TOULSON

1-29-11

COOPERSTOWN
It was late afternoon on Friday, Jan. 22, and Mike Toulson and son Emerson had been scouting Lakefront Park in search of the “Golden Horseshoe.”
Where could it be?   About to give up, Mike focused on an ancient tree on the east side of the parking lot at the top of the park, just off Lake Street.
Between two trunks that branched off, 7-8 feet above the ground, there appeared to be a hole, or at least the hint of a hole.
A long shot, thought the CCS math teacher, but why not?
Dad and son walked half a block to borrow a ladder from Martin Tillapaugh, mom Molly’s dad and Mike’s father-in-law.
Mike leaned it against the tree, climbed up and peered in, but couldn’t see anything.  Gingerly, he stuck his hand, then his arm, into the dark hole, and into debris – wood chips, leaves – at the bottom.
Nothing yet. He pressed on, into the muck.  Suddenly, he felt something, not wooden.  A few more seconds rooting around, and Mike Poulson pulled the sought-after prize into the dwindling light.
By finding the horseshoe – object of the 44th annual Cooperstown Winter Carnival’s treasure hunt – the Toulson’s will win a $500 check, provided by The Freeman’s Journal & Richfield Springs NEWSPAPER, and its sister publication, Hometown Oneonta.
The check will be presented at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7 – the three-day carnival’s last day – at closing ceremonies in Hoffman Lane Bistro.