Postmarks in Forrest Fenn treasure hunt- Hint or Rabbit Hole

[Jenny]

MW takes a look at those Postmarks in Forrest Fenn's thrill of the chase book- Rabbit hole or Subtle hint?

Read on MW: mysteriouswritings.com/the-postmarks-in-forrest-fenns-treasure-hunt-subtle-hint-or-rabbit-hole-in-the-thrill-of-the-chase/

or watch on Video:

[Jenny]

What I find most curious, besides that Postmark on page 51....is those two postmarks which highlight 'West Yellowstone'....

[simpleson]

My goal to keep it simple is to not worry too much about things outside the poem but the postmark of page 51 is an oddity. Liked the video.

[goldilocks]

He used the word "equation" which is interesting because he has used other Math references before. "You can't solve the problem by starting in the middle of the poem", how he flunked math in high school, etc. He says the dates aren't specific to anything but the numbers could be. I've used the method of using anagrams of words "encircled" on the map in TFTW. Instead of encircled however I've looked at the letters the degree lines go through but came up with nothing. It's a reasonable theory because other treasure hunts have used lines to point to letters/numbers to spell out answers to riddles. I don't think it's a rabbit hole, I just haven't figured out how to use them.

[zaphod73491]

Hi Jenny: I think you've done a good job of summarizing the important features of the postmarks. As you point out, on the 12 that you can fully read the date, the days of the week are always incorrect. If you just try to guess the day of the week randomly, the odds of being wrong 12 out of 12 times is about 15.7%. In all likelihood, the correct year for the postmark on page 72 is 1953 (since Dec 27, 1953 is Forrest and Peggy's wedding date). That was a Sunday, so that would make 13 out of 13 incorrect days of the week (13.5% chance). I think the most likely year for the stamp on page 34 is 1893, and July 10th that year was a Monday. So that's 14 wrong out of 14 (11.6%).

Minor correction about 2:40 into your video: should be 1413 North Main, not North Street. This is perhaps the most important postmark stamp since it is the only duplicated stamp, the only one on an odd-numbered page, and (as you noted) the only one that encircles a number rather than letters.

I can't reveal what I believe the big hint is that is hiding in the postmarks, but I will give you a few clues. IMO there is no hint to be found in any individual postmark stamp, nor are the dates important nor the erroneous days of the week. What matters are the words (and/or numbers), which probably comes as no surprise since Forrest chose those, not Susan Caldwell. The final thing I'll say is that the hint that's here is replicated multiple times in multiple ways so that searchers who uncover them will have confidence that it isn't just a case of confirmation bias.

[miracleman]

Zap, you are far too generous with hints! Thankfully, unless you’re in a certain spot this hint doesn’t mean much.

[crm114]

Great video. I do believe there are hints, and that seemingly conflicts with Dal's quote, and even Forrest's statements.

It's odd to me that Susan Caldwell would make some strange creative decisions on her own, particularly the apparent 1893 dates, and the other things you noted. Most of the other years match up fairly well, if I recall correctly, so why do that? Presumably there was some work involved in each one. Did Forrest just say "throw some aberrations in there?"

As Zap points out the wrong days are almost statistically an aberration. If you interpret other fairly illegible dates as 1893 (at least I do), you get even more wrong days, and lower probability of coincidence. This could be done intentionally to imply the story did not happen on the exact day or even year by Caldwell, if Forrest could not remember the years or months. Yet substituting "1930s" instead of say 1893 would be more logical, as she did in some chapters.

Needless to say, I ignore Dal's quote, and try to squeeze out hints.

[zaphod73491]

Crm114: I'm in agreement with Dal on most things Fenn, but depart from him on the ubiquity of hints. I firmly believe Forrest drops hints whenever he possibly can ... like it's a game for him. He has plausible deniability on the postmarks because the postmarks themselves are totally Susan. But I wouldn't for a moment assume Forrest couldn't or wouldn't exploit them. Thus my opinion about the vertical subtitles intersecting those postmarks.

[crm114]

@zap I totally agree that he is a hint opportunist and will drop a clever hint whenever / wherever. I suspect he has gotten bolder about it as time goes along, though I don't think he wants to overshadow TTOTC or accidentally bust it wide open. He probably fills what he thinks might be gaps or he thinks of something so clever he can't resist. He probably focuses on the latter clues since at least some are solving up to maybe Clue 4.

I agree with your interpretation on the postmarks, but even lead towards Jenny's thoughts that he could have slyly suggested edits to the numbers or even done them after the fact. I believe at least one was changed this way.

[zaphod73491]

I keep waiting for Jenny to chime in. She started the conversation and has been silent since.

[Jenny]

(Thanks Zap for the correction...I'll make note of it beneath the video, and in the MW Post)


I mentioned Forrest 'Could' have suggested items (not saying for sure if he did or not).....

Just like maybe he 'Could' have suggested adding the 'tear' on the following illustration to make it look older, but yet have another 'secret' reason?

[van]

I think its a rabbit hole. Don't see no evidence otherwise.

[thetreasurehunter]

The date June 5 xxxx is the only duplicated post mark. The timing of video release is suspicious to when being found.