In the beginning of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” the young Jones encounters a motley crew of thieves stealing the golden crucifix of Cortez.
He decides to steal it back with the intention of taking it to a museum. But as you may remember, the robbers called the cops and said Jones stole it from them. Jones wasn’t able to walk away feeling satisfied that day, but he did have to walk away.
Sometimes, we come to interesting forks in the road. Life makes us take a right when we feel like we should have taken a left. If a right had finished things for me, that would have been great. Instead, I’m left with the feeling of unfinished business. I could make the story short and say that I didn’t find the golden treasure, but there’s more. (Well, maybe not that much more. This will be my final column as “Treasure Hunter.” I’ll be easing off the hunt to focus on finishing my anthropology degree at Fort Lewis College.)
For Jones, the experience I mentioned spurred him into the epic story of “The Last Crusade.” I thought, “if Indy is willing to chase his dreams to whatever crazy ends he finds, then so should I.”
Into the wildest part of the country I went, journeying into Yellowstone to search for treasure. The land there is astonishing. Seemingly delicate and dangerous, it is as intriguing and powerful as fire, like some place where the forces of nature are present in such abundance that some of the usual rules don’t apply. It’s so alive and crawling with life that I felt alien, like a martian wandering through the laboratory of Mother Nature.
I followed carefully placed boardwalks to observe crystal-clear pools ringed with colorful microscopic life. Geysers spewed hot water into the sky like the spray of ocean waves off massive rocks. Grassland prairies were dotted with grazing buffalo and carved by large, flowing rivers.
With such awesome sights, it seemed that I couldn’t have a bad day. Once I even joined the throng of hundreds gathering for the eruption of Old Faithful. I was surrounded by people from around the globe. The 90-minute wait for Old Faithful is sort of similar to waiting for a roller coaster that everyone can ride at the same time. Some folks just can’t get enough of it.
While I was waiting for the next spout of Old Faithful, I met a wonderful couple whose RV travels led them to Yellowstone and kept them coming back – for six more summers. They discovered that the park hires volunteers who work for two days and then have six days off. Not so bad, eh?
Maybe that’s the kind of gig I need. See, the trouble is that around every corner an exciting new adventure in alien country awaited me. I wanted to go everywhere, and then I wanted to explore all of it. It’s a very slow way to travel.
I was drinking it all in, exploring the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Mammoth Hot Springs and Union Falls, but every day that I was looking for treasure, I kept finding adventure and wonder. As I explored the park, my eyes were searching for signs of the treasure and my mind reeled the clues back over and over again. It just didn’t make any sense for Forrest Fenn to have hidden the treasure somewhere so public. Some sights are so grand – such as the view from Artist Point on the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. I think if I had a treasure to hide, I’d put it there.
Finally, for the last two days of my treasure hunting, I really got into it – climbing down rocks, walking the rivers and crawling into caves. I wish I was courageous enough to disclose exactly where I think the treasure is – but I’m not. I had to walk away empty-handed and filled with dreams.
Drawn by the thrill of the chase, I bet I’ll be out there again.
As Fenn said:
“So hear me all and listen good,
“Your effort will be worth the cold.
“If you are brave and in the wood
give you title to the gold.”
Happy hunting! And thanks for coming with me.
David Strawn is a Fort Lewis College student from Creede. This is his final column in a series about the travels of a treasure hunter searching for the riches of humans, nature and human nature.
