A Fennish Solve

[landhigh]

This is a continuation of the "Salinger and Fenn" thread.

I've shown my solve for WWWH to the Home of Brown, which is Brown's Hole below Flaming Gorge.  ("How deep is a hole?") There you can "put in" to or from the Green River at several boat launch sites.  I think the Green River was the inadvertent clue FF referred to that was in his book "Too Far To Walk" in the caption under the picture with the fish in the "Green river grasses..." on page 23.  From Brown's hole on ahead is the area a trapper named Meeks was told that because the area had been trapped out of beaver, it was "No place for the Meek."

"The end is ever drawing nigh," is at a location near where the highway and the river separate.  It is where many got off the track on their chase.  It is also very near where I thought the TC  was hidden.  It is where Fenn said that some had solved the first 2 clues then went right on past the next 7 clues.  The end is nigh here because the TC is near.  The problem is, the searcher does not yet know this because the next clues take you away from this location.  But as you continue in solving more clues, you will eventually come back to this same location, so the end actually is ever drawing more near.  "The end is ever drawing nigh" also applies to the final search area because you must draw lines based on the last clues in order to find the TC.

"There'll be no paddle up your creek," refers to Pot Creek which comes off to the right of the Green River several miles beyond the Ladore Canyon narrows.  It has an intermittent stream that cannot be paddled up.  "Just heavy loads and water high" refers to the heavy loads of gravel regularly hauled out of a gravel pit up very near the headwaters of Pot Creek.  There is also a reservoir called Warner Lake that is just below the gravel pit.

"If you've been wise and found the blaze" has a very strong solution here. "If you've been..." infers that it's something done previously, in this case it's before the "heavy loads and water high."  The blaze in my solve is the long scar across the mountain of a buried gas pipeline.  The reseeded grasses covering the pipeline make the 200 foot wide strip look like a yellowish or "white streak" across the land, or a "Blaze."  This gas pipeline crosses Pot Creek below the gravel pit and Warner Lake.  The natural gas piped through the buried line is used to burn in furnaces, stoves, water heaters, etc. in many areas.  Thus it becomes "blazes" all over.  But that's not all.  The name of the gas company up until just 3 or 4 years ago was Questar!  The motto of the gas company was to "Be Wise" in your use of the gas, so "wise" has a double meaning.  The next line of the poem says to "look quickly down your 'quest' to cease."  So following back down the gas line northeast towards the river, the gas line should cease.  It does.  It goes under the river then turns northward, away from the direction of the next clues.  Also where the line goes under the river, the river forms an S shape, or two back to back C's, which is "cease."  The cover to Fenn's book "Once Upon a While" shows a stick figurer man fishing, with the line connected to a star.  Fishing could represent the quest, with the star on the end, it's Questar Gas Company.

Gotta stop for now.

[Apple]

That's a well thought out solution.

You're much braver than me to have searched on private ranch land...

[landhigh]

Do you remember the name of the guy whose son gave Fenn that hat with the hole in it that was in the air above his head? It was Dickens. So his son was son of Dickens, or Dickenson. The ranch I've been searching on belongs to a family named Dickenson. It's a family corporation comprised of the father and his sons. The property is mostly flat but there is a pond (a hole) that is just above the rest of the property. The pond (fen) is in the shape of a "W" (his secret W-here) and it also looks like a lower case "f", which is how Fenn always signed things. The Borders Bookstore represents the private property that has water and fence borders.

I suspect that Forrest arranged for the pond to be constructed in the shape it is in. I think he was also responsible for the development of the land and sprinkler system. It was developed in 2008, two years before Fenn hid the TC. Fenn gave a hint to this when he said something like, "so I leveled the playing field," which was actually done. The sprinkled ground is a semi-circle of about 1900 foot radius. Images of things around the field are at positions of the sprinkler line, as the large hand of a clock, which represents time.

I've talked to one or two of the ranch hands over the years but I've never told them what I was doing, nor did I go onto the property unless I thought no one was around. But the land is so large that it is very hard to even see anyone from one side of the property to the other.

The ranch is bounded on 3 sides by the river. The river makes a giant "U" shape, or omega, around the ranch. At the tip of the "U" shape a stream flows into the river. It's called Vermillion Creek due to the reddish color of the water. "Tea with Olga" has Fenn drinking red, green, and black tea with Olga. So, Vermillion Creek is the red tea, the Green River is the green tea, and the black tea could represent the oncoming death of Olga. Also black tea is really a brownish color, which is what you get when you combine red and green, where the two streams converge.

Not far from the pond are two large cottonwood trees, the only trees on this side of the ranch. The one on the private property was alive but the one just off the property was dead. Forrest said, "Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead." Both trees kept the secret of the TC. But recently the one on the property also died, similar to Fenn's death.

I haven't yet given the last part of my solution.  It gets more complicated, like a riddle, but is also very clever.  It explains what brave, cold, in the wood, the answer, done it tired, etc. means.

[Apple]

Hi landhigh, I really do admire the amount of thought that you put into your solution!  I do remember that hat.  Personality Galore, one of my favorite scrapbooks.  Note that the hat was given to Forrest by the son of a guy named Dither, not Dickens.  I always thought that was an eyebrow raising name.

In SB126, I always imagined:

1. Holey hat = holy hat = halo. Was wearing the hat when he died, hat associated with death, makes sense in context. Humorously, Forrest said he won't (even despite what's depicted in the PS'ed picture).
2. Stone = grave marker (source photo describes it as a gate post = perhaps imaginative representation of a gate/portal between life and death, see SB172 for example) (image is mirrored compared to source).
3. Taken together, Forrest's grave site.
4. Interesting that in hunt context treasure chest location = Forrest's would-be grave site.
5. Stella Lake = asterisk/sun/star symbolism in TTOTC (note that the background lake/mountain image is mirrored).

Bob wire hatband?

1. Bob or bobbed wire sees some usage, so not definitively weird, just an eyebrow raising corruption of barbed wire.
2. Given the mirrored background image and mirrored gate post image, vertically mirrored bob = pop. 
3. POP! Come on. Really? Hat described as having exploded, and the bob wire was implicated.  Makes sense in context.
4. I don't have the primary source, but I've heard that Dal said he created the image. I find the whole story a difficult pill to swallow.

[landhigh]

You're right Jeff, it was Dithers, not Dickens.  At the time I thought that Dithers was very close to Dickens and Fenn probably would not have used the exact same name as the property owner.  A searcher could just do a search of land ownership records to find the name Dickerson.  He gives the hint with a very similar name but doesn't make it easy to relate it to the property.

It also seems like this same story said that Dithers was from the Bosque where he hunted coyotes, or something like that.  Near where I have searched is an image of a large head of a coyote.  Adjacent to that head is a high powerline pole with a 12 inch diameter by 6 or 8 feet long pipe attached horizontally to the top of the telephone pole.  The pipe is a nesting structure for birds.  Periodically you can see a bird come blasting out of the pipe.  There are 3 large transformers on the pole  just below the pipe nest.  Four electrical lines come to the cross arms that support the 12 inch pipe but they don't continue past the pole.  They go down into the 3 transformers.  With wires going to this pole but not going beyond it, it's like they were cut off, or bobbed.  That's why Fenn would use "Bobbed" wire instead of "barbed" wire.  


This whole scene could be represented by the hat with a hole in it and the "Bob" wire.  The hat is high up in the air like the powerline pole.  The nesting pipe is the hole that was exploded from within, where the birds flying out are the explosions.  Adjacent to this powerline pole is a wooden platform that goes out over the river.  On the outer edge of the platform is a large rounded upright greyish green pump.  This looks like the rounded greenish image behind Fenn with the water in the background.  Fenn makes up stories to fit things on the ground in the search area.

[landhigh]

I've previously shown that "quest to cease" does not mean your search is nearly over. "But tarry scant with marvel gaze" refers to the road of tar that is only a mile or so long compared to the many miles of gravel road. This short piece of asphalt could be seen at a distant marvelous view from where the Questar Gas pipeline goes under the river. At this same location you overlook some ponds that are inside one of the curves of the river. These ponds are different shades of dark green, with the appearance of having a marbling effect. So you are overseeing tarry scant and a marvelous (marbled) view. This line also infers to not look too long in this direction but to go a different direction.

"Just take the chest and go in peace" also has a double meaning. The obvious meaning is to go into a peaceful place to get the treasure chest. But the hidden meaning is more instructive as to where you must go. "Just" can mean "the righteous" (as in the Bible). So "Just" means to go to the right from where you "ceased" at the river. The "chest" refers not to the TC but to the land ownership in that area. A chest can mean a bureau of drawers. A bureau can refer to the "Bureau" of Land Management, or BLM. Going to the "right" takes you onto BLM land. "Go in peace" refers to the peaceful Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge you must next go into.

But which road turnoff do you take to go into the Refuge? There are several turnoffs but only one of them forms a "Y" with the main road. The poem tells you, "Why [Y] is it that I must go..."

So he leads you into the Refuge from the "Y" intersection and says he "leaves his trove for all to seek". This has a double meaning besides the obvious one. In this area of the Refuge there are several dikes that have been constructed to hold diverted water from the river to provide wildlife habitat. Some of these dikes, also called levees, form an image that looks like a giant fish. Fenn talks about catching a trophy fish. Trove relates closely to trophy and levee relates closely to leave. So, he levees his trophy for all to seek. But "seek" also has another meaning. At the head of the leveed trophy image the lines converge in a way to form a "K". So, "seek" can mean "see K". The "K" becomes a very important key feature coming up.

[landhigh]

Continuing from my last post:

"The answer I already know, I've done it tired and now I'm weak."  The trophy fish head is formed partially by levees and partially by a dirt road which goes along parts of the levees.  They not only show a fish image but the head of the fish has additional lines that appear like the head of an ant, having one ear or antenna larger than the other.  A road delineates the outer line of the large antenna.  This is the answer, or ants ear.  He's done it tired because he has driven his car/jeep (with tires) along this road section.  He is now weak because he is at the same location as where he was at "for all to see-K"  He is now calling himself a wee K (weak).  This "K" is small compared to the other images in this area.

"So hear me all and listen good." Now Fenn takes on the identity of the wee K and tells all to hear him and list 10 (listen) good.  Ahead of him (the wee K), just across the river is the huge sprinkled field in the shape of a semicircle.  In order to apply the next clues you must understand how the first stanza applies to this area:

"As I have gone alone in there," and the rest of stanza #1, is full of information describing the sprinkled field.  But you wouldn't recognize it until you had solved all the prior clues to get you to the field.  "As I have" refers to the sprinkler line that rotates about 180 degrees or "half" of a full circle.  "As" could refer to the azimuths the line points to as it moves.  "Alone" means "all one".  So here Fenn has identified himself as the sprinkler line, all of it as one entity.  "and with my treasures bold" refers to the 3 shores of the pond that will form the images of "A's" when the proper lines are drawn.  "I can keep my secret where," refers to the overall shape of the pond, a large cursive "W".  (It also looks like a cursive G).  This is the area of the hidden chest.  Next is, "And hint of riches new and old."  The same lines that must be drawn to form the "A" shapes of the 3 pond arms, also delineate the symbols for money....the dollar, $, which is a relatively new (American) symbol, and the cent symbol, which is a much older money symbol of Great Britain.  These symbols and the A shores will be evident when you draw the lines as the poem directs.

So after Fenn's identity was changed from the sprinkler line to the wee K, he (the wee K) is saying "hear me all (all of the sprinkler line which is now someone else) and list 10 good (there are 10 wheeled sprinkler supports), "Your effort will be worth the cold" refers to the effort of the pumps (part of the sprinkler system) and the sprinkler pipes as they spray out the cold river water.

"If you are brave" refers to the position that the sprinkler line must be in to be brave.  When it is as far to the right as possible before reversing directions and going back the other way, the first two wheel sets that are next to the pump, with the adjoining pipes, go out over a portion of the river.  They must be brave to do so.  " In the wood" refers to the image of the 10 circular lines formed by the 10 wheeled sprinkler pipe supports that rotate over the 180 degree field.  It makes the field appear like half of the inside section of a cut tree, with the tree rings being the 10 circular lines.  The poem is saying that the sprinkler line must be in the position of the line being "brave" and also "in the wood" at the 10th ring of the lines (list 10 good).  If in this position, which is at the far right and at the end or last wheel support,  then he says "I give you title to the gold."  Remember, he is now still the wee K, so you must draw your first line, from the wee K to the point where the sprinkler line is at the far right and at the 10th arc, which also looks like a "U" (I give you..)  Next, he says "...title to the gold."   Title sounds like "tied L" or "tight L".  So you not only draw your first line from the wee K to the 10th arc but also to form an "L" that is tied to the sprinkler line at the 10th arc and goes to the gold or "old G".  The pond is in the shape of a cursive G so your "L" goes from the wee K to the 10th arc then makes a 90 degree bend to go straight to the G shaped pond.

I at first thought that this would be the location to find the TC.  But it wasn't there.  That's when I realized that you must reapply the last clues more than once to form more lines that build upon the first lines in and around the pond.  This is where it starts to get more complicated.  More to come....

[landhigh]

Forrest told a story about a bobcat coming to live with him when he was younger. He described it's short front legs and longer rear legs. In the final search area there was a patch of cattails near the end of one of the arms of the pond. They were in the shape of an eye, about 5 feet wide by 6 feet long, horizontally. They just happened to be at the very center of the double cross, or # symbol, lines that must be drawn. The cattails were there every year that I went out to search except for the last 2 years, when they had all died off due to lack of water. The horizontal lines of the cross were longer on the bottom than the top. Fenn's story fits the cattails that grew in this "Fenn spot". One of his initials, F, faces forward, and the other initial F, faces backward....both part of the double cross image. The bobcat with the short front legs and long rear legs corresponds to the double cross. The bobcat leaving, never to return, corresponds to the cattails dying and not coming back. The bobcat had some brown spots on it just like the brown tops of the cattails.

Fenn once said something like, "The person who finds the TC will have his dreams doze off into the sunset. And I think that's a good place to stop." West of the final search area about 1000 feet, into the area where the sunsets, is an small gravel pit where you can see the tracks of where a small dozer has pushed up small piles of gravel, then stopped.

Fenn said he prayed for D's in school. The sprinkled field looks like 10 giant D's where the wheeled line supports travel. The end of the sprinkler line has a large sprinkler head that is cantilevered out past the last wheel support. It looks a little bit like a preying mantis.

He said in his book that the clues would lead to the end of his rainbow and his treasure. The sprinkler field is in the shape of a rainbow and it even sprinkles out rain from the sprinkler pipes.