It took 10 clues published in the Daily Journal for the location of the Golden Seashell to click in Tonya Brown’s head, but her hunch paid off Tuesday to the tune of $500.

“The thing about it that made it exciting was there were five locations on 74 where it could have been - until he gave the clue about everything being dead,” Brown explained.

For Brown, the Golden Seashell hunt is a family affair, as her children and their friends accompanied her on the journey.

“I’ve been looking for it for four seasons, ever since my mom (Penny Yates) found the Golden Egg at the tower on 220,” she said. “I got hooked after that. She actually found two of them, but this is the first time I actually found it.”

They split the winnings evenly among the five people who were on the search party Tuesday. They included Brown, Chynna Rogers, Will Johnson and Chander and Corey Brown.

Daily Journal Publisher Rick Bacon said this is exactly the type of family outings the newspaper seeks to inspire through its treasure hunts.

“The big smiles on the faces of the winners lets us know that our Golden treasure hunts are a fun way to stimulate Richmond County’s economy,” Bacon said. “Our phones ring many times each day to see if the shell has been found. Our employees get constant offers to share the loot if they’ll only tell where the gold is hidden, and that’s why I’m the only one who knows.”

Rogers explained the division of labor among the search party members on the winning team of the Golden Seashell hunt.

“I just drove, and she did all the thinking,” Chynna Rogers grinned at the Daily Journal office, $100 bill in hand. “When she read the last clue - her eyes just popped out of her head, and she said, ‘I know where it is!’”

Rogers explained the group had searched from the Piggly Wiggly in Hamlet to West Rockingham unsuccessfully before Tuesday.

“I just sat in the back seat,” William Johnson explained. “Until we got somewhere, then I’d get out and look.”

“I was getting mad yesterday, because she’d be like ‘Go here, go there,’” Rogers continued.

“But my brain paid off, and you guys all got $100,” Brown said.

The four youngsters all began speaking at once, with Corey Brown pumping his fist in the air to simulate what they did when they found the shell.

Johnson and Corey were riding on trunk of the car in the former Wal-Mart parking lot on Broad Street along with the youngest in the group, Chander Brown, when they saw the Golden Seashell sitting near an empty trailer.

“Corey’s eyes just got real big, and he said, ‘There it is,’” Chander explained.

“We were looking for something smaller,” Johnson said. “We didn’t expect it to be so easy to spot. We had seen a empty plastic bottle and thought that was it, and it had just faded.”

Each of the adolescents have their own plans for their share of the winnings.

Rogers is going to get a set of used rims from one of her friends, and Johnson and Corey were planning to spend their winnings at Wal-Mart.

“I’m saving mine,” Chander said. “Then, when we find the next one, I’ll have a whole bunch of money, and I can get my own hamster in a cage, and maybe even get something bigger - like an iguana.”

“I’ll probably just get something for my husband for Father’s Day,” Tonya explained.

“He’s been wanting a bat for his softball team,” Chander volunteered.

Brown said she’d rather have the time with the children than the money, though she wasn’t exactly donating her share to charity.

“I really hope the Daily Journal will keep this up, because it gives you something fun to do with your kids,” Tonya said at the Daily Journal office Tuesday. “I’ve been out there with them since the very first clue. It got all of them thinking, and I liked the time we shared with it.

“It was worth seeing the looks on their faces.”

Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.