Happy Halloween treasure hunters! We hope you all had a great time on the latest hunt! As promised, we’re going to go through the solve and reveal the location, so buckle in!
The Hide
Cream of Wheat Monument
Little known to most residents, the breakfast staple Cream of Wheat was invented at Diamond Milling of Grand Forks by head miller Tom Amidon in 1893. The cereal is comprised of the whitest part of the wheat, also known as Farina. There is a small monument dedicated to COW just across the from the bus station downtown.
The Solve
Line 1
Could most of these in forks be squared? sure, but all of them have forks all round
Only this one is a diamond? Wait, no… in a trapezoid will it be found.
The first two lines are talking about the shape of city blocks… in GF most are square or rectangular, but this is one of the few that is trapezoidal. Forks all round reference intersections that surround most city blocks. Some of you thought of the bus station, which was unintended but accidentally worked out nicely.
The other clues here are the word diamond, hinting at the diamond milling company. The other clue would be to take note of the capital letters in this section of the riddle. COW are all capitalized, and of course that stands for Cream of Wheat.
Line 2
Amid fields of gold the venture bold
It would take some time and tooling
Shaking out fine, it spread far in a short time
The days long and labor grueling.
Clues here a ample! We used to word “Amid” as a nod to Tom Amidon, fields of gold should have you thinking wheat. Time is a vague reference to the clock that’s in the same little park. Shaking out fine and “far in a” allude to the milling process. The word grueling was intentionally used because… well… cream of wheat is basically gruel.
Line 3
If you’re still looking, breakfast is cooking
“Please sir, can I have some more?”
Best of the crop, always rises to the top
A tribute to local food lore.
This one’s my favorite. A lot of pretty on-the-nose clues, starting with the mention of breakfast. The “Please sir” quote is a famous line from Oliver that involves eating gruel. The next line should lead you to the word Cream, while the last line, if googled, brings up the cream of wheat GF story.
Conclusion
That’s it for this round! We could have done without the snow, but we’re really glad everyone had a good time. Look for a new hunt coming soon!!! Happy Halloween!!!