The modern mystery of Fenn’s treasure
After hiding treasure valued at $2 million somewhere in the American wilderness, former art dealer Forrest Fenn sparked off a wave of national and international hysteria.
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In 2010, ex-art dealer Forrest Fenn caught the imagination of a nation when he launched a modern-day treasure hunt. After hiding a treasure chest valued at around $2 million somewhere north of Santa Fe in New Mexico, Fenn penned a 24-line poem containing clues to its whereabouts and sat back to let the fun commence.
Once word got around about the hunt and its prize, hundreds of thousands of people got involved, with several even losing their lives in pursuit of the treasure. Finally, after almost 10 years of fruitless searching, it was announced that Fenn’s treasure had been found… but the controversy didn’t stop there.
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Who was Forrest Fenn?
A native of New Mexico, Forrest Fenn was a highly successful art dealer who counted among his clients such prestigious names as Ralph Lauren and Michael Douglas. Through the years, Fenn amassed an impressive collection of antiques, riches and valuable knick-knacks.
In 1988, Fenn was diagnosed with cancer of the kidney. Convinced he would not survive, he procured a 12th-century Romanesque chest and filled it with precious items from his collection. He then devised a devilishly difficult poem containing clues to the chest’s whereabouts and planned to lay down beside it in his chosen location to die. Whoever found the grave would be welcome to rob it.
However, Fenn managed to beat cancer. Undeterred, he went ahead with the plan, thus sparking one of the world’s greatest treasure mysteries of all time.
The hunt gathers momentum
The first two years of the hunt passed in relative anonymity, but after news of it was relayed on the Today show in 2012, things quickly snowballed. One major attraction of the hunt was how involved Fenn remained in it, interacting with searchers and responding to emails.
By 2016, Fenn estimated that some 100,000 people were participating; just two years later, that number had swelled to over 350,000. Whole communities sprang up around the hunt, with searchers exchanging theories and positing possible solves, as well as sharing their experiences. Many people devoted thousands of hours of their life to trying to find the cache.
Indeed, more than one person took things too far. At least five people died in the search, leading Fenn to issue clues as to the chest’s whereabouts intended to dissuade people from reckless acts. The New Mexico State Police Chief even publicly called for Fenn to call the whole thing off, but after much consideration he refused to do so, saying he didn’t think it would achieve anything.
Mystery solved… but questions remain
Eventually, in 2020 – almost a decade after the hunt began – Fenn announced that his chest would not join other incredible lost treasures from history because it had been finally found. After posting pictures of himself with the open box, Fenn said that the finder did not wish for his own identity to be revealed and that the pair had agreed that the location should remain a secret to preserve its sanctity, too.
This did not go down well with the online community. Before long, accusations of fraud were levelled at Fenn, as searchers claimed that the entire thing had been a hoax. After Fenn died of natural causes in September 2020 at the age of 90, the finder wrote an anonymous post on Medium explaining the reasons for his refusal to disclose his identity or the location of his discovery.
However, things didn’t end there. More than one disgruntled searcher attempted to mount court cases against the finder, eventually forcing him to come clean about his name since it would be a matter of public record regardless. It was at this point that the world learned Fenn’s treasure had been found by a medical student named Jack Stuef.
What next?
Stuef claimed that he had amassed significant debts from medical school, but had realised that he did not wish to pursue a career in that field. Therefore, selling the treasure would allow him to pay off his dues and embark on a new career path.
He duly did so in 2022, parting ways with the majority of the treasure at auction for a total fee of $1.3 million. It’s believed that a consortium of fans bought the treasure, although to what end is not known. The likeliest outcome is that they simply wanted a keepsake of what was an all-consuming chapter of their lives… but rumours persist that another treasure hunt is in the offing.
Will the buyers of the Fenn treasure honour his spirit and let his legend live on by devising their own puzzle for the masses to solve? Only time will tell, so watch this space…
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