The Rose Festival Foundation releases 14 clues leading to its hidden treasure, but it only took Brian Kolb six.

The 49-year-old Newberg resident uncovered the official Rose Festival Medallion on Saturday morning, winning cash, prizes and, perhaps best of all, the glory of finding the treasure before all of his fellow hunters.

Kolb was still a little overwhelmed as he talked over the phone from the Rose Festival Foundation headquarters in Portland on Saturday morning. It had been a whirlwind of a day, capping off a week of parsing cryptic clues released daily on OregonLive.

"We decided we'd get up early this morning, look at the clue and go take a look," Kolb said.

He and his wife Teresa, along with his daughter and son-in-law, had been following the clues closely all week and had narrowed the location down to their own Yamhill County.

"I told my wife this morning, 'If they're going to put it in our backyard I'm going to find it,'" he said. Saturday's clue turned out to be all he needed:

"It meanders this way and that,

but prove that you're no fool.

You'll be both west and north of it

relaxing by the pool."

The key for Kolb was the word "pool." A 25-year resident of Newberg, he figured it had to refer a part of the Willamette River known as the Newberg Pool, a flatter and slower area near Rogers Landing County Park.

The family drove to the park, where they started poking around for the treasure. Kolb's attention was drawn to a piece of wood leaning up against a tree near the parking lot. He moved the wood and discovered a black plastic bag.

"I was a little bit apprehensive abut what could be in it," he admitted. He figured there was a good chance it was treasure left behind by an irresponsible dog walker.

He poked the bag with a stick, figured it was safe to open, and "it just all started to hit me," he said.

Kolb will win $1,000 in cash, an overnight stay at Spirit Mountain Casino and a ride in next weekend's Grand Floral Parade for finding the medallion.

Uncovering the treasure in only six clues in unusual, and the Rose Festival Foundation (as well as those of us at the Oregonian/OregonLive) were admittedly caught off guard by the news.

Rich Jarvis, public relations manager for the foundation, said he isn't sure if Kolb set any treasure hunt record with his find.

The 2015 treasure hunt winner said he's overjoyed with the win, but isn't sure what he's going to do next - except work on his parade wave of course.

--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB