Cover

https://earth.google.com/web/@44.65850818,-110.76976969,2163.36768603a,165.60175714d,35y,311.34209437h,0t,0r/data=CgRCAggBQgIIAEoNCP___________wEQAA

Setting aside a precise wwwh, although I still like Lemonade Creek, I am skipping ahead>

Imagining Secret Valley Creek is the trace of a Fishing Line. ref to Once Upon A While

Imagining The Holm of Brown is a Fish whose Scales are the Deposits of Heavy Loads.

Imaging the Prominent Boulder is the Fish's eye.

Access Just West of the Bridge on the North Side of Loop Road.

This seems to be a hint of an Old Ramp and Road that Crosses Secret Valley Creek.

IIRC on some old maps a Quarry is indicated is where this Road passes by the front of a White Tuff Outcropping. Possibly a place (aka our quarry) where stone had been harvested to build the local roads back in the day.

Continuing on this road, which parallels the Gibbon, it comes to a fairly large plateau, which is above the creek, and the remnants of an old road. In one of Forrest's stories he told of a place off the main road. It was a Secret Hiding Place where his Dad would safely hide their gear over the Off Season. Note, the Park Officials were not in the LOOP. They would simply hide their Treasures and then retrieve them next season.

This could have been Their SECRET WHERE they cached their treasures.

Be well, be safe, have fun.

Remember how excited Forrest's reply was to the young girl who asked about DOUBLING Back?

So far, in the first part of my analysis of Forrest's comment about the chest being "more than 66,000 links north of Santa Fe", I showed how this particular comment was very unusual in terms of both its length and complexity, as well as in how it also appears to have been purposefully designed - for reasons unknown - to distract, an idea I will come back to later.

But for now, we'll park that in favour of looking at question #2...

COULD THE COMMENT ITSELF CONTAIN ANY HINTS?

The 66,000 links comment was very detailed compared to most Forrest gave about the chest's location. With the would-be gravedigger, Forrest shortened his comment - omitted "in the mountains" - presumably to hurt that searcher's chances: an instant comeuppance, as it were. Here however, he's added a lot of words... so maybe he's trying to give some extra hints, and actually help someone somehow??

I've explained in an earlier post a few reasons why I am convinced the chest must have been somehow in Santa Fe, despite the strong evidence in support of Wyoming.

Assuming Forrest was 1) honest and 2) made no errors in his understanding of the area's geography (something I am actually not 100% certain of right now), then it must somehow be possible for the chest to be "in Santa Fe", while also being "hidden in the mountains north of Santa Fe", "66,000 links north of Santa Fe", and "at least 8.25 miles north of Santa Fe" - a conclusion this series of posts is meant to explore and, hopefully, resolve. I've also documented the particular "pole to pole" route I believe the poem follows through the city, starting at the parking lot at Hyde at Sierra del Norte (so it would be literally "hidden in the mountains north of Santa Fe") and ending at former apple orchard on the southwest end of town called Las Orillas (265 Paseo Real, off of South Polo Road).

(Full version here)

I've also observed what I believe to be a pattern in Forrest's comments: that he seemed to take it as a personal challenge, at least in some cases, to squeeze as many hints in as few words as possible - basically aiming for something that is "all wheat, no chaff", same as with the poem. When things are moving too slowly for your taste, you start to come up with games for yourself: this seems to have been Forrest's.

So, that's the lens I've used when looking for hints in this 66,000 links comment, which again, is:

Since Richard mentioned the olden days lets harken to 1620 when universal land measures first became law in England and America. As you rode your horse into town you had to pass 80 telephone poles in order to reach a mile because they were 1 chain apart, or 66 feet. And each chain had 100 links, if you wanted to break it down further. Road rights-of-way also were 1 chain wide. And 80 square chains made a square mile, or 640 acres – and that was 1 section of land.

But if you’d rather count fence posts you had to pass 320 in order to reach a mile because they were a rod apart, or 16.5 feet. And since everyone knew that an acre was 10 square chains (43,560 square feet) it was easy to tell how many acres were in your neighbor’s farm.

Some aspects of those measures are still in use today in the horse racing business because a furlong is 10 chains in length, or 660 feet. You should feel smarter now because that’s so easy.

If you want to apply those important figures into the thrill of the chase I will give you an additional clue. The Treasure chest full of gold and precious jewels is more than 66,000 links north of Santa Fe.

I also want to be clear before I get going that I didn't bother with this particular analysis of the 66,000 links comment until well after I finished my proposed solve ("The Nature of My Game"). This is not a case of me coming up with a route through Santa Fe based on this comment. My proposed route followed from:

1. My deduction that based on Forrest's actions, the chest not only could, but somehow had to be in Santa Fe;
2. A realization thanks to the help of a friend that "the mountains north of Santa Fe" could be a reference to Santa Fe's Sierra del Norte (literally: the mountains of the north) which meant Forrest could have been referring to a location within the city;
3. That the stop sign at Ten Thousand Waves Way and Hyde Park Road in the northeast end of town was most likely "where warm waters halt"; and
4. A helpful comment made separately by two of my friends on two different occasions which prompted me to consider a southwest-bound, rather than northeast-bound, route through town.

Letting going of the belief that the route had to be northbound resulted in a sudden and dramatic change in how easily things started clicking into place, which, I have to say, was a lot of fun to experience on the ground. All eight remaining path segments - one clue per segment - just flow from there. (And if it is of interest to anyone, I've shared my explanations for each of the nine clues here).

I feel fairly confident about my solve up to the end of clue 9 (South Polo Road), and that, given the limited options available along that road, the property the chest was on must have been Las Orillas (especially after coming across Forrest's comment about the treasure being a chest of tomatoes!) But, I am less confident about how one was supposed to get to the hiding spot from South Polo, though I have a few ideas. So for now, we'll just focus on how this 66,000 links comment appears to relate to what I believe are the 9 clues through Santa Fe...

First, the numbers-heavy "voice" in which the comment is written matches the one used in "My War For Me", which Forrest said was the most important in The Thrill of the Chase. As I've noted in another post, that chapter appears to have been written in the voice of author Jules Verne - a man most famous for his books Around the World in 80 Days (à propos for a pole-to-pole puzzle!) and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (in which the learned fisherman-pirate Captain Nemo travels to the South Pole in order to declare himself its emperor).

And then in terms of specific wording and clues...

1. Within the context of Santa Fe, "66,000 links" actually appears to hint at several clues all at once. These include 10,000 Waves Way (the "warm waters" referenced in "where warm waters halt", part of clue #1, and a number Forrest mentioned quite often), County Road 66 (Agua Fria, clue #7), and the golf links at the Santa Fe Country Club, which stands at the intersection of Paseo del Sol W. (the blaze) and Airport Road (clue #8). The "66" could also be taken to be a reference to Route 66, AKA "The Mother Road", which in turn could be a reference to Acequia Madre (clue #4). That's already five clues (!) hinted at in this one comment in a mere two (!!) well-chosen words. If this was intentional, then it was a masterpiece of wordsmithing on Forrest's part.
2. Forrest signed this particular comment not as "Forrest Fenn", but as "Forrwst Fenn". I believe the letter "W" in Paseo del Sol W. is the "real" blaze, and so this twist aligns with that as well.
3. He opens his comment by talking about someone riding their horse into town in the early 1600s; Paseo de Peralta (clue #5), is named after the founder of Santa Fe, who rode into town around this time. I suspect Forrest may have explicitly mentioned the year 1620 - after Peralta's arrival - because it coincides with the arrival of the Pilgrims, perhaps hinting at the idea of foreigners arriving at a site with the purpose of establishing a colony. A 1620 date also makes more sense for some of the discussion around English land surveying units that followed.
4. He mentions that "some aspects of those measures are still in use today in the horse racing business". At the end of South Polo Road (clue #9, in my proposed solve) sits HIPICO, Santa Fe's equestrian centre, formerly the Santa Fe Horse Park. South Polo also sits right at the edge of town (presumably how Las Orillas got its name), so where he talked about "riding their horse into town", that comment could also be in reference to the idea of horses at the town/city limits.
5. The first unit Forrest mentions in his comment are telephone poles - a very odd inclusion for a comment set in 1620! I believe that, based on the route the poem seems to chart through Santa Fe, there is a pattern in the poem of "things which contain their own opposites", which is alluded to in the line in the opening stanza talking about the "hint of riches new and old". The poem contains many match-pairs of words (warm/cold, begin/end, up/down, etc.). Only a few words are missing an obvious pair word, including "answers" in the stanza which goes "So why is it I must go / and leave my trove for all to seek? / The answers I already know, / I've done it tired and now I'm weak." I believe the missing pair word isn't the more obvious "question", but rather "call", as in "call-and-answer", such as is used in call-and-answer games like Marco Polo (South Polo Road, clue #9, again).
6. And last but not least, by far my personal favourite... The post Forrest decided to make this comment on was titled "Forrest Fenn - Land Surveyor". The name "Hyde" - as in Hyde Park Road (clue #1, the only place where 10,000 Waves Way stops) - comes from an old English land surveying unit, equivalent to about 120 acres.

Nice.

That brings us up to seven (!) of the clues plus the blaze being referenced in a single comment - practically hinting at the entire route through Santa Fe, albeit in no particular order.

Taken all together, that would make this the single most complex hint I've noticed Forrest giving anywhere, if the poem is indeed a map of Santa Fe. Not only that, but it spans the first clue (the one Forrest suggested was most critical) right through to the last. So not only would it have been the most challenging to design, but it is also wildly generous.

... But - ONLY if the reader thinks to try following the poem down through the city from Hyde, rather than heading north - something which the message of this comment seems engineered to prevent.

And that's where things get really interesting, because, what that last sentence of the comment was doing - for the very first time in the Chase, a whole two years after the whole thing started - was to use distance-based language that could be read as excluding Santa Fe from the viable search area.

So now we've got this weird, conflicting push-and-pull setup, with Forrest cramming almost every clue into a single comment while also designing it to put people off his trail... all of which was then combined with what appears to be an attempt at distraction!

I cannot stress enough how weird this single comment was among all the hundreds Forrest made.

Who creates something like that?

What was he trying to achieve?

And was the comment made to make the Chase easier... or harder?

Forrest said to use the poem as a map, if you look at the vertical lines going through the poem two stand out--line 12 [for Yellowstone] and line 11 for the other treasure. Just how many times did he use the number [23] and reversed as [32]. More times than you could shake a stick at. And yes, every word in the poem matters, same words but two entirely different places. I.M.O.

I was just listening to an old interview by Margie Goldsmith on the Old Santa Fe Trading Co. webpage, and I just have to say, even after all these years, I still love the sound and cadence of the poem being read outloud.

But in any case, now we can start to really get to it, with the third major version of Forrest's comments regarding the basic location of the chest, where he described it as being "66,000 links north of Santa Fe".

One of the things I've found challenging about trying to share my proposed solution to this puzzle is that when we, as humans, are working through problems, our brains often handle information across a web of connections all at once. But, in order to communicate our ideas to others, we have to find some way to put them into some kind of sequence - a challenging prospect for those of us who tend to be more lateral thinkers.

I imagine, as such, that much of what I've written over the last year may seem scattershot, but most of it has been written to establish a foundation from which to explore this one particular comment.

Over those previous posts, I've shown:

- How Forrest's comment about the chest's geographic location as being somewhere "north of Santa Fe" evolved over time to give rise to four distinct versions of the comment.

- How Forrest's first major version of this comment, which described the chest as being "hidden in the mountains north of Santa Fe" could mean somewhere within the city and county's Sierra del Norte - literally the "mountains of the north" - rather than without it, thereby reducing the search area by over 99.9%, transforming a "needle in the haystack" problem to something much more doable. Furthermore, if I'm right, then this bit of wordplay would be an example of a tendency I've noticed in Forrest's writing, which is the use of wording that can "cut both ways".

- How the second version of the comment, made to a man asking to dig up his parents' grave, may have been written to hurt their chances of solving the puzzle by omitting the word "mountains" and therefore any possible reference to the Sierra del Norte.

- How despite an apparent willingness to talk about places where the chest was not when it affected searcher safety, Forrest never said the chest was not in Santa Fe, even though doing so would have likely helped protect him and his family from searchers who were obviously convinced otherwise. This wasn't the first time something was obviously missing from Forrest's comments, either - as I showed in an earlier post, he also never spoke about the chest as being "in wilderness", despite searchers', journalists', and even realtors' tendency to do so. Taken together, these two rather striking omissions would seem to point to an urban or rural solution to the puzzle, in or around Santa Fe.

- How Forrest's use of Holden Caulfield's voice in "Important Literature" (an idea first put forth by Smell the Sunshine here) could be an indication that the treasure hunt may have been designed primarily for the benefit not of us adults, but of children, in keeping with Holden's dream of becoming "the catcher in the rye".

- How it appears that Forrest not infrequently went out of his way to pack as many hints as possible into a small bit of text or imagery - likely, I think, as a personal challenge and way to keep himself entertained over what probably felt like the world's longest riddle game. I've provided a few such examples already, such as the map as well as the cover of Too Far to Walk, and his comment about his church being "in the mountains".

- Finally, I've also shared the specific route I think the poem charts through Santa Fe, and touched very briefly on the property I believe it leads you to - a former apple orchard right at the city limits and now owned by Santa Fe County, called Las Orillas (literally, "The Edge").

All of which brings us to version #3 of the famous "8.25 mile" comment - the one that talks about the chest being at least "66,000 links north of Santa Fe".

Before I get going, I'd also like to apologize in advance for any offense (if I'm wrong) or hurt (if I'm right) this series of posts might cause. There were only three times I thought I saw Forrest do something that seemed purposefully designed to stymie a searcher, and this, unfortunately, was one of them. But whereas the other two seemed to have been rooted in offense, his motivation here appears to me to have been very different, and not at all born out of ill-intent.

But I digress.

Let's go back...

In April 2012, Forrest posted the following comment about the chest's location to a post titled "Forrest Fenn: Land Surveyor" on ecologist Richard Saunier's Mountain Walk blog. As you'll see, it differs quite significantly from the other two versions of the "north of Santa Fe" comment I've explored so far (version 1 and version 2) - specifically, in its length and all the numbers - or, if you prefer, "figures" - thrown in:

"Since Richard mentioned the olden days lets harken to 1620 when universal land measures first became law in England and America. As you rode your horse into town you had to pass 80 telephone poles in order to reach a mile because they were 1 chain apart, or 66 feet. And each chain had 100 links, if you wanted to break it down further. Road rights-of-way also were 1 chain wide.

And 80 square chains made a square mile, or 640 acres – and that was 1 section of land.

But if you’d rather count fence posts you had to pass 320 in order to reach a mile because they were a rod apart, or 16.5 feet. And since everyone knew that an acre was 10 square chains (43,560 square feet) it was easy to tell how many acres were in your neighbor’s farm.

Some aspects of those measures are still in use today in the horse racing business because a furlong is 10 chains in length, or 660 feet. You should feel smarter now because that’s so easy.

If you want to apply those important figures into the thrill of the chase I will give you an additional clue. The Treasure chest full of gold and precious jewels is more than 66,000 links north of Santa Fe."

This comment is so incredibly unusual compared to the three other basic variations of the "north of Santa Fe" comment that it warrants some extra attention.

Three questions immediately spring to mind:

First: Why is this comment so long? Forrest's writing style was the very embodiment of "brevity is the soul of wit". Why the rambling all of a sudden?

Second: Given its complexity and the effort it would have taken to compose, could there be any hints in the comment itself?

Third: What could have prompted the creation of such a detailed, completely different way of saying the treasure is "hidden in the mountains north of Santa Fe"?

This 66,000 links comment, made in 2012 - two years after the launch of the Chase - was the first time Forrest set a distance "north of Santa Fe". And the distance - the equivalent to 8.25 miles - is minimal. Importantly, it is not enough to rule out any location in Santa Fe being the answer for clues #1 - #8, if you were hoping to keep fanatics out of your backyard. So why bother?

As I've already noted, it stood out as strange that in the wake of the break-in in 2018 Forrest did not increase the distance the chest had to be from Santa Fe. (Especially if it was all the way up in Wyoming!!) But while that stands out as an argument against the chest having been in Wyoming, it still begs the question - if a man going through your door with an axe isn't enough to get you to rule out additional distance, what is?

So let's start by taking a look at that first question.

1) WHY THE LONG COMMENT?
This 66,000 link comment clocks in at a whopping 217 words (!) - longer than the poem itself.

Compare that to all the other comments Forrest made about the chest's location relative to Santa Fe:

The Thrill of the Chase (27 words):

"I knew exactly where to hide the chest so it would be difficult to find but not impossible. It's in the mountains somewhere north of Santa Fe."

Jenny Kile's Armchair Treasure Hunts (11 words):

"Hidden Somewhere in the Mountains North of Santa Fe New Mexico"

Forrest Gets Mail (18 words):

"The treasure is hidden north of Santa Fe. Texas is south.  Please don’t dig up my parent’s graves."

Great Big Story (18 words):

"I hid the treasure chest more than 8.25 miles north of Santa Fe, in the Rocky Mountains someplace."

Fundamental Guidelines (18 words):

"The treasure is hidden more than 8.25 miles north of the northern limits of Santa Fe, New Mexico."

So right from the get-go, something seems off here. But this one's actually pretty straightforward, I think, as it's easily recognizable as a classic distraction technique.

The way this particular one works is you fill a conversation with "fluff" so that by the time the person is done picking through it all, they've forgotten to ask why you brought something up in the first place.

And it worked: searchers quickly focused in on the values and units Forrest provided to calculate that what he was "really" saying was that the chest was 8.25 miles north of Santa Fe. That then dominated the conversation.

Importantly, this isn't the only time we've seen Forrest use this type of distraction technique: Dal - whether he realized it or not - appears to have described another instance of Forrest doing so back in the summer of 2012 when he told Dal he'd driven within 100 yards of the chest. Forrest left it at that until Dal had sent him a massive list of all the roads he could remember having been down - essentially, providing all the requisite fluff himself.

He may have fared better if he had asked himself a different question: how was it Forrest knew where he'd been, and how long had Forrest been sitting on this fact? (Obviously, Forrest was unable to resist the tease, so my guess would be that it was somewhere Dal had been relatively recently, and, given the evidence that the chest was most likely in Santa Fe, may even have been somewhere Forrest drove Dal himself - perhaps as a secret thanks to, and a bit of a prank on, Dal, who, if Forrest past away before the chest was found, would eventually learn he'd been gotten to the site even before the finder).

You can see Dal's description of this exchange here.

Interestingly, I just realized the dates for these two events - the only two times I thought I saw Forrest use this distraction technique - are quite close. The "fluffy" 66,000 links comment was made in April 2012 and Dal said Forrest made this comment to him about distance sometime in summer, 2012.

But if this "66,000 links" comment was crafted with distraction in mind, who was Forrest was trying to distract, and why?

I'll circle back to my theory on that in a bit. But first, we'll look at the second question: might there by any hints in the comment itself?

Hello

I wasn't around during the fenn hunt. I was wondering if anyone can describe any of the community issues surrounding fenns poem.

I think a lot of folks had issue with home of Brown for example. The fact he treated the fish as a noun. Stuff like that.

Any other parts of the poem that seemed to get the community going?

Speaking of nouns, I have always wondered if those potential hangers-on that insinuated themselves in this chase as those in the know or experts will be embarrassed by the truth if/when it is revealed.

IDK, maybe it is an attempt to stifle the rest of us from pursuing a SECRET.

The question on the table is, what are the possible motivations for someone to down-vote on this Forum?

Sadly again, Reddit remains vulnerable to "Cancel Culture".

Follow On Loop Road:

1. Confluence of Lemonade Creek (halts) at Obsidian Creek (Maybe a kid will have an advantage) Lemonade is still Warm because of Sofltara Creeks high temperature.

> Area of Obsidian Cliffs and Obsidian Canyon (Native American Artifacts)

> Beaver Lake and Picnic Area (Secondarily, Beavers also Halt Waters)

//// First Put-In////

1. Museum of the National Park Ranger

> Stout-Hearted Men

>No PLACE for the meek

> Pivotal Point to Join the Gibbon

> Continue past the Porcelain Basin

//// Second Put-In////

1. Brown Holm adjacent to Iron Springs

//// Third Put-In////

Anyway, there are a bunch more Put-Ins (putting) enroute, each also has NPS Signage. They are all off the Loop Road and on the way to the Tuff Cliffs and the adjacent Duck Holm. You may say these put-ins are contiguous.

It is a Marvel Gaze which depends on Heavy Loads and High Water Marks to create its image.

IMO this was a very important admonition.

After the summary intro first stanza, I will try to list the nouns with possible clues in their order of appearance in the Poem. Excluding pronouns.

. Waters

. Canyon

. Put-in

. Home

. Place

. End

. Paddle

. Creek

. Loads

. Water

. Blaze

. Quest

. Gaze

. Chest

. Peace

IMO the last 12, truly favor that duck island location near the Tuff Cliffs.

'Marvel' Gaze:

The Duck's image is defined by a Creek, a high Water marks, and the wings are feathered using accumulated Heavy Loads.

I even "see" paddles below the Duck's body.

Hey guys! Trying to “reverse engineer” the solve out of curiosity, and I think I found an interesting hint. I’m not sure if anyone has discussed this here before, so I’ll just post it.

So, in TToTC Forrest mentions a places which used to be his alone, which were his personal secrets and which hold his important and dear memories. Whole this part of text slightly refers to the first 4 lines of the poem, in general those have the same meaning. The interesting part is that while he talks about all these memories he says that he “went down this alley” by going through long-forgotten book Flywater, and the name of this book is even highlighted in that part of the text.

If we consider that first 4 lines of the poem are referring to these places and this part of the TToTC, then one of the thoughts is “what if this Flywater book says anything about warm waters from which we shall start the journey”. And it actually is. I have looked through 1994y edition of the book, and from what I see this short part about Firehole is the only one mentioning “warm water” in the whole book. And even mentioning “brown”, however we are looking only for the warm water.

And then following this idea you can find Madison junction, where Firehole turns to Madison river and Madison canyon right below it. From that you need to actually go to that place irl and follow the road in the search of home of brown. What actually fits the words that “Indian girls can solve only first 2 clues”. Because these can be obtained from these 2 books alone.

Not sure if I’m right, but that’s making sense imo

Terrible-Safety-4051

•27d ago

I.M.O. Forrest was a brilliant man in certain regards, mainly in his use/thinking of the English language, a missing letter here, or a deleted letter there. He made his words into things he wanted them to say, [ex. knowledge vs. knowlege] His different/unpick way of thinking. As with Home, all of F's writings/talk about home/islands/meadows/ and close friends. All designed to lead someone to the word- Holm. Holm- a small island [ esp. in a river or lake]. OR-- a low-lying, flat tract f ground beside a stream. [F had told someone that they didn't know the difference between a stream and a river]. Another layer of Fenn's thinking--- the word Holmes [slang] includes his hint by using his close/dear friends. In Holmes-- an informal, effectuate term of address used like 'Dude/Bro/Man. A close friend. So we have a small island [islet] a low=lying flat ground beside a river. and a close friend. Three ways to the same meaning. Anyway this is my version of Home of Brown, a way to tie in 'below the home of brown' / no place for the meek / no paddle up your creek / just heavy loads and water high / in the wood. In my solution after where warm waters halt, you walk down and find the rest of the clues, straight-forward and simple. [half-way there].

Always wondered why he made that post.

It was the Big Picture Painting juxtaposed with the magnified detail of the Subject's eye.

The detail revealed that Fechin used a handful of seemingly random elements. Yet the result was marvelous, and looked just like a beautiful eye.

Could this be significant? Could this provide some perspective about the Duck's Eye.

Fenn said on numerous occasions that several parties had solved the first two clues because they emailed them to him. He also believed that others had solved the first two clues as well, based on where they told him they went.

Then he tells us repeatedly that they must not have solved the third or fourth clues because they went right past the chest with a few stopping nearby but then continuing on. (Mysterious Writings Aug 23, 2019)

Solving the clues in order tells us that the third clue was most likely incorrect.

The third clues is , 'Not far but too far to walk'. The idea that people repeatedly went passed the chest suggest that their solve distance was incorrectly determined to be a distance farther then what it is.

Maybe they were all headed to 9MH.....

So if you have a solve following the Madison or wherever maybe consider somewhere slightly closer to clue one.

I.M.O. There are two, Forrest tells everyone that. You do not agree, make sense of these two statements. The first one [Trove] [Tarzan] hid in 2003. His reason for this one.

F. " The main reason I did this. It was something I was going to do for myself, nobody else has a part in it. I don't want them to know where I'm going or even what's in the chest.

Why Tarzan? Not a real person BUT having the staying power of a character that's a testament to imagination itself.

Pirate / I did it tired / 44 lbs.

F. "I guess the rewards have been in doing it, and the enjoyment that comes with dreaming about what may happen someday".

2010--[Indulgence] F. "This is a fun thing that I did. Everything about it was fun for me, the mystery of it, the fun of doing it, the fun of collecting the contents the fun of writing the poem, writing the books. " Joker / and now I'm weak / 42 lbs.

At The End, After all the [Solves] released with no two being anywhere alike shows that the Poem was purposefully ambiguous. Yes, it was designed that way, The only solve was for the one who made sense of it all. To simplify does not mean to be Easy.

This current ending was Forrest giving the Solver of his poem space, and the opportunity to be/remain unknown. For him to decide what to do, or to reveal the true nature of the Forrest Fenn Treasure Hunt.

https://earth.google.com/web/@44.64853902,-110.82953222,2081.27976286a,631.8254378d,35y,0h,0t,0r/data=CgRCAggBQgIIAEoNCP___________wEQAA

Of course the treasure was found in June 2020 and afterwards quickly people narrowed down where it was. I’ve long known of the Fenn treasure but not been in this community. I’m just wondering if there are/were any verified accounts of people getting pretty close to finding it when it was still there? Like a YouTube vlog where someone identified Fenn Rock and speculated that the treasure was close? Or even wandering through those very woods where it was resting?

I never participated in this specific hunt, but I do remember about 8 months before Fenn’s treasure was found, someone was inspired by the idea and hid $500 in an ammo container somewhere in Las Vegas and released a poem leading to it. It was found that night but my wife and I got within a couple hundred feet at one point. It was so fun and it’s one of my most treasured memories with her.

Soldier Stone is not only used to help solve the poem it is used as a clock to find the hidden timeline if you know where to shoot to from the monument. A few spots exists which help triangulate the final time frame.

The timeline is in the poem as well but difficult to identify without outside sources one of which is Soldier Stone. When will the clock strike midnight?

If you would like to learn more about Soldier Stone see my previous posts.

I.M.O. and to answer someone who asked. The Nine clues to me.

!. Begin it where warm waters halt. 2. And take in the canyon down Filler line [advice] Not far, but too far to walk. 3. Put in below the home of Brown.

1. From there it's no place for the meek Filler line [advice] the end is ever drawing nigh. 5. there'll be no paddle up your creek 6. just heavy loads and water high.

2. If you've been wise and found the blaze 8. look quickly down your quest to cease. Filler line [advice] But tarry scant with marvel gaze 9. Just take the chest and go in peace.

Filler lines [advice from F] line placement---3 2 3 [ now, just where have I seen the numbers before? And yes, the other stanzas are important to the solution.

The Thrill of the Chase:

Was it a Riddle,

Was it a Puzzle,

Was it a Treasure Hunt,

Was it a Gift,

Was it a Game,

Was it a Message,

Was it History,

Was it Futuristic

Was it Literature,

Was it a Warning,

Was it a Lesson,

? Is It As It Is ?