Welcome back. Glad you're here.

The nine summers volunteers kept the treasure hunt alive, a name for this community, Tennessee Hills lands in Bristol, and a House Hunch in West Gate.

Fun Fest kicks off tomorrow, and while everybody argues about parade chairs, I went down a rabbit hole on the Medallion Hunt. Turns out the story behind it is better than any clue they'll release this week. Plus, Hey Kingsport readers officially have a name now. More on that below.

In today's post:

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Everybody who grew up here knows the ritual. A clue drops in the morning, half the town reads it like scripture, and by lunch there are whole families combing parks with theories and bad attitudes. I'll say it plainly: the Medallion Hunt is my favorite event of Fun Fest. Not the parade, not the balloons. The hunt. It feels permanent, like it's always been there and always will be. It has been part of the festival since the very first one in 1981, when AFG, the glass company, invented it and ran it every single summer through 2004. Pal's carried it as lead sponsor from 2005 to 2007. From 2008 to 2012, Fort Henry Mall led a group of sponsors that kept it going.

Then, in 2013, it stopped.

For the first time in the festival's history, Fun Fest had no treasure hunt. No medallion, no clues to argue about over breakfast, nothing.

What happened next is the part almost nobody knows.

A group of longtime hunters found out shortly before Fun Fest 2013 that the hunt was not happening, and instead of grumbling about it, they built their own. They called it the Kingsport Treasure Hunt, ran it the same week as Fun Fest, and made it deliberately old school. One medallion a day, progressive clues with real meanings to decipher, hidden the way the AFG hunts used to hide them. By 2016, the medallions were 4 inch squares of etched glass, which, considering a glass company invented this whole thing, is about as fitting as it gets.

It worked. In 2014, participation more than doubled. And then they did something even better. They handed it off. A group called the Medallion Hiders ran the hunt in 2015 and 2016. The Glass Hunter group took the baton in 2017, passed it back to the Medallion Hiders for 2018, then took it again in 2019. A new crew called Model City Medallion stepped up to run 2020 before the pandemic canceled everything.

Add it up. Nine summers. No festival budget, no committee, no logo. Just regular people who loved a treasure hunt enough to hide the treasure themselves, year after year, so a kid in 2016 could have the same July a kid in 1986 had. Prize money came out of local businesses' pockets because somebody asked. That is not an event surviving. That is a town refusing to let a tradition die.

In 2021, Fun Fest's new director made bringing the Medallion Hunt back under the festival her priority, and she got it done. Kubota of Kingsport signed on as sponsor, WQUT read the clues on air, and the volunteers who had spent nearly a decade running the thing finally got to be hunters again. It has been an official Fun Fest event every year since.

Which brings us to Saturday.

The 2026 Fun Fest Medallion Hunt, presented by Kubota of Kingsport, runs July 18 through July 25. One medallion hidden each day, eight days straight, with bonus medallions in play. Their words on that: wink wink. Clues drop on the Kingsport Fun Fest Facebook page and Instagram, and full rules and clue times are at funfest.net. Medallions are hidden with part of them visible in plain sight, so no digging, no destruction, and no excuses about needing a shovel.

If you have never hunted, this is the year. Grab the first clue Saturday morning, fight about it with your family, and go stand in a park staring at a tree line like it owes you money. I'll be out there doing the same thing.

The first clue drops Saturday. Forty-five years of people made sure it would.

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Three things worth knowing this week:

Boots and Bling at BANQ Boot Scootin' on Broad: Boots and Bling Edition hits BANQ Events at 255 Broad Street on Tuesday, July 21, from 6 to 9 PM. Tickets are $10 at the Fun Fest Store or at BANQ. Details

Fearless Coffee is coming to Kingsport Johnson City's Fearless Coffee and Kitchen, the roast-their-own-beans, scratch-kitchen spot on West Walnut, is expanding into downtown Kingsport in the former Model City Tap House space. Regionalism gets preached a lot around here. This is what it looks like practiced. Details

Downtown Street Fair Saturday, July 18, 10 AM to 2 PM on Broad Street. Free, with the Chalk Walk competition, Touch-A-Truck, street performers, and food trucks filling downtown. Details

Tennessee Hills started in Jonesborough, which means one of the biggest names in regional spirits was born in the oldest town in Tennessee. Stephen Callahan set up the original distillery in a former salt house dating to the 1840s and built the brand on small batch, hand bottled spirits made from Northeast Tennessee grain. Whiskeys, rums, cream liqueurs, and a tasting room that turned a quiet historic block into a destination.

Then they went big. In late 2024, Tennessee Hills opened its Bristol location at 90 Tennessee Hills Way, right in front of The Pinnacle. Two stories, a tasting bar downstairs, a full bar upstairs, outdoor seating, and a bar outside for good measure. They bill it as the largest privately owned brewstillery in North America, which is a word they get to make up because nobody else is putting a distillery, a brewery, and barbecue under one roof at this scale. Callahan said after the opening that business had been nonstop from day one, with Pinnacle-level traffic rolling through the doors.

The through line from an 1840s salt house to a two-story operation at the foot of the interstate is a very East Tennessee story. Start small, make it well, and let the mountains do the branding.

It's worth the drive to Bristol. Take the tour, do the tasting, then head upstairs and argue about which bottle is coming home with you. Full details at tennesseehills.com.

1421 Gress Mag Mtn, Kingsport, TN | 4 bed, 2 bath

Speaking of things worth hunting for.

This one is a 2022 build in the West Gate subdivision, which puts it in that sweet spot of nearly new without new construction wait times. One story, brick and vinyl, four bedrooms, two full baths, and an open concept split floor plan that keeps the primary suite on its own side of the house. The great room has a gas log fireplace and flows straight into the dining area and kitchen, where you get granite countertops, a center island, a pantry, and stainless appliances including an upgraded gas range.

The primary suite comes with a walk-in closet, a separate toilet area, and a second closet for good measure. Three more bedrooms and another full bath sit on the opposite side, plus a laundry room and a two-car attached garage. Out back, a covered patio and pergola over a fenced yard.

Then there's the mechanical room resume. A tankless gas water heater and a whole-house generator. That means endless hot showers, and when a storm knocks out the neighborhood, this is the house on the street with the lights still on.

Full listing at sellstateline.com.

What do you think they're asking for 1421 Gress Mag Mtn

Vote down below

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This newsletter works best when it's a conversation. If you know a story that needs to be told, a person doing something interesting, or a place in Kingsport that matters to you, send it my way. Every documentary, every feature, every post starts with someone saying "you should look into this."

That's it for this week. Thanks for trusting me with your inbox. Let's tell some stories.

Talk soon,

Ryan