In 1988, an art dealer named Forrest Fenn was diagnosed with cancer. It was expected to be terminal. Reeling from the diagnoses, Fenn thought back to happier days, exploring the Rocky Mountains and fishing throughout the American West. Specifically, one place came to mind where he would like to be buried. Then, happily, his cancer responded well to treatment and he recovered. Over 20 years later, nearing his 80th birthday, he self-published a memoir about his life, “The Thrill of the Chase”. Normally, such a book would attract little interest. Just a local businessman who wants a written record of his modestly interesting life. However, Fenn included a surprise in the memoir: a treasure hunt.
Hidden “in the mountains somewhere north of Santa Fe” was a treasure chest of rare coins and other antiquities that he had acquired over his decades as an art dealer. The total value of the chest? Somewhere around $1 million. He also included a poem as a hint to where the chest was hidden, which was in the same location he originally imagined he would be buried:
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 drawing ever 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.
People were immediately enthralled. Here was a genuine treasure hunt. $1 million, especially in the wake of The Great Recession, was too big of opportunity to pass up. People immediately started internet forums and search groups trying to locate the treasure. Where could it be? Treasure hunters immediately divided themselves into several groups. Given Fenn’s clue and his home in Santa Fe, some started canvasing Northern New Mexico. A second group noted that Fenn often vacationed in Yellowstone National Park, a place where several rivers are naturally heated by underground hot springs, and began to search there. Others believed the treasure was somewhere in Colorado.
In a normal, sane world, that would be the story. Hobbyists would spend time hunting for the treasure, and eventually someone would be successful. It would make for a nice story. This not being a sane world, people went overboard.
As excitement about the treasure grew, treasure hunters began taking larger and larger risks in trying to find it. People were injured in hiking accidents and had to be rescued. Then, people started dying. At least five individuals, including a Colorado pastor, were killed searching for the treasure. Especially in New Mexico, law enforcement officials begged Fenn to call off the hunt. He refused. Some people began to speculate if there even was a treasure. One man sued Fenn, accusing him of fraud. Fenn maintained the treasure was real, and as far as he knew, still waiting to be found.
Then, in June of 2020, a bombshell: Fenn announced on his blog that the treasure had been discovered. Thousands of hunters, eager for details, were left extremely disappointed. Not only had they missed out on the treasure, but Fenn refused to say who had found the treasure or where it was buried. This led to another round of accusations that the whole thing was a hoax. A few photos of the box and treasure were revealed, but this predictably did nothing to quell the conspiracy theories. Shortly after, Fenn passed away at age 90. Someone claiming to the “The Finder” posted an anonymous article on Medium as a tribute to Fenn and the treasure hunt. It was revealed that the treasure was found in Wyoming, leading credence to the Yellowstone theory, but no more information was given.
That could have been the end of the story, but again, given that this is America, someone filed a lawsuit. A French treasure hunter claimed he had determined the location of the treasure, but Fenn has moved it before he could get to it. The suit alleged the Finder was told the location and thus Fenn had committed fraud. Because of legal rules that I don’t understand, the lawsuit was going to compel the Finder to be unmasked and reveal his identity. To preempt this, the Finder did announce his identity in an article for Outside Magazine. It was a 32-year-old medical student named Jack Stuef.
To my surprise, this wasn’t the first time I’d heard of Jack Stuef. In 2011, he published a distasteful cartoon and commentary on Sarah Palin’s son, Trig, who has Down Syndrome. In one of the earlier cases of an internet controversy, conservative writers immediately called for advertisers to boycott the website and for Stuef to be fired. Then, when working for Buzzfeed in 2012, Stuef wrote a hit piece about Matthew Inman, writer of then insanely popular webcomic The Oatmeal. I was a loyal Oatmeal reader at the time, and first heard of Stuef when Inman responded with a long rejoinder to the Buzzfeed piece.
Stuef never confirmed the location of the treasure, but it is widely believed to be near a fishing spot called Nine Mile Hole in Yellowstone National Park. Family friends of Fenn have said this to be true, although without confirmation from Stuef, this isn’t known for sure. Stuef says that he figured out the rough location pretty easily, but finding the exact burial spot took nearly a month of searching. The “blaze” referred to in the poem was likely on a tree that had since fallen over, making the hiding place tricky to find. One surmises he used a metal detector, and still needed weeks canvasing the area around Nine Mile Hole to find the chest.
From a cost-benefit perspective, I find the debate over whether Fenn should have ended the hunt fascinating. On one hand, people died. Others had to be rescued. On the other, Fenn took steps to mitigate the damage. He said repeatedly that he hid the treasure when he was 79 years old, and that it didn’t require any rappelling equipment, watercraft, or unusual amount of physical exertion. On balance, I side with Fenn. Yes, five people died and numerous others were injured. But that’s life. Glowing stories are written about those who climb the Seven Summits or run ultramarathons or row across oceans. These stories inspire others to attempt similar feats. Some of them will die. The documentary “Free Solo”, about Alex Honnold’s climb of El Capitan, will undoubtedly do the same.
An untold number of skiers, rock climbers, mountain bikers, and hang gliders will die in 2026 doing something they enjoy. As Fenn himself said, countless people enjoyed the outdoors and made the Fenn treasure their hobby. They met others online, sifted through every statement Fenn ever made for clues, and went on hunts. Those who died or were injured often explicitly ignored Fenn’s statement that if you’re putting yourself in physical danger, you’re looking in the wrong place. If a treasure hunt needs to be ended because a few people die, then every ski mountain needs to be closed as well.
Finally, researching the Fenn Treasure, I couldn’t help but think about how the entire tale is a microcosm for America. It has all the pieces that make our country both great and exasperating. An art dealer who has the resources and ambition to hide a million-dollar treasure just for fun. A treasure hunt that becomes an obsession for thousands of hunters, and a deadly obsession for an unlucky few. A finder who was an internet troll but is now a medical doctor. A proliferation of lawsuits. A three-part Netflix documentary. The Fenn Treasure really has it all.