Ep. 96: 6 Reasons Why Forrest Fenn's Treasure Chest Is Not In Or Near Yellowstone
Ep. 96: 6 Reasons Why Forrest Fenn's Treasure Chest Is Not In Or Near Yellowstone
Starting with logic and ending with logic, logic tells us that Forrest Fenn could not have hidden the treasure chest in or near Yellowstone. That includes Montana and Wyoming. It simply doesn’t pass the logic test… and don’t even get me started on imagination…
The Thrill of the Chase may focus on the Yellowstone area, but if you were hiding a treasure chest worth millions of dollars would the vast majority of your stories be about the place where you hid the treasure? Or would you mislead the average reader, on purpose…
Very logical. Fenn does put enough stories in the book about Yellowstone, Montana, Wyoming to get across to New Mexicans who would have bought it to give them thought that it would be farther north than just New Mexico. He wasn’t even sure it would take off the way it did.
The two points of logic that bothers me for the area being far north are: 1.It would seem logical that he would hide it someplace close to his home. 2.When he said he hid it, it would have been quite a trip to go far north without him having an airplane.
However, I do think NM is a little to desert-like for him to have found a spectacular place there compared to areas he loved as a child.
Wasn’t the original poem how his family would find his remains? The book is a chronological memoir so having the first twenty years about Montana Wyoming and Texas makes sense. The big war chapter makes sense too as that was another 20 years. The Santa Fe days are mostly gallery related building a business, local life and raising a family. I think the gallery kept him grounded some and close to home. He said people would be surprised when it’s found. I keep going back to how he described the suicide. He was going to the same place but in the suicide he had to leave his car somewhere with a note/poem assuming the car and then get to the hiding place without using that car. In the Doug P interview it was suggested where that car was going to be parked. That is a confirmed starting point if you think about it. Well in the interest of clarity for all searchers, here is the correct quote from the Forward written by Doug Preston:
"The final clue, he said, would be where they found his car: in the parking lot of the Denver Muesem of Nature and Science."
Colorado would sum it all up quite nicely… driving over the border and back in an afternoon… would not be found for a while… A new place he probably found late in life and never told anyone about… perfect..he knew everyone will think of this last and search last… its a process.
Surely that would tell everyone, where you hid it and why.
Oh b t w I WANT 500 BOOKS IN THE PLACE AND WITH PEOPLE I LOVE.
Surely it is more ambiguous to start at his early life in the book and to hide it in New MEXICO
He bought the one thing we don’t have too much of,
Time!
For what it’s worth. Insight from someone who knew Forrest “Bubba” back in the early days. https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/letters_to_editor/to-the-editor/article_d89dcea0-8937-584d-9731-74557e5e352b.html. Search for Fenn on this site and many stories from F squared come up from 2008 before TTOTC. So why would F decide to publish these in a Montana local paper? Probably because they were stories from there. You will notice changes to the same stories in the book TTOTC
I think people in the west like to travel north to escape the hot New Mexico summer.
Hello, I am N.M. all the way. Weird thought, if FF only printed 1000 copies of TTOTC and said he didn’t know who would buy them because his parents were dead, does that mean he only expected a handful of people to actually search for his treasure? Is that why he thought it could take 100 or more years? Also the map behind the poem in TTOTC is an old map of New Mexico. And I think Santa Fe was a healing for his mind and soul after Vietnam. I think he feels he owed something back to that place. Anyway, my solve takes me to a specific place in N.M. and it could be biased but I don’t think so.
FF says in an interview that most people forget or don’t even think about New Mexico. Hmm 🤔?
Great video man could not agree more! Just a small correction on what you said about him printing 1000 maps- that map everyone looks at didn’t come out until 2013 (3 years after TTOTC), so it was only the book/poem that there were a 1000 copies of, the first 1000 also included his personal phone number for searchers to call him, so why if he originally intended for people worldwide to get involved would he do that? The editions after the first 1000 simply included his email address, no phone number. Something else regarding the book that seems worth mentioning is that 80% of those stories were just revised from things he published for a 2008 newspaper, and from old stories that used to be on his website OldSantaFeTradingCo.com.. The book was thrown together in 6 weeks according to Forrest and the original title was "The Rye Sequel".
Anyone know about the Aztec Ruins area of NM? Any waters over there?
If he thought of everything, it seems logical to think there was some strategy for releasing and selling them at the cw.
compelling
Layers of information. Light reading 5 times and you will come 1 kind of conclusion. 35 times through the book and you will find more, and a different summation. So what do you find when you take it apart and look at everything? Unlock these pages, what are the Keys? The book is all.
AGK did a video a few years ago analyzing the book. They found out that with the exception of My War For Me the majority of the book takes place in New Mexico
GREAT VIDEO! Here’s my view on the matter…
Forrest Fenn –>umbilical connection–>mother–>grandmother(& grandfather)–>(close to where) Yellowstone (was born – umbilical chord cut, Yellowstone birthed)!
Forrest Fenn said he would hide the treasure in what I believe to be a natural structure he figuratively calls "a stepping STONE (YellowSTONE)" which represents THE PRESENT as being what is between THE PAST, Temple Texas and THE FUTURE, New Mexico, and that PRESENT is YellowSTONE (starting in Montana and ending in Wyoming, all of this of course IN MY HUMBLE OPINION!
You make a good case for New Mexico. I have no convictions on what state the treasure is in. When imagining Forrest’s original plan to go back and die beside the chest, I think about the point in time that he would be ready to carry out this plan and how much energy and strength it might require. Those thoughts make New Mexico attractive to me, but again, I don’t have a state or region. I do think word of the book and treasure would have traveled quickly among Forrest’s many circles and acquiring it from Collected Works would not of been difficult. Thanks for another thought provoking vlog!
You cant argue either that Forrest was Content in Life and Fishing. Look at Forrest Life Line, you have to sum up his Life so you have to Pick the Most Profound Experiences and Events of Forrest in just a few words or a few stories.
I have a 1.5hr counterargument here: https://youtu.be/hCLqr6BQLjk
Do you think Forrest realized early on the need or desire to distinguish “the nine geographical locations” in the poem that will lead to the treasure from all other information that can/may help a person figure out those 9 clues? In line with Michael’s FF Learning Curve about Forrest being helpful, he began using hints vs clues for clarity. Just my thoughts on clues to THE clues.
Only 1000 copies because the book was intended for a small group of people – his family and friends, some of whom lived near Yellowstone. They owned property up there, including the Dude Motel and the restaurant named Bullwinkles (which is on Canyon street in WYS). The only clues to NM in TToTC pertain to Fenn’s former gallery and Eric Sloane, who owned property North of Santa Fe & Olga’s Taos Mountain.
It is possible that he thought it was being all inclusive when referring to the mountains north of Santa Fe and realized people were misinterpreting him and thus limiting something that shouldn’t be limited.
All this talk of relish, has me thinking Hot Dogs for Lunch! 🙂 P.S. I can’t wait for you and Mike to go at it, you are both intelligent and add thoughtful thought (that was harder to say than relishes…LOL!!!) to the chase. Good One, Buddy!! 🙂
Somewhere along the line I have heard him say he only wanted to print 500 but the minimum order from the printer was 1000. Yet subsequent books, Bip and Educating Ardie were printed in much smaller quantities.
In my opinion The 1000 books is a smart move on his part maybe he figured it was so simple that anyone who got the book would have been able to find the treasure and he didn’t want to get stuck with a huge quantity of books. Secondly if Collected works is the only place to find the book wouldn’t that be an indicator that it could be the starting point and anyone with the book would be led thru and adventure as they read thru the book. Hints in book could be along the route to the treasure location. Just a thought. Great video.
He didn’t sell the books though. He gave that company in Santa Fe the rights to the book. So they had to sell them. So they were responsible for it? Right? If they did it then ff had no say in when and where it got sold? Idk just a thought