Fenn himself has gone back for a new printing. As of this writing, Amazon listed one copy left for sale, $45, and other sites advertised “used” volumes for three times as much. The appearance set off a Fenn frenzy, crashing his personal website and creating a run on his book, which until now had been a marginalized curiosity, sold through a single independent book store in Santa Fe. This week Fenn appeared on The Today Show, and NBC Nightly News touting the treasure hunt, and reigniting the search for his gold. After my piece was published-dubbing Fenn “The Real Indiana Jones”-the cagey collector says he turned down a string of broadcast hits, and soon enough his book faded. They raided his house in 2009, and the case remains open today, according to the FBI and the U.S. Yes, Uncle Sam was on the story as well, pursuing Fenn as a person of interest in a multi-state investigation into grave-robbing and artifact theft in the Southwest. I buttressed all this with more than a dozen of interviews of my own, tracking down some of Fenn’s old friends and business partners, former members of law enforcement, and churning through hundreds of far-flung documents: press clips, old books, and federal records. He also introduced me to his family, toured me around his gallery, and taught me to dig at the historic pueblo he owns outside of town.
Last summer, I profiled Forrest Fenn, the quixotic author of The Thrill of the Chase, who walked me through his decision to secret a chest of gold, jewels, and precious artifacts into the mountains “north of Santa Fe.” He peppered his memoir with clues to the location-including coded directions in a 24-line poem that ends: “So hear me all and listen good,/Your effort will be worth the cold./If you are brave and in the wood/I give you title to the gold.”īut in our days of conversation, he inevitably shared a few more, passing along unpublished autobiographical writings, old newspaper clippings, and copies of prior self-published books, all of which contain personal elements. What gives? Oh, nothing … just a million-dollar marketing gambit, involving an amazing race for hidden treasure and the biggest grave-robbing case of all time. It peaked at number 15 on Tuesday night, trading places with Fifty Shades of Grey and The Perks of Being a Wall Flower, among other hits of the nightstand. Yet The Thrill of the Chase-a silm, episodic memoir self-published by a white-haired retiree in Santa Fe-is now in the upper third of the Amazon 100 List, surpassing books by George Saunders, Laura Hillenbrand, and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Fenn reconfirmed searchers have been within 200 feet (60 m) of the treasure and many within 500 feet (150 m).One of the best selling books in America right now is old, expensive, and as recently as Monday couldn’t outsell a history of library subject headings. In May 2017, Fenn was asked: "Has anyone determined the nine clues and what they represent?" and his response was: "I don't know that anybody has told me the clues in the right order", leading to speculation that all of the clues have been solved, but the chest remains hidden. As of July 2017, Fenn has stated "The treasure remains where I hid it about 7 years ago". When asked why he created the treasure hunt, Fenn said he "just wanted to give people some hope."Īccording to Hunter Fenn, many people have claimed to have found the treasure, but no one has provided any evidence to him supporting their claim. Fenn has said he is going to go back and get it when the value is inflated to 10 million dollars. Many people believe that the treasure is located in Yellowstone. The Fenn Treasure is a treasure reportedly worth over a million dollars supposedly hidden by art dealer and author Forrest Fenn in the Rocky Mountains.