Would you be interested in finding a hidden treasure valued at over $1,000,000?
 |
| Forrest Finn with his treasure. |
Last summer, the pandemic found me here at home with plenty of time on my hands. Reading an article about a young man finding a treasure, valued at more than a million dollars, grabbed my attention. Turns out he had found Forrest Fenn’s hidden treasure. I knew the hunt had been going on but had not paid much attention over the previous years. If you don’t know about Forrest Fenn, he was born in Temple, Texas, in 1930. He grew up as a son of a high school principal, joined the Air Force at age 18, became a fighter pilot, flew combat missions during the Vietnam War, and retired, after being awarded a Silver Star, in 1968. In 1972 he and a partner opened an art gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that drew in the wealthy and famous and eventually made him a multimillionaire. In 1988, he was diagnosed with cancer and given a prognosis that it was likely terminal. With death possibly on the doorstep, he was inspired, in 2010, at age 80, to place a box of treasure worth over $1M somewhere in the Rocky Mountains and write a book, The Thrill of the Chase, which included a poem. The poem, if one could decode it, would lead them to the treasure, and "solve" the mystery. Whoever found it could keep it. In June, 2020, a 32 year old man, Jack Stuef, found the treasure. Neither Fenn, nor Stuef, would reveal exactly where it was found beyond saying it was in Wyoming. Reading about the “find” peaked my interest in Fenn and trying to figure out my own “solve” for where he had placed the treasure. Why? Because I love Yellowstone National Park and I'm betting the treasure was there or near by. There were thousands of treasure hunters looking for the box of gold. There are many websites where they started sharing information and portions of their solve.
 |
| A July, 2015, article in California Sunday Magazine provides a nice overview as of that year including a map and the poem. The Everlasting Forrest Fenn |
 |
| Forrest Finn with treasure finder, Jack Stuef Jack's Remembrance of Forrest Fenn Forrest passed away at age 90 on September 8th Jack published his article on Medium.com on September 23rd |
 |
| Thrill of the Chase Website with links to a multitude of information. https://dalneitzel.com/ |
A book on the hunt is scheduled to be published in June, 2021, by Daniel Barbarisi ...
 |
| Daniel Barbarisi is writing a book on the hunt scheduled for publication in June of next year. Barbarisi's recent article in Outside Online |
Fascinating. I didn’t hear of this treasure. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting story. I saw it on the news recently. Hubby and I have been to Wyoming and Yellowstone a few times, we could have passed right by this treasure. Thanks for sharing. Take care, have a great day and a happy week!
I never heard of this treasure hunt before this post, John. I look forward to learning more about it, and finding out more about the very interesting Mr. Fenn.
ReplyDelete