A US millionaire who buried treasure in the Rockies has offered one main clue
People have died searching for Forrest Fenn’s buried fortune, but his aim was to encourage families to enjoy the outdoors
By Jonathan Blumberg
Somewhere in the Rocky mountains, in the roughly 1,000 miles between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Canadian border, may be a hidden treasure chest whose contents are worth millions. The man who claims to have hidden the fortune back in 2010 is Forrest Fenn, now 86, a former Vietnam fighter pilot and art dealer.
Fenn estimates that as many as 350,000 people have gone hunting for the treasure, he tells CNBC Make It , adding that there is no way of knowing whether anyone has actually gotten close. “It could be found soon or 1,000 years from now,” he says.
“No one knows where that treasure chest is but me,” Fenn told NPR in 2016. That includes his wife. “If I die tomorrow, the knowledge of that location goes in the coffin with me.”
The main piece of guidance Fenn has offered is a cryptic 24-line poem he wrote in his self-published memoir, “The Thrill of the Chase.” He has since shared the poem on Instagram.
“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,” reads one stanza.