The Treacherous Treasure Hunt of Forrest Fenn

**"The Treacherous Treasure Hunt of Forrest Fenn"** is a video made by Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, uploaded onto YouTube on September 7, 2018. It was the eighth episode of the fourth season of *BuzzFeed Unsolved: True Crime*, and the seventy-fourth episode overall. You can find it here.

## Description

There was no description for this episode.

## Background

Now 87 years old, Forrest Fenn, who has been called a real-life Indiana Jones by some, built his life and career on being a treasure hunter. Finding, trading, and selling precious artifacts from around the world. And in 2010, Fenn announced in his memoir, *The Thrill of the Chase*, that he had hidden a literal treasure chest in the Rocky Mountains full of valuable antiquities worth over an estimated million dollars. Also included in the memoir is a poem containing nine clues to the treasure's location.

After all, knowing the man, is believed by treasure hunters to be an integral piece to finding Fenn's treasure. In 1950, Forrest Fenn joined the Air Force, and during his time as a fighter pilot, he had the ability to travel to historic sites such as Libya and the Sahara, on his free time. Where he would further expand his archeological scavenging. By 1973, Fenn had enough cash and inventory to open Fenn Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico where Fenn lived. In addition to the items in the gallery, some of the pieces in Fenn's personal collection include a mummified falcon from King Tut's tomb, Sitting Bull's peace pipe, and a spiritual centerpiece from Custer's Last Stand, appraised at $1.1 million. During the height of the gallery's 17 years of operation, Fenn had 16 people on staff and over six million dollars each year in sales. With a laundry list of A-list celebrity clientele, including one Steven Spielberg.

In 1988, about a year after his father had passed away of cancer, Fenn was diagnosed with kidney cancer with a prognosis that gave him a very slim chance to survive. However, Fenn beat the odds, and with his new stake at life, we arrive at Fenn's treasure hunt. When faced with death, Fenn was said to have thought about what he would leave behind, and asked himself, what can one person do that might impact life a thousand years from now. Fenn arrived at the idea of a treasure hunt that anybody could participate in. Fenn told NPR that he hid the box in the midst of the Great Recession to help brighten the spirits of those struggling, and in hopes that it might inspire people to explore the great outdoors and the land he loved so much. Fenn says that the chest is in an ornate, antique bronze lockbox of Romanesque design which is 10 by 10 by five inches, and weighs 42 pounds. 10 by 10 by five inches, that's not very big.

Fenn claims that this list of items is inside the treasure chest. Ancient figurines, a 17th century Spanish ring, American Eagle gold coins, gold nuggets, a vial of gold dust, two gold discs, jewelry, including rubies, sapphires and diamonds, and a 2,000-year-old fetish necklace, his own autobiography, and finally, his favorite turquoise bead bracelet found in a cliff dwelling near Mesa Verde. A bracelet which Forrest has requested to be returned upon discovery which some speculate will transfer legal ownership of the rest of the treasure to the finder.

As mentioned before, Fenn's memoir includes a 24-line poem that Fenn has said includes nine hidden clues that lead directly to the treasure's location. The poem reads as follows:

*As I have gone alone in there*
*and with my treasures bold,*
*I can keep my secrets where*
*and hint of riches new and old.*
*Begin it where warm waters halt*
*and take it in the canyon down,*
*not far, but too far to walk.*
*Put in below the home of Brown.*
*From there, it's no place for the meek,*
 *the end is drawing ever nigh.*
*There'll be no paddle up your creek,*
*just heavy loads and water high.*
*If you've been wise and found the blaze,*
*look quickly down, your quest to cease,*
*but tarry scant with marvel gaze,*
*just take the chest and go in peace.*
*So why is it that I must go*
*and leave my trove for all to seek?*
*The answers I already know*
*I've done it tired, and now I'm weak.*
*So hear me all and listen good,*
*your effort will be worth the cold.*
*If you are brave and in the wood,*
*I give you title to the gold.*
Where the nine clues lie within the poem is up for debate. But for the most part, these highlighted sections are where many people believe the nine clues to be. Clue one, *begin it where warm waters halt*. Clue two, *take it in the canyon down, not far, but too far to walk.* Clue three, *put in below the home of Brown*. Clue four, *no place for the meek*. Clue five, *the end is drawing ever nigh*. Clue six, no paddle up your creek. Clue seven, just heavy loads and water high. Clue eight, *if you've been wise and found the blaze, look quickly down, your quest to cease*. Clue nine, *but tarry scant with marvel gaze*. And there they are, nine clues. Simple, and yet, according to Fenn, over 65,000 people have tried to find the treasure to no avail.

Fenn has been famously and maddeningly reductive. Saying that the only tools necessary to find the treasure are the poem, a map of the Rocky Mountains, and basic geographic knowledge.

With clues and hints in hand, let's narrow down our search area. In addition to the clues in the poem, Fenn has also dropped helpful hints. Here's a couple of the notable ones. The treasure sits between 5,000 feet and 10,200 feet. So topographical maps are necessary. It's not in a graveyard, outhouse, mine, tunnel, or cave, nor is it associated with any structure. The treasure is located in either Montana, Wyoming, Colorado or New Mexico, and is at least 8.25 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Of the four states listed by Fenn, Ryan tend to lean towards New Mexico or Wyoming. Wyoming because a majority of Yellowstone National Park resides within that state, and Yellowstone was a place where Fenn spent his formative years camping with his father. If Fenn were to hide the treasure in a place that had special meaning to him, Yellowstone would make sense. However, if the treasure chest was found in Yellowstone, or any national park for that matter, it's possible that it could be considered abandoned property. Here's a quote from Tim Reid, chief ranger at Yellowstone. Quote, "It's not finders keepers. You would have to turn it in and go through a governmental procedure to lay claim to it." So, for Ryan, Yellowstone is out. If Ryan were to hide a chest worth over a million dollars, he would want to do so in a place near his house so he could check on it. And Fenn lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.