Netflix releases "Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn's Treasure"

The solution to Fenn's poem is revealed at last and a new treasure hunt begins...in this post down below, I will include a link to a very convincing website where two smart people reveal the 'solve'

Now that Netflix has released a three-part docu-series about Forrest Fenn’s treasure hunt called “Greed & Gold,” I thought it a good time to revisit my own history with this treasure hunt. I’ve never been a hunter but I did help produce a documentary for CBS News/48 Hours back in 2022.

But something always bugged me about the way Fenn’s “Thrill of the Chase” ended. It seemed very unfair that neither Fenn nor the finder of the treasure chest revealed the solution to a treasure that claimed five lives.

A bit of explanation because not everyone has heard of Forrest Fenn. Now deceased, he was a Santa Fe millionaire (he made his money by running a successful art gallery) who launched the greatest treasure hunt of our time. It began as a memoir but that memoir contained a poem that doubled as a treasure map. Inside that poem, which many Fenn devotees memorized, were clues to the spot where Fenn had left a treasure chest filled with mostly gold pieces that was worth at least $1 million.

The clues in the poem referenced physical locations—like the ‘home of Brown’ or ‘where warm waters halt’—and it was up to you to figure out what he was talking about. Do it and, Fenn said, “You’ll be amazed by what you find.”

There are varying estimates on how much the treasure was worth because the price of gold fluctuates but most believed it was worth between $1 and $2 million and possibly more, given the intrinsic value it acquired by being the Fenn treasure.

For ten years, between 2010 and 2020, tens of thousands of people (Fenn said the total was 350,000 but that’s probably exaggerated) got the Fenn bug and headed off into a four state area (he “narrowed” down the search to Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico) in search of Fenn’s gold.

I produced a 48 Hours episode on the hunt back in 2022. For the broadcast, we interviewed people obsessed with the treasure including Katya Luce who sold everything she owned, moved from Hawaii to New Mexico, and spent $75,000 of her own money to look for the treasure. She says she had a grand time even when confronted with a cougar or a frightening lighting storm.

We also interviewed Sacha Dent who says she spent 10,000 hours researching locations and made over 300 trips into the wilderness, often alone. She carried a gun to protect herself from humans and animals alike.

We also featured the five people who died looking for the treasure. It was their choice of course and several (not all) of their families said they were glad their relatives died doing what they loved. Fenn was asked to call off the search several times but he refused. His oft-repeated line was that people drown in swimming pools but we don’t close all the pools. We teach people how to swim.

Fenn relished the attention the hunt brought him. He loved to meet his fans at the annual Fennboree held in Santa Fe for several summers and entertained reporters and producers who flocked to his door to hear all about his life and the treasure. Everyone hoped that Fenn would drop his guard and hand out another clue. Everything he said was analyzed.

Fenn’s family, by all accounts, was less enthusiastic about his treasure hunt. One man threatened to kidnap Fenn’s granddaughter, and there was at least one break-in at his home and delusional fans often beat a path to his home. That comes into play when one considers how the treasure hunt finally ended.

After ten years, Fenn abruptly announced in June 2020 that the treasure had been found by “someone back east.” Initially that’s all the information he provided. His fans were aghast. The hunt was over and they did not know how it ended, where it was found or the identity of the person who found it.

Slowly, that began to change. Fenn later announced the he and the finder had agreed to reveal the treasure had been found in Wyoming. Then Fenn, who was 90, died some nine days later.

Because his death came on the heels of his announcement that the treasure had been found, some began to wonder whether he knew he was dying (he reportedly had longtime heart problems) and tipped his hand to help the finder. That way, the theory goes, Fenn’s family would not have to deal with the obsessed searchers after he was gone.

The finder released a statement denying he had any help from Fenn although the two had been in touch by email. To be fair, that was not unusual; Fenn was in touch with a lot of searchers over the years.

A lawsuit required the Fenn family to reveal the finder’s name so Jack Stuef—a former medical student and one-time humor writer—outed himself on a Medium.com post and, at the same time, to journalist Dan Barbarisi who published a book on the Fenn phenomena.

Stuef said he would not reveal how he solved the clues in the poem or where the treasure was found. He said he did not want the spot, reportedly in a Wyoming forest, to become a tourist attraction that would upset the natural beauty and serenity Fenn found there.

Not revealing the location of the treasure is Stuef’s choice of course. He does not owe the rest of the searchers anything.

That is not the case with Fenn. He launched the hunt, encouraged people to go out into the wild, and watched as searchers spent tens of thousands of dollars. But in the end, Fenn refused to honor his end of the bargain.

The hunt was in essence a contract, in my eyes, between Fenn and those who bought his book and took part in the chase. When you start a contest like this, I believe you’re morally obligated to reveal the answer to the puzzle you created. But before he passed away, Fenn stopped communicating about his game. In retrospect, it would have been better if Fenn would have revealed his game-winning solve and kept Jack anonymous. For reasons stated above, that didn’t happen.

It is akin to having a lottery but never revealing the winning numbers; it’s just not fair. The searchers who took part in good faith in Fenn’s game were left hanging.

At least, until now and that is the great thing about the Netflix documentary. One of the dedicated treasure hunters Justin Posey, a self-described “technologist” from Texas. The Netflix documentary details how Posey hunted with his brother until his brother killed himself.

That suicide drove Justin onto to dig even deeper into the hunt for Fenn’s treasure and, using a couple of photographs from the finder and some very good guesses he’d already formulated, it appears in this newest documentary that he has found the spot where the treasure and, even more beneficial and satisfying, he reveals—step by step—how the clues could lead one to its location.

Then he goes one step further. Justin buys up pieces of the Fenn treasure at auction and puts them in his own treasure chest. At the end of the Netflix documentary, he reveals that he is starting a new treasure hunt for his treasure chest. All you need to do is watch and re-watch the Netflix three-parter for clues to where it is.

It’s a surprising ending and finally, Fenn’s fans have their answer as to exactly where the old bean put his treasure more than a decade ago. Here’s the link to the solution or the ‘solve’ as Fenn-followers liked to call it. And finally, I came across this video in the last couple of days which I also find to be on target and informative.