Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2020 16:31:03 GMT -5
Forrest Fenn seems to be an honorable and honest man and I am eternally grateful to him for having created this fun treasure hunt which was pretty much free, he didnt make any money of it. Even if I didnt find the treasure I had much excitement and it took me outdoors several times.
Having said that, I also think it would be fair of him to reveal the correct solution to the clues, so we get some closure. I am hoping to hear that it was NOT in Sphinx Creek by the zip code border, nor by the wilderness border north of the river by Gardiner/Jardine, because that is where I was going to search in a few weeks. Or even if it was, it always feels better to have some closure, then I could begin to mentally accept the fact that I was right and that is a good thing even if I didnt find the treasure.
Revealing the solution would hardly cost Fenn anything, would it. So why then is he hinting he will not reveal it? I have thought about this and can only find the following explanations. Not all are likely but I list them all for completion.
1. People have been arguing that "no he could not reveal the location, then people could trace the finder and he must remain anonymous!" which seems to be the official excuse. I have NO interest in knowing the identity of the finder. It would be completely possible to reveal the solution without giving away the finder. He didnt even need to pinpoint the EXACT location.
2. Fenns solve was so much worse than many of the better solves made available, that he is embarrassed, and fears that learning the correct solve would anger people who have spent so much time on solving it.
3. Fenn recently learned that someone had taken the treasure a long time ago, and was embarrassed that he had said all these years he firmly believes it is still out there.
4. Fenn grew tired of the treasure hunt and took it back for himself, but doesnt want to tell us. (Which is fine to do, as long as he said he might do that before people joined and invested thousands of hours. All he has said was that he might take it back if its value grew over a million, and it hasnt)
5. Fenn never placed the treasure out in the wild.
After all he could have accomplished the same hype by just saying it was out there. We have ZERO proof he did, not even the forewords by Douglas Preston included him vouching for the belief it was hidden, all he said was that he saw the chest once and then another time he saw the vault with zero chest in it. Which does not prove much! Why not a snapshot of the chest out in the wild, a close up that would not reveal the location? All we have seen are dark studio photos. It appears that he was so careful with the treasure he didnt even want to bring it out of the climate controlled room for photos. Are we really to believe he all of a sudden took it out and had everything exposed to the elements?
It might be just a stunt to transfer his wealth to his heirs without having to pay inheritance tax, or just to file a loss to lower his taxable income. After all, why would such an old man with a cancer scare suddenly offer a treasure to strangers, most people in that type of situation would want to either spend it or to "buy" the love of relatives.
6. It was on private or government land and if it was made public where it was hidden, the land owner might claim it.
Having read the law about land owners taking ownership of "abandoned property" I find it unlikely, but sure, maybe Fenn wants to leave that decision to the finder. Ok I could buy that explanation, but then at least tell us the solutions to the first clues then. We dont need to know what the land ownership was.
I have participated in probably 10-30 treasure hunts in my life and my experience is that it is always the treasure hunts where the solution is not given, that is also suspicious in other ways. Why wouldnt Fenn want to avoid speculation and have a clean closure to this masterpiece?
These are all legit questions, I am not accusing Mr Fenn of anything and I hope he WILL tell us the correct solution eventually. At least where the warm waters halt and maybe the home of Brown and what the solution to the meek clue was. There is a saying in Swedish that goes "har man tagit fan i båten får man ro honom i land" (if you offered the devil a ride in your boat, you gotta take him all the way to shore), the point being that sure, the treasure hunt was free but that actually doesnt give Fenn unlimited moral rights to hijack the treasure hunt because the fact that we have been led to invest our time in this project, we the searchers are stakeholders too. It was natural to assume the transparency of revealing the correct solution (assuming Fenn was alive, of course), and if that wasnt the case then Fenn should have been clearer that this might not be the case. And no, I do NOT agree with many of the entitled millennials (?) who have been complaining at Mr Fenn and even taking him to court, and (up until now) I have never believed those who said the treasure was fake.
Having said that, I also think it would be fair of him to reveal the correct solution to the clues, so we get some closure. I am hoping to hear that it was NOT in Sphinx Creek by the zip code border, nor by the wilderness border north of the river by Gardiner/Jardine, because that is where I was going to search in a few weeks. Or even if it was, it always feels better to have some closure, then I could begin to mentally accept the fact that I was right and that is a good thing even if I didnt find the treasure.
Revealing the solution would hardly cost Fenn anything, would it. So why then is he hinting he will not reveal it? I have thought about this and can only find the following explanations. Not all are likely but I list them all for completion.
1. People have been arguing that "no he could not reveal the location, then people could trace the finder and he must remain anonymous!" which seems to be the official excuse. I have NO interest in knowing the identity of the finder. It would be completely possible to reveal the solution without giving away the finder. He didnt even need to pinpoint the EXACT location.
2. Fenns solve was so much worse than many of the better solves made available, that he is embarrassed, and fears that learning the correct solve would anger people who have spent so much time on solving it.
3. Fenn recently learned that someone had taken the treasure a long time ago, and was embarrassed that he had said all these years he firmly believes it is still out there.
4. Fenn grew tired of the treasure hunt and took it back for himself, but doesnt want to tell us. (Which is fine to do, as long as he said he might do that before people joined and invested thousands of hours. All he has said was that he might take it back if its value grew over a million, and it hasnt)
5. Fenn never placed the treasure out in the wild.
After all he could have accomplished the same hype by just saying it was out there. We have ZERO proof he did, not even the forewords by Douglas Preston included him vouching for the belief it was hidden, all he said was that he saw the chest once and then another time he saw the vault with zero chest in it. Which does not prove much! Why not a snapshot of the chest out in the wild, a close up that would not reveal the location? All we have seen are dark studio photos. It appears that he was so careful with the treasure he didnt even want to bring it out of the climate controlled room for photos. Are we really to believe he all of a sudden took it out and had everything exposed to the elements?
It might be just a stunt to transfer his wealth to his heirs without having to pay inheritance tax, or just to file a loss to lower his taxable income. After all, why would such an old man with a cancer scare suddenly offer a treasure to strangers, most people in that type of situation would want to either spend it or to "buy" the love of relatives.
6. It was on private or government land and if it was made public where it was hidden, the land owner might claim it.
Having read the law about land owners taking ownership of "abandoned property" I find it unlikely, but sure, maybe Fenn wants to leave that decision to the finder. Ok I could buy that explanation, but then at least tell us the solutions to the first clues then. We dont need to know what the land ownership was.
I have participated in probably 10-30 treasure hunts in my life and my experience is that it is always the treasure hunts where the solution is not given, that is also suspicious in other ways. Why wouldnt Fenn want to avoid speculation and have a clean closure to this masterpiece?
These are all legit questions, I am not accusing Mr Fenn of anything and I hope he WILL tell us the correct solution eventually. At least where the warm waters halt and maybe the home of Brown and what the solution to the meek clue was. There is a saying in Swedish that goes "har man tagit fan i båten får man ro honom i land" (if you offered the devil a ride in your boat, you gotta take him all the way to shore), the point being that sure, the treasure hunt was free but that actually doesnt give Fenn unlimited moral rights to hijack the treasure hunt because the fact that we have been led to invest our time in this project, we the searchers are stakeholders too. It was natural to assume the transparency of revealing the correct solution (assuming Fenn was alive, of course), and if that wasnt the case then Fenn should have been clearer that this might not be the case. And no, I do NOT agree with many of the entitled millennials (?) who have been complaining at Mr Fenn and even taking him to court, and (up until now) I have never believed those who said the treasure was fake.
