Die-hard hunters track down 2025 Eagle Medallion

Alexander King found this year’s hidden Eagle Medallion on Tuesday evening using an old map of Wichita as a guide.

King, 27, said the win was a collaborative effort.

He solved this year’s clue-based puzzle with help from his fiancée Caitlin Allan, 28, and his brother Dominik King, 35, who were with him when he discovered it hidden in a public parking lot near Intrust Bank Arena in downtown Wichita. King said he also received help from his parents. His nieces — Dominik’s daughters — also got in on the action.

“This was probably the hunt with the clue solving I contributed to the least,” King said. “I feel that other people in the group — like Dominik or my parents — were figuring out clues that ended up being correct. But also I feel like this is a hunt that we usually have a couple of clues where we’re all in, we know this means it’s in a park, we know this means it’s on the north side of town, or whatever. This is maybe the first year where, until yesterday, we weren’t sure of anything.”

The disk-shaped medallion was affixed to the lid of a beef jerky chew can and hidden in an island in Lot D, near Waterman and Mead after six days of clues.

Tuesday’s clue pointed to the intersection of two streets that no longer exist: Decatur and Macon.

“Yesterday’s clue just burst the doors wide open,” King said. “We had found an old article. He (Dominik) found an old article talking about Decatur Street had become Lewis Street, and then my mom found an old map of Wichita that had the Macon and Decatur intersection. It was like, you can’t get more obvious than that.”

The Day 6 clue published at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, as flash floods swept across Wichita. However, the area where the medallion was hidden remained accessible.

“So we’re running around, putting our shoes on, getting in the car and speeding off as torrential rain is pouring,” King said.

“Even if it had been flooded, I think we would have been out there,” King said. “Even driving out there in the rain, it was like apocalyptic — great energy to it.”

King and his hunting partners split up once they arrived at Lot D about an hour after the clue first published. A couple other hunters had already beaten them to the spot. By 6:30 p.m. about 20 others had arrived. But no one had found the hidden medallion. Some abandoned the lot after a few minutes. But King and his group knew the medallion had to be lying around somewhere.

At about 7:15 p.m., King’s persistence paid off. He found it under a plant in one of the parking lot’s islands.

Based on earlier clues, King said he and his hunting partners focused on parks in west Wichita, especially near the Cowskin Creek, where he expected to “discover the hide.”

King’s parents have been hunting the medallion for more than 35 years, he and his brother said. This year is the first win in the family.

“They’ve been kind of close,” Dominik King said. “We’ve got some stories.”

King said he has been chasing the elusive medallion since 2009, when he was 11 years old. He got more serious after he returned to Wichita for college in 2017.

“I love riddles. I love puzzles. We like working together. I love running into medallion hunters in the wild. It’s pretty obvious when someone else is medallion hunting, they’ve got their phone out, they’re looking through bushes in a random parking lot at 7 p.m. in the rain. And I always spend at least half an hour talking to different people. Because I think once you’re there, people are like, OK, you’re here, so obviously there’s a sharing that happens. You collaborate kind of or you share clues that maybe the other person didn’t solve.

“I love being able to talk to other people like that,” King said. “And then exploring is fun. The worst case scenario is, ‘Uh oh, you were at a park for two hours.’ Like, there’s no downside.”

This story was originally published June 4, 2025 at 12:22 PM.