The 9 and 'I'

[indigojones]

To me this was a big clue to understanding the ending solution.  I discovered that Forrest allies numbers to letters and vice versa I looked closely at the poem and noticed there were 5 capital 'I's in the poem verses that are on their own, not part of another word. They appear in Stanzas 1, 5, and 6. The letter 'I' is 9 in the alphabet.

So what I am suggesting to you is to replace each of these letter 'I's with 9 and read these three verses 1, 5 and 6 reading nine instead of 'I' as below:

Stanza 1
"As 9 have gone alone in there
And with my treasures bold
9 can keep my secret 'W' here
And hint of riches new and old"

Stanza 5
"So why is it that 9 must go
And leave my trove for all to seek
The answers 9 already know
I've done it tired and now I'm weak

Stanza 6
"So hear me all and listen good
Your effort will be worth the cold
If you are brave and in the wood
9 give you title to the gold"......................................'TREASURES'

Now you could argue that the 9 relates to the nine clues, however I believe it relates to the word 'Treasures' written bold within a circle, in this case the Zodiac circle. Doing so correctly suggests to me that the word 'Treasures' itself solves the puzzle at the end as I have shown.

Remember that prior to the poem beginning he refers to "the end of my rainbow and the treasure" where the word is singular. Within the poem however he mentions 'Treasures' plural which to me says that there are possibly two treasures to find. The first is in the middle of the Zodiac circle which is the cistern. The second location is revealed within the first one.

This supports my belief that the treasure in the circle was the Silver bracelet. It is not shown in the chest. Forrest is shown wearing the bracelet and says it was wet when found. The circle the puzzle led me to gets wet. Forrest separates the two. His comment "It was under a canopy of stars" I believe relates to being in the circle I was led to which was about seven feet in depth. If you were to dig in the middle of it you would be under a canopy of stars, namely the Zodiac circle above you.
"Within the lush forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains" would relate to the actual location of the chest itself hidden in a pine forest, probably very close by. This concludes my solution and all I discovered on the way to its end.

Forrest did say it was difficult but not impossible.

indigo

[indigojones]

To explain what I meant by Forrest using letters to numbers and vice versa at the start of the above post you have to go to what he said in the '2018 Six Questions with Forrest' quote "I have a gut feeling it will be found this summer" and realise that Forrest had seen this within the word from the very start in 2010.

It relates to the word 'TREASURES' itself. T is 20 and R is 18 these give us the year 2018 now add the rest of the letters together that are left by using their number in the alphabet  'EASURES' add up to 88 Forrest would become 88 in the summer of 2018 which is why he released this comment when he did.

His birthday is in Summer on 22 AUGUST he is a LEO in the Zodiac, sign 5. Notice that AUGUST is the only month that begins with 'AU' which is GOLD in the periodic table.
AUGUST is the only month that begins with 'AU'

In the Zodiac circle there is only one sign that begins and ends with letters that produce single numbers when counted in the alphabet, that sign is 'GEMINI' and 'G' is 7 and 'I' is 9 giving us 79 which is the atomic number of 'GOLD' but notice that left behind in the middle is 'EMIN' which is an anagram of 'MINE'. There really is a '79 MINE' in Arizona, but Forrest discounted a mine. Therefore we need the meaning of mine which is 'belonging' to me. So I believe it is telling us:
'MY GOLD' this could of course relate to his two daughters who resemble TWINS hence GEMINI, however if you consult the periodic table of elements and look at the two elements that make up BRONZE you will see that it comprises:
COPPER which is 29 and TIN which is 50 and added together give you 79 also, so you could read it as  'MY BRONZE' also.
I firmly believe that the Silver bracelet may have been hidden in the middle of the circle, which held clues to the whereabouts of the chest itself. It may have been buried in a Bronze Frog jar. SILVER is 47 within BRONZE 79 would add up to 126, or 1 to 6 the completed stanzas of the poem. A distinct possibility IMO.

indigo

[indigojones]

As an addition to the above it is interesting don't you think that the full word 'TREASURES' also adds to 126 o 1 to 6 also. Covering all 6 Stanzas.

indigo

[jdiggins]

Very very interesting indigo, love it! You are very clever!

[indigojones]

Jul 5, 2020 15:09:29 GMT -5 jdiggins said:

Very very interesting indigo, love it! You are very clever!

You flatter me jdiggins   It is just that I have spent endless hours on this puzzle trying to apply logic to it and all the time it feeds me back in spades that all of this fits and I cannot discount it. I wish I could. Thank you for the kind words nevertheless.

[sangre]

Nothing short of incredible. I like the zodiac circle connections.

[indigojones]

Jul 5, 2020 16:19:29 GMT -5 sangre said:

Nothing short of incredible. I like the zodiac circle connections.

Thank you 'sangre' I appreciate your comments. I have tried to wring every last drop out of this puzzle, and really scrutinized it.