Grand Floral Parade rosy for Battle Ground

Battle Ground has done it again — entirely by hand.

The always-homemade float created by volunteers from Clark County’s central town won big in Saturday’s Grand Floral Parade at the Portland Rose Festival.

Taking home the Royal Rosarian Award for the best craftsmanship and workmanship was Battle Ground’s “Old Time Blast,” featuring a larger-than-life Victrola, a team of faux-Andrews Sisters enacted by princesses of Battle Ground’s own Rose Court, and a handful of smiling, waving sticks of dynamite. An old-time blast indeed.

Battle Ground also took top honors in the out-of-state high school marching band division. Columbia River High School in Hazel Dell took second place.

But Vancouver earned some treasure during the Rose Festival, too. Vancouver resident Dustin White started collecting clues about the whereabouts of a Rose Festival medallion that was hidden someplace on public property in the Portland area as soon as they started emerging in May; he was at Eagle Creek Overlook on Friday night because “he was sure he was in the right area,” said festival spokesman Rich Jarvis.

White had the intuition to count the stones that outline the main Eagle Creek parking lot and came up with 15, so the final Saturday-morning clue to look “seven to the left, seven to the right” fit perfectly. White, who was camping nearby, leapt into his car and drove to the main parking lot — which he found already overrun with treasure hunters.

White jumped out of his car and raced for the right stone — under which he did find a crevice, a metal box and the medallion within. He wins a round-trip flight for two on Alaska Airlines and an overnight stay at Spirit Mountain Casino.

The only downside? White was in such a rush, he locked his keys in his car and had to call roadside assistance.

“He and the hunters all hung out and got to know each other,” Jarvis said. “They’re a great group of people.”