Johannes of TC Treasure is one of the most established and trusted treasure hunt creators across the community! When looking for family fun and adventures, look to these hunts. As a video below shows, as young as age 1! are making memories with TC Treasure. Join the unforgettable experiences of searching for, and finding, Treasures! Let’s learn more on how you can started! Enjoy!

Six Questions MORE with Johannes:

  • 1Q) You are very busy offering treasure hunting fun across not only your own state, but the entire Midwest via The Ruby Hunt! Registration closes for The Ruby Hunt here soon. How is the hunt going?  For those not registered, what do searchers need to do to not miss the chance to win one of these valuable prizes for The Ruby Hunt? 

The Ruby Hunt is going well, thank you! The Seekers have been slowly gaining in number, and they are a truly determined and wily bunch. Overall, I’m very pleased with this first foray into the national/regional treasure hunt arena. The prize is now up to $500 per jewel—with a bit of room yet left to grow!

Hunters may register for the Ruby Hunt until midnight (CDT) on Wednesday, July 14th. Only registered hunters are eligible to claim the full reward amount for finding a jewel. Registered hunters also receive clues 12 hours before publication—which, as I’m sure you can imagine, could pose a huge advantage as we progress through the latter part of the hunt.

  • 2Q) From the current clues released on the Ruby Hunt site, do you think locations can be solved to find the 3 Ruby proxy items? Or will it take the remaining clues to really pinpoint and confirm an exact location for each? Has anyone solved the first clue yet for The Ruby Hunt? 

I’m hesitant to say anything too specific, and my track record for predicting these things is… not great—but I feel like at least one of the rubies could be discovered just about any day now.

I can’t say for certain whether anyone has yet solved Clue #1—“A Message from the Past”—but I do get the sense there are some amateur codebreakers out there that have a few choice words for me.

  • 3Q) The Great Twin Cities Treasure Hunt is another hunt you offer! This is the ‘big one’ each year, correct? What should hunters expect?  Any surprises? How can one get involved with this hunt?

That’s right! The Great Twin Cities Treasure Hunt is our flagship local hunt. Every day, for up to twelve days, we publish a clue—each hinting in some way at the location of the official TC Treasure Jewel, which is hidden on public land within the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota). Registered hunters are eligible to win the full prize of $1,000!

The best way to follow TC Treasure and get involved with the Great TC Treasure Hunt is by visiting TCTreasure.com, where hunters can register for the hunt, learn the rules, and subscribe to our mailing list. 

  • 4Q) On your website, TCTreasure.com, it’s also noticed you host local ‘County Bounty’ treasure hunts in your area. Can you tell us more about these?  How many do you create in a year? How do you learn about them? Are they always BOTG?

The Twin Cities metro area comprises the lion’s share of seven counties. Since 2019, in the run-up to each year’s Great TC Treasure Hunt, we’ve run roughly one County Bounty per month, January through July; the most popular of the seven is usually our Star Wars-themed hunt (held each May the 4th).

Finders in these hunts claim a TC Treasure Token valid for free registration to the Great TC Treasure Hunt—usually accompanied by a small prize and some TC Treasure swag.

Apart from the first Ramsey County Bounty, every TC Treasure Hunt since 2015 has required boots on the ground in the Twin Cities area. That said, we do have occasional online contests through the Treasure Hunt Discussion Facebook group—and we’re always exploring new ways to engage more hunters. One new feature we unveiled this year was the TC Treasure “Mystery Chests,” which are photo-based hunts posted exclusively to the TC Treasure Instagram account.

  • 5Q) As a creator of many treasure hunts you must have many stories of the thrills experienced by searchers. What’s one of the most memorable? What’s the worst?  

Over seven years of writing clues and running hunts, I’ve seen too many highlights to share just one, so I’ll shout out a handful here: 

  • Josh Ellingson (and his puppy Penny) pulling the Great TC Jewel out of a snowdrift in a twelfth-clue scrum at his (and our) first ever hunt; 
  • Brad TeGantvoort and Jana Armstead winning a 2015 foot race to the Saint Paul Union Depot; 
  • Team STAT making back-to-back Great TC finds at Meeker Island and Minnehaha Creek in 2018; 
  • Matt Koskie turning the ‘double-play’ in our 2019 Out To The Ballgame “Let’s Play Two!” hunt; 
  • Team JEM putting their heads together for an eleventh-clue “eureka!” in the 2019 Great TC Hunt; 
  • Ben Fischer appearing out of nowhere to crush one find after the next, and vault to the top of the TC Treasure leaderboard—all in just over a year;
  • Craig Heinen, Zak Rexford, and the Send Noodz squad assembling their victory in our “Back To The Future”-themed Time Travel Treasure Hunt with the most dedicated teamwork I’ve ever seen; 
  • Ed Brodie collecting his 20th TC Treasure Token just this past weekend in the Hennepin County Bounty (no small feat when you consider we’ve hosted a total of just 21 in-person County Bounties);

But perhaps the most memorable highlight came last November, when I received this video from proud parents Josh and Amy Ellingson—of their one-year-old son Ben making his very first treasure hunt discovery: 

I mean… come on.

As far as “worst” hunt memories? We’ve been fortunate and only a couple smaller caches have gone missing or undiscovered over the years, and aside from a few “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”-type moments for some unlucky hunters, TC Treasure has been an overwhelmingly positive experience for those involved.

  • 6Q) In a previous MW six questions, we learned what first inspired you to create treasure hunts yourself years ago; but what continues to inspire you, and why do you feel TC Treasure is known for some of the best hunts happening, especially in a time when many are being released?

It’s the community—one hundred percent.

I’m inspired every day by these incredible people that have rallied around TC Treasure and Ruby Hunt; these folks are the salt of the earth, and getting to meet and know them has been an unparalleled joy. They’re fierce competitors and great friends, worthy rivals and frequent allies—and all dedicated to the sport of treasure hunting in ways that make me strive to up my game… and I really do feel that’s what sets my hunts apart: not the caliber of the poetry, the intricacy of the cluewriting, or the design of the adventures themselves—but the Seekers I create them for.