tradition for Edwards, an electrical engineer on the management and leadership team at Textron Aviation, and Selby, a project manager at Fidelity Bank. The two men and their families work as a team to solve the clues put out each day.

This wasn’t the first time the two puzzle-lovers — who in 2015 opened the Wichita Room Escape in Clifton Square — have found the medallion. The pair found it during the last “full” Wichita Eagle Medallion Hunt in 2019, when it was hidden on the east bank of the Arkansas River just north of the Lincoln Street Dam. They also checked last year’s hiding spot at under a dead pine tree at Big Arkansas River Park but didn’t ultimately uncover the 2-inch treasure.

The Eagle did not hold the contest in 2020 and offered an abbreviated five-day hunt last year.

Selby, who started participating in the hunt years earlier than Edwards, said this year’s hunt highlighted the importance of putting in the footwork to find the medallion.

“Something that has been really illustrated to us this year is that you have to go places,” Selby said. “You cannot just look on Google Maps and do Google Streetview. You cannot rely on the city of Wichita’s park listings, because obviously there are other parks, there are other public spaces, places that aren’t listed there.

“For me, it’s a tradition,” Selby said. “It’s something I did with my parents, and it’s one of many things that has instilled in me just a love for solving puzzles and understanding things that aren’t perfectly clear.”

This year, the Medallion Hunt returned to its typical eight clues.

Edwards said he’s “slightly embarrassed” that he didn’t find it when he walked the Idlewild trails on Tuesday.

“I had the kids with me,” Edwards said. “We spent a good hour and a half there, did all of the trails, and the kids played a little on the park equipment there.”

Edwards said one of his favorite parts of the annual Eagle Medallion Hunt is walking outdoors, exploring new places and sometimes finding hidden gems that would otherwise be overlooked.

“There was one point when as I was walking the trails at Pawnee Prairie, I was thinking, ‘I’m not sure what else would have brought me here.’ I was walking horse trails, right? I don’t have a horse. But it was beautiful.”

“I love taking my kids out to these places, just walking these trails,” Edwards said. “Especially this one this year, you had to go walk the trails. I really enjoyed that.

“Many of these places we went, we’re going to have to go back,” he said. “I mean, the kids want to go back and walk across the bridges at the Great Plains Nature Trail, across the marsh area. Even this Idlewild Park. . . . I never knew that was there. It’s beautiful.”

Before Tuesday, Edwards had never been to Idlewild Park, he said.

“I have never been to the park, only driven by it on 47th Street,” he said. “And I do recall thinking every time, that is a big park. It’s just a ton of open space, nice mature trees, I’d never actually been in.”

Edwards took time off work to search for the medallion, which comes with a $1,000 prize, but he didn’t take off Thursday, thinking the medallion would be found before the final clue.

He said most of the money will likely be spent on his four children — Carter, Henry, Lorelei and Daphne — who helped him scavenge for the medallion. They weren’t with him on Thursday because he planned to go to work after an early morning search.

“I need to take all eight days off next year,” Edwards said.