Since appearing on “Good Morning America,” Forrest Fenn, has stirred an underground cult following. Why?
Picture this: 20 troy pounds of gold coins and placer nuggets as big as a man's fist. A single bracelet that contains more than 250 rubies, diamonds and Ceylon sapphires. Pre-Columbian relics from the Inca and Mayans. A 17th-century Spanish emerald ring. Hand-carved Chinese masks. And Fenn's personal favorite – a Wetherell-commissioned silver turquoise bracelet.
Now pick your jaw up off of the floor, because that's not all. Not even close.
Fenn's treasure chest is filled with more than $1 million of gold, antiques and jewelry. My favorite part is that he buried a map to the treasure in his 2010 book, The Thrill of the Chase: A Memoir. The treasure, Fenn claims, is so extensive that he refuses to describe it all at once.
As for the map, “if followed precisely,” Fenn says in his book, “(this poem) will lead to the end of my rainbow and the treasure”:
As I have gone alone in there and with my treasures bold,
I can keep my secret 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 ever drawing 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.
Reading this might leave you feeling like the cunning Nicholas Cage in “National Treasure,” leading you right to the spot – or maybe more like his tagalong sidekick. Either way, Fenn has decided to help by releasing a monthly clue to aid aspiring treasure hunters. Heck, since I won't be one to turn down help, here are the extra clues:
“The treasure is hidden higher than 5,000 feet above sea level.”“No need to dig up the old outhouses, the treasure is not associated with any structure.”
“The treasure isn't in a graveyard.”
As more-or-less helpful as these clues are, it's my belief that because Fenn's memoir reads like a fairy tale, then classical fairy-tale wisdom suggests that everything one needs to find the treasure is contained in his memoir.
The book, available only at the Collected Works Bookstore in Santa Fe and online, contains memories of summer vacations to Yellowstone; of his father, the grade-school principal; of Vietnam; and of sneaking out to watch Gypsies dance in the firelight.
His unique writing style invites the reader's imagination to transcend the pages and join the chase – or just to go out and live, make mistakes and learn.
While Fenn might have embellished the details of some stories, none are too tall to believe. What more could a vagabond 20-something ask for than a shot at a multimillion dollar treasure? It might even be the only treasure like this in the world.
Next time, I'll take the Santa Fe Trail north into the mountains to chase rumors of lost gold in the eastern range. Till then, happy hunting!
David Strawn is a Fort Lewis College student from Creede. This is the third in a series on the travels of a treasure hunter searching for the riches of humans, nature and human nature.
