Forrest Fenn's Treasure

I heard of it and know 2 guys from Utah that went looking for it. They had fun but found nothing. The clues were interesting, they did videos of their efforts. Forrest Fenn spent a lot of time out in the bush setting up clues to follow.  The 2 guys were treasure hunters. Both were administrators of a site dedicated to treasure hunting.

http://www.ancientlosttreasures.com/forum/search.php?keywords=forrest+fenn&sid=7ed16ca53f93744443e5933025cad9f0

Forrst is a genius :)

It would be a shame if people are sent out to their death

In the gold fields, the people that made money are the people that sold the shovels

It would be a shame indeed. A significant percentage of millionaires throughout America’s history made their fortunes selling nothing more than a dream.

We took a cross country family trip last year, and Forest Fenns poem kept my 11 year old Brother-in-law totally engaged. His beloved i-pad went into the glove compartment without an argument and he couldn’t wait to get out hiking every morning to check a new area. It was a great! I generally couldn’t pay this kid enough money to stop playing video games, and here he was blasting off-trail through Gallatin National Forest! Who needs a treasure.

There are at least witnesses who saw the box of treasure before he supposedly hid it.  (He kept it for a few years after his cancer went into remission.)  Also, he donates all proceeds from the book with the clues.  And everyone who knows him says that, yes, this is exactly the sort of melodramatic stunt he’d pull.  For instance, Fenn also casts bronze bells with messages to ring it for him if found, and buries them all over the American west.  He likes the idea of being remembered (which admittedly a hoax would also accomplish) but the treasure supposedly includes a copy of his memoirs.  He’s an eccentric guy.  He also seems semi-responsible about it: for instance when people started digging up old graves he specified that it is not in a grave, and when people got in trouble by breaking into bathrooms in national parks he specified that “warm waters halt” has nothing to do with a bathroom, etc.

The big issue of course is if someone who finds it can even legally claim it.  If it’s on public land it’s almost certainly illegal to remove it (it would be an artifact), and if it’s on private land it belongs to the property owner.  There are legal arguments to be made, of course- for instance that the treasure wasn’t “abandoned” in a legal sense, but rather left for whomever finds it, etc.  And believe it or not there is a legal definition of “treasure”, and it does imply “finders keepers” to a certain extent, depending upon the state.  Nonetheless, the best option for whomever finds may be to never ever say where they found it…

I included checking out a Fenn solve on our trip to Yellowstone last year.  If nothing else, it gives you ideas of where to hike:

In retrospect it wasn’t a good solve- there’s no way an 80-year-old could have hiked to it from his car twice in one day (which is another clue he has given).

Even if it is a hoax I think it’s a great idea to get more people outdoors.  Not to mention that it’s just FUN, dammit!  But I guess I don’t think it is a hoax.

Was just reading that because 2 people have now died looking for it, people are calling for him to end the hunt and he’s considering it. Where is the notion of taking personal responsibility for your own safety in the mountains?

Yes. People have died while doing far more pointless things.

No one has died as a result of looking for the treasure – even if they died while looking for the treasure. People die while doing lots of fun things.

Interesting concept Dean – take Fenn hints to identify a place to go.  The fact you’re looking for the Fenn treasure is not really primary.  It does lead you to a nice place separate from whether there’s any treasure there.

I have this book “Finding gold in Oregon” that took me to some nice places.  I did find gold, but you almost need a magnifying glass to see it.  Some nice, wild places though.

“No one has died as a result of looking for the treasure – even if they died while looking for the treasure. People die while doing lots of fun things.”

+1

And I certainly hope to die while doing something fun. Better than while doing something not fun.

Geocaching is a very popular past time. Metal detecting is fun and so is treasure hunting.

3 years ago I had fun debunking a treasure story originating in Illinois.

This article takes a quick look at a controversial site in Illinois called Burrows Cave.

In 1982 a large quantity of epigraphic material was been found there by it’s discoverer, a gentleman by the name of Russell Burrows. What is claimed by Burrows certainly doesn’t seem to be readily digestible by mainstream archeologists, but that of course is neither here nor there.
It has been said that some of the artifacts found are somewhat reminiscent of the Davenport, Iowa, and Wilmington, Ohio, tablets, both of which are of doubtful authenticity. Feel free to read the article below, take a look at the images and draw your own conclusions. In Russell Burrows own words this is is account of how he discovered the cave having stopped to eat his lunch on a bluff that overlooks a valley. He stood up and stepped on the edge of a flat, round rock.
His weight on the side of this rock flipped it as if on a pivot and he fell into a pit below the rock….
“I found myself falling into a pit which had been secreted beneath a large oval stone which, as I later discovered, was fitted into the pit opening and designed to flip or turn over when stepped on. The unfortunate victim would fall to the bottom of the pit, the stone would swing back in place and the victim would be trapped. I was fortunate: When I stepped on that stone, I was in the act of turning, and the stone, instead of flipping over, slid off to one side and left the pit open. I do not actually remember hitting bottom; my next recollection is of hanging on to the lip of the pit by my elbows, in great alarm. I admit that I have a great fear of holes that I’m not ready for, because of snakes. But I found none. When I freed myself and regained my composure, I began to examine the pit and have a look at what was to be the beginning of the greatest adventure of my life… I sat down to calm my nerves, catch my breath and give the situation some thought.”
He found himself in a chamber, with a huge face on one wall, and continues….
“I did not have to be a genius to figure out that I had stumbled into something that just should not be in Illinois. I have hunted for and found many artifacts of the American Indians and there are many of their sites in my part of the state, but I knew then that this was not American Indian. The face I had been nose to nose with was different from anything I had ever seen. The nose was flat, the eyes were wide-set, and the lips were thick. Then, of course, there were all those strange symbols to consider. I had crawled under a ledge and was looking for petroglyphs such as I had seen in the pit. I had searched all the walls of the entire length of the valley, and while I had seen a few scratchings, I was not all that excited about what I had seen so far. Finally, I gave up on this last place, and decided to quit. In disgust, I tossed my small rock pick against the inside wall of the overhang.
The rock gave out a distinctly unnatural sound: a hollow ring, not what I’d expect from solid rock… As it was now clear that a cave was on the other side… My first entrance was through this portal and into a tunnel-like passage which has a drop-off of about three feet just inside of the portal. I was met with a strong, musty odor. Not of decay, but musty.

As I moved my head and light around, I saw a full human skeleton reposing on a large block of stone. It scared the hell out of me! Then I began to see other things lying there with those bones. I saw ax heads, spear points, and something else—metal! The skeleton was laid out upon a solid block large enough to hold not only the remains but artifacts as well.

. Police implore author who says he hid treasure to end hunt .

From the article:

“He’s putting lives at risk,” the chief said, noting that he planned to contact Fenn personally to ask him to call off the hunt.

Nonsense.  Assuming there really is a treasure, and it’s not booby trapped or something, he’s not putting anyone’s life at risk. Someone who chooses to look for it might be putting their own life at risk.

If it’s a hoax, then that would change my opinion.

I became interested in the summer of 2017 and have searched in New Mexico. It was announced yesterday June 6, 2020 that the treasure has been found (not by me).

“The search is over!
“It was under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago. I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot. I congratulate the thousands of people who participated in the search and hope they will continue to be drawn by the promise of other discoveries. So the search is over. Look for more information and photos in the coming days” – Forrest”

https://www.oldsantafetradingco.com/the-thrill-resource-page

maybe he announced that to get people to quit endangering themselves : )

” maybe he announced that to get people to quit endangering themselves : ) “

+1

My very first thought

The real treasure is the friends you meet along the way.

I don’t go out into the wilds greedily looking for buried treasure. The riches are all around and free for the taking.

It’s actually not much fun being driven by lust for easy cash that keeps eluding you every step of the way.

I always believed him at his word

I wonder if it was found by accident…..

When i was kid radio station hid a rock with their name on it…gave out clues on air every day…had everyone mesmerized for weeks.  Till it was found.

They repeated with a can… It was found before first clue even given away….by accident.

I just heard about this on the network news

No details about who found it though, I’m sticking with my theory there was never any buried treasure, it was just about selling a book.  The announcement that it was found is to get people to quit endangering themselves

If they interview the finder then I’ll have to change my theory : )

A little more detail – consistent with the theory this was just so Fenn could sell books:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/06/08/decade-old-quest-hidden-treasure-chest-is-over-millionaire-who-hid-it-says-it-was-just-found/

“A New Mexico art and antiques collector announced 10 years ago that he hid a chest containing $2 million in riches deep in the Rocky Mountains. He told people to go hunt for it — and hundreds of thousands of adventurers did just that. At least five people died while on the quest.”

““The search is over,” Fenn, 89, wrote on his website. “The treasure has been found.”

The finder of the treasure wanted to remain anonymous, Fenn said. He was one of an estimated 350,000 people who, over the past decade, risked their lives in search of the buried bounty.”

“In an interview with the Sante Fe New Mexican news outlet, Fenn said that the treasure was found Saturday and that the man who uncovered the chest sent him a photograph as evidence of the discovery. Fenn has not released the photo, and said the man is from “back East.””

“Still, a number of adventurers quit their jobs to dedicate themselves to the mission, and some died while searching.”

“Many of the treasure seekers have filed lawsuits against Fenn, claiming he used misleading clues to deliberately divert people from ultimately locating the chest.”

All profits from the first book go to the bookstore, none to Fenn, with 10% given to a cancer charity. At least one suicide is known since the announced end, likely to be more. At least two lawsuits are filed, several more being worked on. So, maybe it’s best to not have gotten to “into” this ordeal.

I didn’t mean to lay any moral trip on Fenn

Maybe after the New Mexico police asked him to call it off because of several deaths would have been a good time for him to say it was found