Post by mark on Jun 19, 2020 4:43:52 GMT -5
My name is Mark Roberts and posted this 12;09 Pacific time 6/19/20/20
We worked on this for over 7 years, making our yearly pilgrimage to the Rockies, which included myself, my son, and brother in law. We started near Yellowstone and through the years we gradually worked our way east toward Montana. The big breakthrough came when I realized that the song Forrest's cohorts sang around the campfire. "Bolder and Bolder" was referring to the two Bolder Rivers that is also the area where, "And a River Ran Through It",was filmed and vaguely referenced to Robert Redford in Forrest book.The WWWH is a defunct hot springs at the resort near Mcgreagor. "Take It In the Canyon Down" is oriented north and south but the creek that flows out of the mountains actually flows from the north. The road out of the town of Big Timber takes you up into the mountains to the abandoned mining area and town of Independence, Montana. This is where it gets interesting...
The whole idea is Forrest trying to get you into the Independence mining area. Remember when the old wagon that Forrest featured front and center? One of his scrapbooks referenced that it traveled all the way from Independence, Missouri. Along the River you follow to Independence you pass a large protected beaver dam, which is the home of Brown (beavers). The campground is called. Big Beaver".The River was once called,"BIG B" River with a capital B. Remember when Fenn stained his, "Tail" brown when he came down the fire escape? Home of Brown. "Not far but to far to walk" means you are using mechanized transportation, it is quite a few miles going up into the mountains to Independence. There's also a Creek along the road named, "UPSIDE DOWN CREEK", remember Skippy's favorite desert? The sign actually hangs upside down!
I think , "no place for the meek" refers to a horse corral at the ranger station where the box canyon also is. A corral is no place for a meek horse. Also could refer to the extremely rough road from here on out. Lots of Jeeps and lifted vehicles.
Remember when Forrest took an absurd amount of photos of his bathroom? Especially his sink? That's also the name of the little trickle of a stream you drive up, and in no way you could paddle...SINK CREEK.
Forresrt had many ways to to hint at the same place. I found a mining site online that gives you a map and underlying names of Mines all over the states. Here are the names of some of the mines in the Independence area: Hidden Treasure, Daisy (remember the story on the Daisy BB gun?) and the Omega mine. My favorite is Blue Moon Mine, which is made famous with the old Greyhound Bus with the guy that gave Forrest change for his bus fare... with "BLUE MOON" in tiny letters on the front of the bus for the destination....all aboard!
There's so many layers Forrest put in his books and stories, I'll try to get to the directions to the treasure. I actually had this solution figured out last October but snow had come. This year we were going in August as we always did but heard the news too late that it was found.
Now the road that goes through Independence winds around and finally drops down to BLUE LAKE (Forrest's favorite color- blue jeans, blue shirt, blue bracelet, blue jeans and Hush Puppies There is a barrier at Blue Lake that is marked as going into wilderness, no vehicles allowed, hence the shadow picture of Forrest on the cover of the second book holding a staff, you're at the wilderness boundary, HALT". It's right by the parking lot for motorized vehicles. So this is Forrest's secret place, a place high in the mountains with lofty peaks all around and a green meadow leading down to the water, absolutely idyllic...
So where was the chest? Remember Forrest's scrapbook on the bombed out WW1 road where he said, "STAY ON THE ROAD" ? That is the road down to Blue Lake.
Now the key to cracking the puzzle is something that was right in front of our noses....eyes and eye glasses. Notice how many times he mentioned seeing, glasses, eyes, in all his writings. Check out the two books where one is full of people wearing glasses and the other having hardly any. He's trying to draw attention to eyes. Reference his father's hat that is full of eyes, check the books and scrapbooks, tons of attention to eyes. How does this apply to the solve? On Google Earth the road shows nicely going down to the lake...about over half way down, I think, is a figure in the road that looks like a pair of glasses (use your imagination) that was made by the peculiarity of vehicles making that turn. I know, it looks like it would wash out or change shape over time, but it lasted long enough for the finder to find it. THAT is the ever-loving and world famous BLAZE. When you stand on that blaze and look east toward a large juniper tree (Forrest mentions regularly). It's close to being the same distance from the road at that spot to the tree, about 200 feet which is also close to the distance that Forrest was lifted up in the helicopter, remember he felt "umbilically" attached to that area? So I believe if one took a metal detector and swept under that tree and/or climbed on your stomach (maybe as in the gypsy drawing when Forrest was on his belly under the wagon?
We had our time slot set for mid August but we didn't get out there first and lost the prize. There was so many things we found and not mentioned (or forgot about) in Fenn's puzzle, but our team had a famously good time and would do it again in a heart beat.
We showed the solve as we know many people would like to know where it was. This outline is just enough to get you to the spot with many side diversions but all roughly lead in the same direction.....from the town of Big Timber you can just turn on your GPS as the town of Independence shows up on GPS. Then it's through the mining area and over the hill to Blue Lake. Beautiful county, you'll see why it was Fenn's favorite spot.
Mark Roberts
Benton City, WA
