Forrest Fenn’s deadly treasure hunt

If a wealthy old billionaire with a cartoonish name told you he’d hidden $2 million worth of treasure somewhere in a national park, would you actually believe him? More importantly, would you have a crack at trying to find that treasure for yourself?

When Forrest Fenn announced in 2010 that he’d hidden a bronze chest filled with jewels and gold in the Rocky Mountains, a lot of people did choose to believe, and they sure did have a crack at finding that treasure. Over the course of a decade, more than 350 000 people fulfilled their childhood fantasies of going on a real-life treasure, hoping to become instant millionaires. 

The only clues to the chest’s location were laid out in a (terrible) poem Forrest had included in his memoir. Sounds like a recipe for a whimsical, joyful adventure, right?

Well… the hunt turned out to be quite a destructive force to not only the environment, but to the treasure hunters themselves. People were very seriously injured, and several of them even lost their lives. Plus the legal system quickly became clogged with lawsuits (because: America), and the constant suing really sucked a lot of the fun out of the whole thing.

We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's this:

Have a read of this 1986 People Magazine article about Forrest Fenn’s gallery and lifestyle https://people.com/archive/rivals-scorn-his-santa-fe-gallery-but-forrest-fenn-baskets-the-cash-vol-25-no-23/

Visit Fenn’s Clues - a website dedicated to deciphering the poem and locating the treasure  http://fennclues.com/the-poem.html

Check out this article about the hunt, published in 2012 when it started to go mainstream https://www.newsweek.com/forrest-fenn-wants-you-find-his-treasure-and-his-bones-64427

Here's a great article about Fenn’s life and the treasure hunt, written shortly after his death https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/16/buried-treasure-forrest-fenn-rockies

Get to know more about Jack, the man who found the treasure https://www.outsideonline.com/2419429/forrest-fenn-treasure-jack-stuef

This book is going to be worth the read when it’s released in May 2021 https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/604063/chasing-the-thrill-by-daniel-barbarisi/

And watch some examples of Fennhead YouTube channels

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFIZQP4XfmA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqgLMclzLWs

Skip right to the story: approx 20:41

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