In the Rocky Mountains, it took 10 years of research to find a hidden treasure chest by Forrest Fenn, a wealthy 79-year-old man. According to the multimillionaire, the contents of the chest were estimated at nearly $2 million.
The treasure hunt is not only for pirates.
Good news: you don’t have to be on board a pirate ship to look for hidden treasure. On the contrary, you can find treasures everywhere, even in the Rocky Mountains. Over the last ten years, brave individuals have been searching the mountain range for a treasure chest containing gold, jewellery and other valuables worth over a million dollars. They continued to search, but it seemed they would never find their reward.
However, in June 2020, the search finally ended when a man found the treasure near Santa Fe, New Mexico. The search is over, but how did the man find the precious jewels? Who put them in the Rocky Mountains in the first place? This might prompt you to take a metal detector and start looking for items near your home. You never know what you might find.
A poem to be deciphered in order to find the treasure.
The research began in 2010 when art and antiques collector Forrest Fenn indicated on his website that he was placing a treasure chest containing gold, rubies, emeralds, diamonds and other objects somewhere in the Rocky Mountains on 2010. The aim of the game was to solve clues in order to find the mysterious object. The clues were included in a 24-line poem published in Fenn’s 2010 autobiography, The Thrill of the Chase.
If people studied the poem, they could discover the location of the treasure. However, it took them almost ten years to find out where the treasure chest was. It may have been more difficult for them to decipher the code than Fenn had originally anticipated. « It stood under a starry sky in the lush, wooded vegetation of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved from where I had hidden it more than 10 years ago, » Fenn said in an announcement on his website, adding that the search was officially over. He added: « I don’t know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the exact location ».
About the treasure
Fenn estimated that about 350,000 people have explored and researched in the Rocky Mountains. People have come from all over the world to visit the mountain range, some even leaving their jobs to devote themselves fully to research. Unfortunately, some people also died during the research. Fenn, who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has been packing and repacking the treasure chest for more than a decade. He sprinkled more gold dust and added hundreds of rare gold coins and gold nuggets.
For more fun, it has also included pre-Columbian animal figures, prehistoric « mirrors » in hammered gold, ancient Chinese faces carved in jade and other ancient jewellery. In total, the chest weighed 19 kilos and it took Fenn two trips to hide it all by himself. Fenn knew that people were risking their lives (and some even lost theirs) to carry out the search. Braving the harsh Rocky Mountain weather was no easy task. He said: « I congratulate the thousands of people who took part in the research and hope they will continue to be drawn to the promise of further discoveries ».
The discovery of the treasure
In June 2020, an unidentified man found the treasure chest, which was a pleasant surprise for Fenn. He knows that the man lives on the East Coast and the discovery was confirmed when the man sent a photo to Fenn with the treasure chest. « I am half happy, half sad because the hunt is over, » said Fenn.
He knew that the precious treasure would spark people’s interest in research, and it was fun for him to watch and read the comments of people trying to complete the treasure hunt. The purpose of this adventure was to make people want to go out into nature. He encouraged people to become aware of their environment and to fall in love with nature. In addition, he wanted others to have fun with an old-fashioned adventure and an expedition in search of precious finds. Be on the lookout if he decides to embark on another adventure.