Where Did You Think The Treasure Was? (Submit Your Solution)

[lago]

My solution was near Wise Montana. The blaze was a horse blaze as visible in satellite imagery of the area. A stretch I know, but there was an actual home of Brown near the put in.

[wendell]

I think warm Waters halt was the Yellowstone border that is pictured on page 106 of Fenn's most recent book 'Once upon Awhile'. You can go in and out of Yellowstone without anyone knowing. Canyon down is the Gallatin Canyon. If HOB was the base of Cinnamon MT, I'm gonna have some sleepless nights for sure! Wendell (27 trips to Yellowstone).

[wendell]

Our 3 other 'solves' were wwh Old faithful, take a right canyon down (I believe it reads 'Canyon 42 miles') Go 10 miles to Nez Pierce where the brown trout were introduced in 1890, Ever nigh take a right under the power lines that cross the Firestone (We did this 9 times which totals 18 crossings) Walk about 200 feet under the lines (Heavy loads of electricity) And you'll be standing in high water table, There is what seems to be a cave (With Lichen Rocks all over) about 200 feet away,look down.

2) wwh Old Faithful, canyon down the same, HOB about a mile to Daisy turn out (We thought that Tyler Grafton Brown may have camped there while painting his Geysers) No place for meek (Go on path with all sorts of warnings) Ever nigh take a left in 2000 feet, A weak stream runs across the field thats about 100 feet across.    If you look up the hill, right above the 'skull like' rock formation you'll see the steam from a huge thermal pool intersects with the power lines (For heavy loads and water high) Blaze was a 'thumb like Lichen rock at the edge of the 'Fish heavy' Little Firehole. We thought Forrest would love that place!

3)The other place that this solve works is at Boulder Springs near Ojo Caliente (The steam crosses the Power Lines making an 'X')

Wendell and Ronny (27 trips to the Yellowstone area)

[firesnake]

Wow 27 trips wendell, that’s impressive - do you live nearby?

It’s good to see someone else have power lines as part of their solves. There must be something to all the shocking, loads, lightning etc references.

I have to take the kids to Yellowstone when they’re a little older. I’ll recount my tale as a budding treasure hunter from the old land that just needed one shot (but in reality would have needed many, many more).

[huskylover]

Well, my sister and I believe the treasure chest was located somewhere on the Nine Mile Creek in Aqua Fria, NM (9 clues & Aqua Fria means cold water). Not far from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Museum(aka The Peace Museum). Home of Brown was a clue for Eagles Nest Lake, home of the Brown Trout. “Not too far, but too far to walk” meant he flew his plane to Colby Airport , Angel Fire, NM. Angel Fire is the Blaze he’s referring to. The Nine Mile Creek is right by Colby Airport and runs to Eagles Nest Lake. In some parts, the creek is dried up, meaning you wouldn’t need a paddle. “No place for the Meek” is the Vietnam Memorial Museum. We believe he flew his treasure chest on the plane to Colby Airport, Angel Fire, NM, walked to the nine mile creek and hid it where you could see may the Vietnam Memorial Museum or it’s “eternal flame”. That’s our guess, but we feel that the Vietnam War had too much impact on his life that it must play a role in the treasure spot. Just our guess, anybody agree?

[ironwill]

Jun 8, 2020 13:04:51 GMT -5 passenger said:

IRON WILL -- This one is for you, as you are one of the originals. You were correct about drinking beer.... "AL". It's all about beer folks. BAD BEER.

-passenger

Thanks! I appreciate it.  I cannot really drink my tears away yet...still working the length of my 7 nights of 12 hr shifts.  But Wednesday morning, its on!  lol

[jeffk]

I never finished my solves but it involved moving words in the poem as poem said to it and put in etc etc,  and using your thumb at a distance to cover up some of the letters, As far as I ever got was walk down Brown canyon 2 of 4.

The other was using a map and based on wwwh and the home of brown to be lined up with the edges of your thumb and the tip of your thumb would put you close then you would have boots on the ground for the rest of the solve.   But there were so many different interpretations of each of those.

[dn01]

I think everyone at MJ didn’t listen to the book. It was up the canyon in elevation, down the canyon in reference to the map.

Not far to far to walk. Tomorrow or as in book to-morrow.

Home of Brown, porcupine. (Google kerosene and the type of wax Forrest used)

No place for meek, the saddle. ( Geographical saddle)

The blaze was in the book, look for it in the trees behind Donnie.

Pretty easy from here and why he won’t release the info.

[wendell]

Jun 8, 2020 15:40:36 GMT -5 firesnake said:

Wow 27 trips wendell, that’s impressive - do you live nearby?

It’s good to see someone else have power lines as part of their solves. There must be something to all the shocking, loads, lightning etc references.

I have to take the kids to Yellowstone when they’re a little older. I’ll recount my tale as a budding treasure hunter from the old land that just needed one shot (but in reality would have needed many, many more).

[wendell]

Jun 8, 2020 15:40:36 GMT -5 firesnake said:

Wow 27 trips wendell, that’s impressive - do you live nearby?

It’s good to see someone else have power lines as part of their solves. There must be something to all the shocking, loads, lightning etc references.

I have to take the kids to Yellowstone when they’re a little older. I’ll recount my tale as a budding treasure hunter from the old land that just needed one shot (but in reality would have needed many, many more).

[flyjack]

"under a canopy of stars"

It sounds like the Madison Amphtheater "STARS OVER YELLOWSTONE" night viewing program since 1999.

Located at the Madison Junction in Yellowstone National Park

They even say "bring a flashlight" Fenn said "take a flashlight"

www.yellowstone.co/ranger/startalks.htm


Heavy loads water high = gage on river right there measures flow and height..


other clues lead to this area..


My guess, it is was around Madison junction, perhaps in the campground, maybe lot #9.

[cuppajoe]

First time poster. Thanks Ironwill for providing a blotter to soak up the tear stained final confessions of soul sick searchers. I have a solve and supporting quotes and info that could fill a small volume. I was about to go confidently...
...albeit with the knowledge that every other confident searcher (until now) has been a deluded dude or dudette. Why should I be any different?
I don't think anyone is in the mood for voluminous detail, so I'll post an abbreviated version of my obsession.
My spot is on the bluffs north the lowest pool on Slough Creek's first meadow.
My solve starts by riding the backwards bike to the fifth stanza. I think the solution starts with the answer(s) to the question in the poem, but backwards bike tells us to reorganize how we process the information. I think considering the rhyming couplet:
"why is it that I must go
the answers I already know"
gets you started. If you Google every line of Fenn's poem you get almost exclusively Fenn references. Except these two lines. The first results in mostly references to John Muir's famous quote "The mountains are calling and I must go" I believe this was Forrest's intent and completely in keeping with the theme of The Chase. So the answer to why is it that I must go?, is because the mountains are calling. The answers Forrest already knows? Again, the mountains. He knows the peaks as a pilot, the valleys and streams as a fisherman and the trails as a collector of artifacts. So the keyword is mountains- a word he uses every time he speaks of the chase. The word in the poem of more importance is "answers" as that leads to the keyword. The phrase "the mountains were calling" appears in TTOC in reference to the Fenn's move to Santa Fe. This seems to support this interpretation.
Using the keyword "mountains" to solve for WWWH results in a most interesting result in NE Yellowstone. There is a circumscribed area where every line in stanzas 6 and 1 can be ascribed to geographical features, mostly mountain peaks. Every non-hydrologic feature that pops up in Google Earth is referenced by the poem in that circumscribed area. The first two, from "hear me all and listen good" are the peaks The Thunderer and Amphitheater Mountain. The mountains are calling!
Once you identify all the geographical features they can be connected with lines. Three separate lines converge on the bluffs above the lower pool on Slough Creek's first meadow. Two of those lines actually connect three different peaks including the home of Brown- Bison Peak.
Once you start adding in the directional clues in stanzas 2-4 there are two more lines to be drawn from points referenced. Both cross those same bluffs.
I believe WWWH is the NE Entrance Station on 212 (212 halts and our skin covered sacks of warm water also halt). From there too far to walk is 24.2 miles to the Slough Creek Trail. From that parking lot the rest of the clues fall into place with a few more peaks referenced.
Have you watched the Slough Creek video? I could write a dissertation on that one. Forrest was as nervous as a cat in a pit bull kennel. He gave off so many tells it makes a poker players head spin. The stories he told varied from improbable to impossible. For starters, there are no bullfrogs in Yellowstone. Nor any other frogs you can catch or eat in that drainage. He forgot all about the coonskin hat part of the story, even though he hinted years ago on this site that that was the purpose of the story. Instead we get a shoe lost in quicksand? And a moose that falls asleep after treeing Forrest? An agitated animal just falls asleep? That doesn't seem plausible. It makes no sense; frog legs, sleeping moose with giant antlers, a right shoe, a coonskin cap. Until you look closely at Google Earth. And find all those things surrounding, or incorporating, a little bluff, just north of the bottom pool on Slough Creek's first meadow. 
Did you know that Slough Creek has four meadows? Forrest did fly fish there. Four meadowlarks and a scissortail  anyone? A scissortail, by the way, is a flycatcher.
Gad I hope I'm wrong. I was so close before I came up with the keyword and the crossing lines. As I crossed the creek the last time with my daughter's hand in mine I looked back at those bluffs and noticed a prominent small spire I hadn't seen before, a couple hundred feet from the cliff base. Little spikes jutting up on the sides. It looked, for all the world, like a perched owl. 
But it was late, there were hikers just across the meadow. I almost went back. Then convinced myself that Forrest wouldn't hide the box half a mile from a ranger outpost you could see from the bluff.
Within a few months of being home I'd crossed the lines, found the images referenced in the video and Forrest had spilled that "tarry scant" meant get the heck out of there. Sheesh. I hope I was in the wrong state and just swimming in a toxic brew of confirmation bias swill. I hope I find that out. 
We caught some lovely Yellowstone cutthroat trout. I'm going to try to focus on that as that damn owl stares me down every night. Cheers everyone!

[goldilocks]

Why is everyone outing their solutions? Shouldn't you wait for the all clear, a solid visual or evidence of some kind? I know Forrest's word should be enough but somehow in the back of my mind I am reminded that this is a mystery that has gone on for years - it wouldn't feel right if it didn't end with some sort of twist...that's what my fantastical mind is hoping for anyway - a plot twist! What if the finder announces he has left the treasure in it's place for the next finder...maybe the thrill was enough for him and he wasn't interested in the chest. You just never know...

[nkown]

www2.usafa.org/Heritage/CarillonBells

I believe that that is the blaze...

Topped by Polaris -- the north star. Overlooking ff's resting place. Deadman's creek nearby (no paddle up your creek). Parade Loop Road at the entrance (my hit parade). Falcon trail on other side (no human trail, mummy falcon). Golf course just steps to the south hosted Sneed and Demeret in a match in 1966 (like SB). General Hap Arnold near the chapel statue was made by Glenna (General solve). Pinion road. 411 Drive (information please). Stanley Canyon (Marcus Stanley SB). Doolittle Hall (2 SB's). 8.25 miles exactly from Arnold statue to the north lies the trailhead of the Sante Fe trail (66k links north of sante fe from Forrwst Fenn... e for w, n for s).

To the south is Woodmen Road, named for the Benevolent Woodmen's Society who built Gardiner's sanitarium at the property... and whose logo is an axe, dove, and stump. Different than Ahab's Gardiner but a Gardiner nonetheless.

The Verdin company made the bells which were privately commissioned and donated. Verdin is mentioned in HoD comments. Fenn loves bells.

The carillon was moved in 2002 and dedicated in 2012. It plays a song... we will remember them... that is mentioned on HoD in comments. It is his bell tower that sits 100 yards off of his home in 100 years -- just like the SB says. It is indeed an indulgence... he will be serenaded for eternity there next to his hero, Oldes.

It is the perfect location to hide the chest, sepulchered in a bronze behind a clever mechanism. Guarded 24/7 in plain site but hidden. And yet still accessible to the public. It might be wiped out by WWIII as FF cryptically mentioned last year as the USAFA would certainly be a target. Or perhaps it sat under the tree just above the carillon cast by a shadow on the solstice, as the carillon was placed perfectly on an east / west axis in such a way that the shadow lines up in a perfectly straight line on that day only. Check it out using the Photographer's Ephemerus app. also mentioned on HoD discretely and quite useful.

Just as SB107 says, Mr. U Puceet... Up you see it. If you start at Florence, CO and fly at a heading of 192.1 as it suggests on the envelope exactly you hit Double Eagle waypoint. Fenn was a pilot. However, there is nothing below that waypoint and the pen points in the opposite direction. The reciprocal direction is 192.1-180... 12.1. So go in a straight line in the opposite direction and you hit the USAFA exactly. Mind you, on the date of the posting... you now need to adjust for magnetic changes as the map suggests.

The hiding of the treasure could be titled The Last Flight of Forrest Fenn. He flew from one favorite place to another... alone. Got in a sedan and drove from the FBO nearby to the USAFA, parked and opened the hiding place that he created years earlier and simply put the chest in place.

There is a wonderful, tall flag pole nearby. Angels wings at the entrance. And an eternal flame that is lit when one is laid to rest there... that looks suspiciously like the flame picture of Fenn and his feet at his banco.

I did a few sneaky (email) things (digitally) when sending this information to Mr. Fenn as I discovered it. And in turn I'm pretty convinced that he enjoyed these emails. As a result, I'm also convinced that he was not alone in creating this magnificent puzzle.

I do hope that the solution is revealed. While I made great progress with many sub-puzzles in the SB's, the final poem solution eluded me. What I had there was a series of mirrored letters (as suggested by the preface to the book, no place for Biddies (b's and d's), and several SB's... combined with skipping (Skippy) by Pi (1314 Main street, brother being skipppy, Pie caper, etc.).

In any event, if it is not nearby the USAFA then at a minimum that is a crucial waypoint. 38 direct mentions to the place by name or obvious inference. Look around on a map... if you know the puzzle well, more will pop out instantly.

[nkown]

Jun 9, 2020 8:56:11 GMT -5 goldilocks said:

Why is everyone outing their solutions? Shouldn't you wait for the all clear, a solid visual or evidence of some kind? I know Forrest's word should be enough but somehow in the back of my mind I am reminded that this is a mystery that has gone on for years - it wouldn't feel right if it didn't end with some sort of twist...that's what my fantastical mind is hoping for anyway - a plot twist! What if the finder announces he has left the treasure in it's place for the next finder...maybe the thrill was enough for him and he wasn't interested in the chest. You just never know...

You can see my solution in a post nearby... and honestly, I care more now about closure than personally finding it.

I also believe I am correct... there are just too many pointers to that spot and that blaze.  Dozens. And it makes logical sense too.

Part of me wants to believe that FF realizes that the chest cannot be retrieved now or in the near future, so he wanted to 'out' the solutions.  If I am correct it would be very difficult at the moment... since late March... to retrieve the chest.  And so perhaps he is saying that the 'chest is found' but that could mean it was not retrieved.  One can hope.

In any event... it feels 'over' regardless.