Photo: Netflix
Spoiler alert: This story contains a major twist in the new Netflix series Greed & Gold: The Hunt for Fenn’s Treasure, a docuseries based on the New York Magazine story “The Great 21st-Century Treasure Hunt,” by Benjamin Wallace.
In late summer of 2020, when most people I knew were still keeping their social distance, I attended a gathering of treasure hunters in the town of West Yellowstone, Montana. Very few of them were wearing masks. These were people who’d spent up to ten years looking for a bronze chest hidden somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. It contained, among other things, gold nuggets, a 24-karat-gold bracelet with a dragon head at each end, and a sealed glass olive jar containing the 20,000-word memoir of Santa Fe art dealer Forrest Fenn, the man who’d hidden the treasure. It was thought to be worth at least $1 million.
The hunt had begun in 2010 when Fenn published a poem containing nine clues to the treasure’s location. But now it was over. In June, Fenn had announced that the treasure had been found by an unnamed “man from back East.”
I went to Yellowstone expecting to meet a group of dedicated treasure hounds having one last hurrah, and there was some of that. I heard inspiring stories about families who had reunited through searching and about the hunters coming together to support each other.
But I also found a community struggling with a lot of unanswered questions. Who was the finder? Where had he found the treasure? How had he succeeded where tens of thousands of others had not? What would they do with their lives now? The news was particularly hard for Justin Posey, who had spent 780 days hunting for the treasure and had even trained his vizsla, Tucker, to smell bronze at depths up to four feet.
The saga was also shadowed by accusations that Fenn had played favorites with some female treasure hunters and given them hints that he hadn’t shared publicly. There were lawsuits — at least a half-dozen have been filed — claiming underhandedness of one sort or another. Two months later, Fenn died at age 90, which did nothing to extinguish the controversy.
I chronicled this messy denouement in New York’s article, but the conspiracy theories didn’t abate. Jack Stuef, a medical student and former writer for Wonkette, was eventually revealed as the finder, but he wouldn’t divulge where or how he’d found the treasure, beyond saying that it had been in a “nook,” covered, from the passage of time, by natural debris. Now people wondered whether Stuef and Fenn had been in cahoots somehow.
And Fenn never revealed the location of the treasure beyond saying it was in Wyoming. Adding to the mystery, after the treasure was found, according to Posey, Fenn, on his lawyer’s advice, recorded a video in which he explained each of the nine clues in his puzzle poem. “That is something that, to my knowledge, the Fenn Estate has to this day,” says Posey.
Some of the more fervent treasure hunters have continued to obsess over the unanswered questions. A hunter named Rudy Greene grid-searched Nine Mile Hole, a fishing spot on the Madison River, in Yellowstone National Park, and found what appears to be a very distinctive twig that was present in photos Stuef took when he first found the treasure chest — thereby seeming to pinpoint the precise spot where the chest had been buried. Posey ultimately formed an LLC with partners to privately buy the treasure from Stuef.
The hunt is the subject of a new Netflix documentary, Gold & Greed, which, over three hourlong episodes, tracks a handful of the most dedicated treasure hunters, including Posey. And the series adds a new twist: Posey has now launched his own Fenn-style treasure hunt by publishing a memoir, Beyond the Map’s Edge, with a puzzle poem containing clues to his treasure’s hiding place, and embedding additional clues in his scenes in the documentary without specifying how or where to the producers.
I caught up with him as the documentary release date approached and after he’d watched the series. He was generally thrilled with how it had turned out but was bothered that “it portrays me as single-handedly going out and finding this Nine Hole location, specifically, and there were many more people involved in that. Everything that Rudy Greene did was astounding; I don’t know if it ever would have been found without him.”
You spent, by your calculation, 780 days looking for the Fenn treasure, then someone other than you found it. Did you experience something like postpartum depression?
I mean, there’s certainly the full dynamic range of emotions, and I think that first summer after it had been found, I was feeling a little lost, I guess you could say, but it was a good opportunity to get back into some of the other pastimes I’ve had — mostly fly-fishing.
After Forrest announced that the treasure had been found, a lot of conspiracy theories circulated in the treasure community. One was that Forrest, and later Jack Stuef, lied about when the chest was found. You believe that theory is right.
There were some photos Jack sent to Forrest when the chest was initially found. I think those also came out as part of the court cases. And if you look at the state of the soil and the surrounding vegetation — and I actually talked to some photo-forensic analysts about this — the conditions strongly indicated that it was not June of 2020. It wasn’t that part of the year. It was more late summer to early fall. And also, if you look at the actions that Jack took between the latter part of 2019 and June of 2020, he started the process of establishing residency in Puerto Rico. [Editor’s note: Residents of Puerto Rico are exempt from the U.S. capital-gains tax.] Why would someone preemptively set up residency there when they hadn’t found the treasure?
Why would the timing matter?
I think Jack chose to delay the find date because of tax implications. He wasn’t sure if Forrest would gift the treasure to him. There was an email that came up in litigation in which Jack inquired at least once, “Are you going to gift it to me?” And Forrest was being coy.
To the enormous frustration of treasure hunters who want to know how close they got to finding the treasure, neither Jack Stuef nor the Fenn family have ever revealed the hiding spot, and all we really know is, as Forrest eventually stated, that it was somewhere in Wyoming.
I think there’s enough compelling evidence to say with confidence that Nine Mile Hole is the correct location. There are certain emails that have come out as a function of litigation that strongly suggest that area.
Do you think you’d stood in the location of the treasure before it was found?
The last clue in the poem, “If you’ve been wise and found the blaze, Look quickly down, your quest to cease”: That really was the end all, be all right there. It was the blaze, and I spent an inordinate amount of time when that location was finally established looking at that area and doing some forensic analysis on the surrounding timber and everything. I could not, for the life of me, find anything that would resemble a blaze.
And we still don’t know what the blaze was?
Well, I know someone whom I would trust well enough who has seen the nine-clues video that Forrest filmed, and the blaze clue was one or more notches on a tree. And I think one of two things happened. Either he actually put notches on downed timber that was in the area that disintegrated fairly quickly or was just not noticeable. Or he put the notch on a tree that fell down shortly after he hid it. And the reason I say very shortly is because in 2013 or 2014, somewhere in there, I did a full grid search of Nine Mile Hole, and I feel fairly confident in saying that if there was a blaze on a tree, I would have seen it, and it wasn’t there then.
Isn’t a notch on a tree a fairly ephemeral blaze for Forrest to have used for a hunt he thought could take a thousand years?
It is, and it kind of makes me wonder just how much he wanted that treasure to be found in his lifetime.
So lots of people theoretically might have found the treasure except for the fact that the blaze was missing?
I think the treasure would’ve been found a lot sooner if it had not been buried, or if the blaze was visible. There were a number of searchers who had poked around in the Nine Mile Hole area. The other thing that Forrest really had going for him is that that area in the early years of the search was very accessible, but he knew that there had been a fire there a number of years ago, and he knew that with all the new growth coming up that would all just grow in. Let me tell you, by the later years, like 2018, it was just a sea of waist-high saplings everywhere. It just made it much, much harder to search.
Jack Stuef also hasn’t revealed how he found the treasure.
I don’t think I’ll ever know exactly how he found it. Certainly there was evidence unearthed or found in the Nine Mile Hole area that helped fill in some blanks for me, and at some point, Jack mentioned, I’m paraphrasing, something around him having to use a technology to find this. I think the most likely technology he’d be employing would be a metal detector.
Which isn’t permitted in national parks.
That’s right.
Given what you now believe about how and where the treasure was found, would you have done anything differently in your own search?
It’s a funny question to ask, because in essence what that’s implying is would I have broken the law to find the treasure?
Was it findable without that?
I think there were only two ways to find that treasure. One would be to have a bronze-sniffing dog and the other would be a metal detector.
Given that you did have a bronze-sniffing dog, did you just not go to the right place?
Well, I mean, the issue there is that dogs aren’t allowed outside the parking area. So Tucker spent a lot of time at Nine Mile Hole. He was just in the truck. I mean, it would have been very conspicuous to have a dog crossing the Madison in a very popular area.
You’re a software engineer, but someone might wonder, Where’d you get the kind of money needed to buy the treasure chest?
I don’t come from a wealthy family or anything like that. There was no massive inheritance or much of an inheritance at all for that matter. It was really a function of two main things. One is early investments that I made when I first started out in my career — the stock market — and the other is just working really hard.
You then sold most of the treasure through Heritage Auctions in Dallas.
The struggle that I had at that time was what’s the right thing to do once you have it, especially around that olive jar, which hadn’t been broken. So it’s like, what’s the right path — to open it or preserve it or what? Ultimately, I felt like the right balance was to make sure the vast majority of the contents were distributed to those who were part of the journey.
Did you break even from the amount raised at auction?
All the LLC members made a profit except for me … There’s just a lot of ancillary expenses.
Which items did you keep?
I wanted the treasure chest. I wanted the dragon bracelet. Those were the main two items. And the reason is because the treasure chest, to me, it’s very symbolic for a decade-long journey that was epic in nature. So it felt like something I needed to do. And the dragon bracelet itself, even at that time, I was mulling around the idea of putting a full-fledged treasure hunt together. And that really was the marquee piece of treasure. It was actually way more dazzling to see in person than I could have imagined. So it felt like that was the one to get.
Does the treasure community seem excited about your new hunt?
My original intention was not to announce it until the documentary series airs. Unfortunately, in order to publish a book, you have to have an ISBN, which includes a description. I waited as long as possible to register. Someone found it. Unfortunately, in the description, it has a link to my website. I just had a test page up at that time, so my website started getting pummeled with traffic … People very quickly pieced it together.
What does the treasure you’ve hidden consist of?
I tried to include artifacts from throughout history. There are coins from the Byzantine era, the Buyid dynasty, the Kushan empire, all sorts of different eras. I also included one of the oldest coins ever made by man. It’s from the Lydian empire, around maybe 560/600 BC. And I included one of the coins that I’ve held most near and dear. It’s a 1652 Oak Tree shilling. It’s that “ANDO” edition. [Editor’s note: The edition that includes an engraver’s error that may have been an intentional act of anti-British rebellion.] Years ago I paid around $50,000 for that one coin alone. And there are many, many coins in the treasure. There are loose gemstones: rubies, emeralds, and so on. There are some things I’ve chosen not to divulge. There are multiple kilogram gold bars in the treasure. Just one of the bars is worth whatever the price of gold is, I think probably around $90,000 today. Forrest Fenn’s dragon bracelet. Some of Forrest’s gold flakes and dust, and I think a few of his coins as well — those are the highlights. I wanted it to be something that would be dazzling when someone sees it. I haven’t announced what it’s hidden in — the container — but it will be immediately obvious when someone finds it. There won’t be any doubt. And I think in total the treasure weighs about 60 pounds. There’s also a cryptocurrency wallet in the treasure, and as book sales increase I can send money to that wallet. It’s not the main attraction, but it’s a way to give some transparency to what’s happening here. When the treasure’s found, the finder has a 30-day countdown to get in touch with a steward in order to get the other half of the cryptocurrency wallet. And they also get a legal transference of the treasure. All of the legal paperwork is with the steward.
Is the steward a law firm?
I haven’t divulged who the steward is, mainly because I don’t want someone hassling them.
The Fenn chase went haywire: At least five people died while searching; Forrest’s granddaughter was stalked; someone broke into his home with an ax; Forrest was accused of indiscretions. Why put yourself in that position?
I felt like Forrest was an incredible case study. There were a few things he did that went well, and there were a lot of things he didn’t do. And I think he would’ve done things differently, of course, if he had known what was to come. But I also still think he might’ve hidden the treasure. And I believe there’s a path here to iterate on what he’s done and make it— I don’t know if better is the right word, but safer. And also with some built-in integrity that makes the ending much more palatable.
What have you done differently?
I’ve actually spoken to the vast majority of attorneys who have been involved in litigation and solicited their feedback: if they were to set this up again, what they would have done differently. Also, throughout the treasure hunt, I engaged with some of the top-rated land attorneys in every state and Rocky Mountain range to get input on land designations and so on. And then there are a lot of things I’ve done just with how the hunt is structured. So I have used some mathematical algorithms or cryptography in order to ensure that certain types of claims can be quickly dismissed. For example, if someone were to claim that I hid the treasure at point A and at some point moved it to point B, that actually is not possible. When someone finds the treasure, they will reach out to the steward and they will provide information that conveys the exact location of where the treasure was found, plus what you call a “salt,” or basically a pass phrase. Those two things combined can be run through a cryptographic hash algorithm and the output I have placed in a notarized document. There were several legal documents that constitute this treasure hunt, and all of those have in turn been hashed. And that hash has been placed on X, or Twitter, and the time stamp as well. So what this means is that if anything in the legal documents changes, the hashes won’t match up to what’s on Twitter. And if the wrong location is verified, it will come up with a different cryptographic hash value, which will not match the legal documents. So it’s kind of a chain.
How is your hunt safer than Forrest’s?
I’ve been very clear that you don’t need to do any rappelling or anything dangerous, and there’s no trespassing necessary at all.
Forrest was accused of playing favorites and privately giving hints to this or that treasure hunter.
One of the things that was frustrating from my perspective was information asymmetry. Forrest did a plethora of interviews with all these different outlets, and my gosh, just trying to compile all that and keep it straight, what are the chances? So that’s something I’m keen on getting right from the first day. So if there are interviews that I think will be helpful for searchers, I want to make sure that they’re linked through the website. And then any clarifying information or new hints that come out will be very apparent on the site. So there’s basically one source you go to.
Forrest’s family was harassed; are you concerned about something similar happening to you?
I think it would be naïve to go into an endeavor like this and expect that there would be no downsides. So there were a lot of discussions I had with close family and friends to make sure there was awareness and that people understood the implications of this. I’ve had the benefit of spending multiple years preparing for what’s to come, from multiple angles.
How do you write a poem in which you’ve embedded the clues needed to find the treasure you’ve hidden and make certain that it’s both solvable and not too easily solvable? How do you test the level of difficulty?
It was important to me that this is something that is approachable and something that I think the average person can go and find. It doesn’t take an advanced degree. In fact, it doesn’t take a degree at all. Really what this takes is maybe a little bit of online research and then some time in nature, and if you know where you’re going, not a lot of time at all. But to your point, I designed this in a vacuum. I don’t think anyone’s seen the poem yet. Even editors and everybody involved, the poem was not in the text. The world will see it all together for the first time on the 27th, and it might be something that is found within days. I don’t know.
If it’s found right away, would that be a bummer?
I feel pretty ambivalent about it at this point. Planning this has been a lot of my time and attention. I hope that it lasts for a little while just because the main purpose here is to get people out. I had such a great time over the last ten years searching for it, and I just hope that enough time passes so that someone can get that feeling. But from my perspective, I think it’s going to be something that’s found very quickly, or it’s going to take a while. I don’t think there’s any in between.
Has your opinion of Forrest changed?
I think that a lot of people put Forrest on a pedestal. He was almost some god or something. And he was just a man. And I felt that I was never treating him as more than he was. He made mistakes, but at the core, he created something that I think is very special. And all I can think back on is the experience that I had in that context. I don’t have a different view of him now, no.
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