One chest of gold, five deaths: The search for Forrest Fenn's treasure
CBSN
[This story was previously posted on Dec. 25, 2021.] TOBY YOUNIS | YOUTUBE SHOW: I told you we're not going to be in Yellowstone. The distances didn't work out really well. OFFICER [bodycam video]: So, what the hell is going on? ROBERT MILLER [bodycam video]: Isn't there a treasure? OFFICER [bodycam video]: Did you break the lock? PASTOR PARIS WALLACE'S FINAL SERMON: As you move through life, there are those points where you have to seek God to find out what he wants you to do. BECCA NIES [police interview]: He said he'd swam the river 10 times before … We figured he'd be fine. BECCA NIES [police interview]: He just jumped out … It looked like he made it to the rock, but then we didn't see him anymore and that was right where the rapids would have taken him. OFFICER: I want to know why no one stayed there to tell us this information. 911 OPERATOR: Is anybody injured? TONY DOKOUPIL [reading aloud:] "The treasure has been found … and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago. I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot." JACK STUEF [audio]: … our challenge is to try not to make guesses… It is simple and clear and straightforward … You need simplicity in your solve. TONY DOKOUPLI [reading aloud]: "I am not and was never employed by Forrest, nor did he 'pick' me in any way to 'retrieve' the treasure. I was a stranger to him and found the treasure as he designed it to be found."
In 2010, eccentric millionaire Forrest Fenn launched a treasure hunt when he announced that he had hidden a chest worth an estimated $1 million in the Rocky Mountains. Tens of thousands of people set out to search for the treasure — some of them obsessively. ROBERT MILLER: I thought the poem directed me into here, I thought it said — ZOE OLD | FORREST FENN'S DAUGHTER: I'm sorry? ZOE OLD: No, the glass. BECCA NIES: We were scared. … It's easy in hindsight to see what we should have done but in the moment. We'd never been involved with anything like that. STEVEN INLOW: No. No, we're not injured. Just stuck.
Sacha Dent was captivated by Fenn's challenge. "I really think the greatest thing that drove me was wanting to match wits with the man himself," she says of Fenn, who laid out his treasure hunt challenge in a 24-line poem. OFFICER: Poem? ROBERT MILLER: Isn't there a treasure? ROBERT MILLER: I broke the door. 911 OPERATOR: It looks like I've got a pretty good location on you. I'm going to get you some help headed your way, OK?
