Treasure chest hidden in Rocky Mountains finally found

[left-of-center2012]

A bronze chest filled with gold, jewels, and other valuables worth more than $1 million and hidden a decade ago somewhere in the Rocky Mountain wilderness has been found, according to a famed art and antiquities collector who created the treasure hunt.

Forrest Fenn, 89, told the Santa Fe New Mexican on Sunday that a man who did not want his name released — but was from “back East” — located the chest a few days ago and the discovery was confirmed by a photograph the man sent him. “It was under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago,” Fenn said.

Fenn posted clues to the treasure’s whereabouts online and in a 24-line poem that was published in his 2010 autobiography “The Thrill of the Chase.” Hundreds of thousands have hunted in vain across remote corners of the U.S. West for the bronze chest believed to be filled with gold coins, jewelry and other valuable items. Many quit their jobs to dedicate themselves to the search and others depleted their life savings. At least four people died searching for it.

Fenn, who lives in Santa Fe, said he packed and repacked his treasure chest for more than a decade, sprinkling in gold dust and adding hundreds of rare gold coins and gold nuggets. Pre-Columbian animal figures went in, along with prehistoric “mirrors” of hammered gold, ancient Chinese faces carved from jade and antique jewelry with rubies and emeralds.

Asked how he felt now that the treasure has been found, Fenn said: “I don’t know, I feel halfway kind of glad, halfway kind of sad because the chase is over. I congratulate the thousands of people who participated in the search and hope they will continue to be drawn by the promise of other discoveries,” he said on his website.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/national/treasure-chest-hidden-in-rocky-mountains-finally-found/article_3ac59a53-6b63-5160-8fa6-affab09a268e.html

https://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/forrest-fenns-treasure-hidden-rocky-mountains-found-71122597

[marybourg]

1. A true benefactor of mankind!

Not.

[2naSalit]

2. I want to know where it was.

[Ponietz]

6. Same here--my hunch was the Rio Grande gorge near Taos

[2naSalit]

7. I was close to placing bets on

the Madison River about thirty five miles outside YNP.

[BusyBeingBest]

12. Yeah. I want to know how close I got to it

on my many camping trips and hikes in NM/CO. Or maybe I don't.

[LisaL]

18. I am sure it's not there anymore.

[Roland99]

3. Curly's Gold?

[Trailrider1951]

4. Interesting. Thanks for posting!

[2naSalit]

5. There were a bunch of people

trying to tear up half of YNP and surrounding area looking for it, got to be a bit of a pain for park rangers and such.

[2naSalit]

8. Damn it! I was looking for that!

Just had to say that, I wasn't really looking for it.

[ansible]

9. People have gotten themselves killed trying to find that treasure

https://www.westword.com/news/forrest-fenn-treasure-hunt-death-michael-sexton-fourth-coloradan-to-die-11674072

[LisaL]

22. People have gotten themselves killed doing all kinds of dangerous and even not so dangerous

things.

[onethatcares]

10. worth more than $1,000,000

almost as much as a top line tesla.

Sorry, I'm not impressed

[LisaL]

20. Well, I sure wouldn't turn it down.

[cwydro]

29. Me either!

And who wouldn't love finding a treasure chest!

[CatWoman]

11. I remember "Expedition Unknown" doing a segment on that treasure

[Talitha]

14. That was the first time I'd ever heard of it.

Glad someone finally found the Prize.
Now - go home, everyone!

[CatWoman]

28. lol

[Maru Kitteh]

13. Hope he's proud of himself. One of my patients (22yoM) lost his leg below the knee

looking for those trinkets. Frostbite--->gangrene--->multiple amputations. A young man who was already disadvantaged by his circumstances, prior medical history and skin color/heritage. I doubt losing a leg and three toes on his other foot has improved his prospects.

[PTWB]

15. Do you think he is responsible for that?

I do not.

[kcr]

17. I sure do

He should have posted that it was "found" and shut the whole thing down after the first person died, instead of waiting until now.

[LisaL]

21. But it wasn't yet found then.

[PTWB]

24. He's saying he should have lied just to get people to stop looking for jt

Because people are apparently unable to choose for themselves, this Kcr guy knows best for what they should or should not be doing with their lives.

[kcr]

25. No, I'm saying the whole thing is/was a scam

[PTWB]

30. How so?

[kcr]

31. We're supposed to believe

That a treasure chest sat somewhere in an accessible area for years without anyone or anything happening to come across it? Whether or not it actually existed, fraud was perpetrated to sell books. No information about the person who found it other than he was from "back east"? No information on where it was hidden? It was a scam.

[PTWB]

33. You THINK it was a scam.

You’re no where close to being able to say definitely “it was a scam.”

[kcr]

35. Why not say where the treasure was hidden?

If it looks like a scam, smells like a scam, walks like a scam, it's a scam.

[PTWB]

38. Why say where it was hidden? That was part of the allure.

I’m 50/50 on whether it was a hoax or not but that doesn’t change the fact that people are allowed to make their own decisions and don’t need someone else to make those decisions for them. Folks are able to assess risk, prepare and equip themselves, and stop (or not start in the first place) at any time they choose.

[kcr]

39. No, he isn't disclosing it now, after it was "found"

[PTWB]

41. And thus the mystery continues. That makes sense to me.

[kcr]

43. But there's no more "treasure" to be found

Hence the mystery is whether or not it was even hidden anywhere to begin with.

[PTWB]

45. It is really beginning to sound like you don't care too much for adventure.

[rusty fender]

51. If Fenn won't reveal where it

was located, then it is a scam. When the game is over, all should be revealed.

[PTWB]

23. I believe personal responsibility is still important.

It is terribly sad that people were injured and killed in pursuit of the treasure. But those folks made conscious choices to pursue it.

Do we blame the retail store chain who has a big sale, and someone is killed in a car accident on the way to that sale, perhaps through their own carelessness or perhaps through no fault of their own at all?

Do we blame the hotel that installs a pool but has no lifeguard, yet someone who didn’t know how to swim still chooses to get in the pool, and drowns?

Do we blame the author who writes a novel about surviving alone in the wilderness, only to inspire several people to attempt to do just that, and then die in the profess?

No, we don’t. People make their own decisions and choices. They weigh the risks of everything they do and decide if something is worth the risk or is not worth the risk.

I’d not have anyone hold my hand in life and I’m fairly certain the type of person who chose to pursue such a treasure and go on such an adventure would not want you blaming the person who created the adventure in the first place. That is nonsense.

[kcr]

27. Just because people are free to make their own decisions

doesn't mean people are free to take advantage of that and cause harm. This is nothing like a store having a sale. This was a man who dangled out a highly attractive prize with no consideration for safety.

[PTWB]

32. No consideration for safety?

First, the people pursuing the treasure get to decide what level of risk they’re willing to take - not all the pearl clutching hall monitors across the Internet (not calling you that just speaking generally).

Second, the guy didn’t bury the treasure at the bottom of an active volcano, on an island inhabited by cannibals or some other ridiculous location. He put it in nature...

Is it your position that just being out in nature is too risky? Too dangerous?

[kcr]

34. Yes, no consideration for safety

That's what I call not caring that people are dying. He did nothing to ameliorate that. His claim that he only wanted people to get out there and enjoy nature is laughable. If his intentions were good, he would have stopped it after the first death. Instead, he kept on selling books.

[PTWB]

36. That is ridiculous.

Next you’ll be blaming an author who writes a book about surviving alone in the wilderness when the first person who is inspired by that book dies in said wilderness.

[kcr]

37. Ridiculous analogy

He wasn't writing about his own experiences. He claimed there was a treasure that he put out there, and kept on selling books as people died looking for it. Come on. No one was able to understand his clues, for years? Until this one guy from "back east" figured it out?

[PTWB]

40. How is it ridiculous?

In one, the treasure is gold. In the other, the treasure is self discovery, peace and accomplishment. Other than the type of treasure the situations are identical.

[kcr]

42. Here is what would make it an analogy

If the person writing a book about their own self-discovery were to refuse to disclose where that peaceful haven is, and offer a reward for anyone who discovers it, then claims someone visited there, but won't say who it was or where.

[PTWB]

44. Not even close.

Perhaps the point is that nature is that treasure.

[Hortensis]

47. Maru and Kcr, the artist Christo just died. One of his

art projects killed a woman 30 years ago when she got out of her car to look closely and wind blew a giant yellow umbrella into her. The tragic death tragically lead to the dismantling of something that was meant to give pleasure to many, many thousands of people driving through that mountain pass every day.

But he didn't turn to making wall paintings. Has he been guilty of depraved indifference to life ever since as he continued to make giant projects that people might somehow kill themselves with?

No big "somehow" to this one, the hazards are very obvious -- an attractive nuisance just begging to be climbed, fallen off of. Drowning, smashing of fragile bodies.



Aren't each of us potentially guilty each time we start up our motorized missiles and aim them down a road a child might run into? We KNOW it happens and we do it anyway.

[left-of-center2012]

16. "looking for those trinkets"

"A bronze chest filled with gold, jewels, and other valuables worth more than $1 million."

Maybe your young patient (22yoM),
"disadvantaged by his circumstances, prior medical history and skin color/heritage"
should not have gone on a treasure hunt?

Poor judgement?

[Kingofalldems]

19. The Oak Island nonsense is the worst.

I would have loved to see a show based on this, where they actually found something.

[lagomorph777]

26. You obviously haven't been watching lately.

They have numerous scientists getting involved now, because of their well-documented finds. They have now found artifacts on that island dated from the 1200s, straight through to the present. Massive underground works. Human bones (European and Middle Eastern) 160 feet underground, from about 1650. It's not really possible to scoff anymore. There may or may not ever have been treasure there, but there was most definitely something important happening there for at least 800 years.

[Kingofalldems]

48. I admit I stopped watching sometime last year.

The voiceover guy is annoying.

[lagomorph777]

49. Hah! Yes, the voiceover guy is effing annoying. But 2019 was a stunning season - game changer.

Check it out at History.com.

[Brother Buzz]

46. I got sucked into this headline yesterday and was disappointed

I was hopping it was going to be some some of 16th, 17th century bronze treasure chest, and there was going to be a cool story about it, like some lost Spanish expedition, or something. Hell, even treasure from The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine would have been cool. Anything historical would have been cool. Instead, it was a 21st century scavenger hunt, and I felt like I had my Ralphie moment, "Be Sure To Drink Your Ovaltine".

[lagomorph777]

50. Hee - all that Ovaltine-chugging for nothing!