End of the Chase

THE SOLVE - THE WHOLE SOLVE - AND NOTHING BUT THE SOLVE

The location of Forrest Fenn's treasure is finally revealed! This is a site for searchers of Forrest Fenn's treasure chest. It reveals the poem's solution, the treasure location, the word that is key, the blaze, and the meaning of IT. This is the only logic-based and complete interpretation of Fenn's TTOTC poem and it reveals quite an extraordinary puzzle.

QUICK INTRO: In 2010, an art dealer from Santa Fe named Forrest Fenn published a memoir titled "The Thrill of the Chase". Within that book was a poem which, he said, contained nine clues which would lead a person to a bronze treasure chest filled with over a million dollars worth of treasure. You can use your copy of TTOTC to reference that poem.

Over a period of ten years, thousands of searchers scoured the Rocky Mountains in a quest for gold and adventure. The prize remained elusive until June, 2020 when Fenn announced that the chest had been found. He later revealed the Finder's name to be Jack Stuef. To date ( ), no person with inside knowledge of the chase has revealed the location of the find or the solution to the poem.

Like so many before me, I believe I have a complete solution that many searchers would appreciate. My solve is unique because it is the only one so far that can be tied to each of Fenn's many hints. You will learn "the word that is key", what the blaze is, and the location of several "secret wheres". You will also finally know the meaning of "it" and I promise "it" will be quite a surprise. And X marks the spot of every clue.

Why do I believe that I have The Correct Solve? Because I bear the burden of the curse on every searcher with a solve.

➩The contents of this website, including text, graphics, images, and other material are intended for informational purposes and entertainment only.

At least two people know where the late Forrest Fenn hid his treasure - the man who found it and the Chief Ranger of Yellowstone National Park who admitted that Fenn and Jack Stuef revealed the location in August of 2020. My solve is in Wyoming ("WY is it that I must go"), the state which was verified by Fenn on YAHOO News, July 27, 2020. It lies within the jurisdiction of the Dept of Interior. It is not in Yellowstone National Park.

There is some controversy about revealing the location of the find. Fenn said in a recording that he would leave it up to the finder to decide whether or not to reveal the chest's location. However, the DOI has taken the position the location should not be made public - the environment is remote, fragile, has no infrastructure and so it would be negatively impacted by any human traffic.

So please keep in mind the importance of respecting and preserving all our national lands for the whole of America. In the spirit of The Chase, even if you believe my solution, please stay away from the search area. Plus, since the chest has already been found, THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE THERE. Just enjoy the solution for what it is - a unique and interesting interpretation of the poem and hopefully a satisfying end to a good adventure.

After "The Thrill Of The Chase", Fenn published "Too Far To Walk". Within that book was a map which contained several hints. You might have a copy.

1. The map limits the search area to a four state region - northern New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. Before TFTW was published, Fenn placed no limits on the search area.

2. Attention is drawn to the fact that most of the search area is government property. If you have a copy of the map, look at Land Status:

BLM Bureau of Land Management,
USFS US Forest Service,
NPS National Parks Service,
FWS Fish and Wildlife Service,
Tribal Bureau of Indian Affairs

This is important because, for each jurisdiction, there are different legal issues for finding abandoned property. But even more interesting is that each of these agencies fall under the Dept of Interior. Except the USForest Service. If I had recognized the importance of this hint, I would have saved a lot of time.

3. Faint red lines appear across the map like latitude lines. On the map it states that the red lines reflect the magnetic declination for the region. When you use an analog compass, it will point to magnetic north (affected by the earth's magnetic field) rather than true north (the location of the North Pole). While understanding this concept is not necessary to solve the puzzle, it does help with one of the clues. It also provides a pretty big hint.

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The Solve

The Basic Solve

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IMG: Looks Like the Place, creativemarket.com

In an interview on Radio New Zealand, April 13, 2013, Fenn said the first clue in the poem is "Begin it where warm waters halt". He added that you don't have anything if you can't figure that clue out.

MY METHOD

I first came across Forrest Fenn and "The Thrill of the Chase" in October, 2018. The fact that no one had solved the puzzle after nearly ten years intrigued me. I've been a puzzler and a student of puzzles all my life. I even did several websites about puzzles like "Masquerade" and "The Search For The Golden Horse". For me, like many others, this was the thrill of the chase.

First and foremost, I approached the poem totally as a puzzle. This meant that, even though it seems obscure, it's also structured, logical, and cohesive. This turned out to be most helpful because the solve is complicated - clues point to more than one location and you have to follow the clues in order even though you cannot solve the clues in order.

Along the very same lines, I also explicated the poem, something I learned to do in a poetry class. Just as each stroke of a painter's brush adds more depth and interest to a painting, so does each word and nuance in a poem. Every component has to be thoroughly examined from many angles to truly understand the depth of its meaning.

Finally, I believed that everything Fenn wrote or said related to the Chase was important and must be understood. I kept a lengthy list of such things from interviews, Scrapbooks, "Six Questions" from Mysterious Writings, etc. In the end, everything made sense and the puzzle came together.

My solution fits all of Fenn's hints as follows:

✓ All of the information needed to find the treasure is in the poem
✓ There are nine clues in the poem
✓ The poem will lead to the treasure if you know where to start
✓ The first clue in the poem is 'Begin it where warm waters halt'
✓ "Where warm waters halt" is not a dam
✓ It starts with the first clue and follows the others consecutively to the treasure location
✓ The clues are all married to a map
✓ and all the lines cross in the right spot
✓ As quoted by Fenn from T.S Eliot:"at the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time"
✓ The treasure chest would not be under water, nor is it near the Rio Grande River
✓ It is not in a structure
✓ You wouldn't need to walk a long distance to get to the treasure location
✓ There is no human trail near by
✓ The solve is located above 5,000 ft and below 10,200 ft
✓ It is at least 8.25 miles North of Santa Fe, New Mexico
✓ It is not in grave yard
✓ It is not in a mine, tunnel, or cave
✓ As you can see here, there are pine trees, mountains, and sagebrush. At the solve site, the chest would be wet.
✓ See all the other hints mentioned on this site

THE BEGINNING

The first thing I considered was the poem's stated purpose - to direct a reader to a very specific, tiny spot on the earth. This is quite an extra-ordinary thing to do. Especially with only nine clues to work with. I did not believe that any kind of secret code was involved. The question: How was the "X" that marks the spot created?

Every search has to begin somewhere, anywhere. The poem is filled with many allusions related to a river, e.g. paddle, below, canyon, put in. Fenn loved the wilderness and told a lot of fish tales both in "The Thrill of the Chase" and otherwise. So I started with a working premise that the clues would be on, in or near one river. I was not, by any means, the only searcher with this idea.

The biggest difficulty with this approach is that you have to first find the right river then see if it you can "marry it" to the poem. There are many hundreds of rivers and tributaries in the four state region. How to filter them? The poem mentions "heavy loads" so I thought perhaps a rail line ran along the river. It turns out that a great many rivers have a rail line running alongside.

The poem also had a line "the end is ever drawing nigh". As I'll explain later, I thought this might mean that the river flows north. I searched for a list of all the rivers in the 4 state region that run north. There were over 300 in my final list and that did not include all of them!! I tried to tie the poem to each one in any way I could, but none passed the test.

For no apparent reason, I was drawn to the Wind River Canyon south of Boysen Reservoir in Wyoming. The Wind River does run north, has a rail line alongside, and flows past a town named Thermopolis (as in Hot Spring City). "Begin it where warm waters halt". Three clues matched !!! It just had to be right. But I could not make it fit the entire poem. I just sat and stared at it on Google Earth day after day bemoaning my fate.

Then, without warning, one day fate came and tapped me on the shoulder. On the verge of giving up and out of sheer desperation, I decided to use Google Earth to look in that area for anything that had a name related to brown. As I panned back from the Wind River Canyon, I noticed Brown Mountain. Oh sure, I thought, just like the hundreds of other places named Brown that have already been searched to death. But I persisted and searched on GE using "Brown mountain". Lo and behold there appeared before me the Brown Mountain campground. Could that be "the home of Brown"?? I zoomed in and OMG it was on a river. The Wood River. "Brave and in the wood"? OMG OMG OMG

IMG: Brown Mountain Campground, Google Earth

✤ marks Wood River ref: Ontheworldmap.com/usa

THE SOLVE

In this section I'm going to present a lot of details and verifications about the solution for each clue. It would be helpful to use Google Maps or, even better, Google Earth (if you have it installed) to follow the clues as we go along. Start at Wood River WY. If you want to see a bare bones solution, you will find that at Basic Solve.

1. Begin it where warm waters halt

Of course the first question that comes to mind is "What exactly is 'it' ". As you'll see, "it" is quite a surprise

The logical place to begin is at the physical beginning - the head waters of the river. Ironically, it's a sizeable area in Park County within 20 miles of Hot Springs County. But do warm waters actually halt there? In a word, Yes.

The headwaters of the Wood River (inside the blue circle below) are surrounded by geothermal and hydrothermal systems, most notably: Yellowstone Geothermal System to the West (141°F); Cody Hydrothermal System to the North ( 75° F); Hot Springs County to the East which includes Hot springs State Park in Thermopolis (temp 71° to 121° F); and, to the South, Warm Spring Creek Springs (84° F) and Little Warm Springs (77° F). Truly warm waters.

ref: "A Summary of Geothermal Potential in Wyoming" by Henry P. Heasler, University of WY, January 1985

The warm waters end in the Abrasoka Mtns which supply the head waters of the Wood and Greybull Rivers. However, the headwaters cover a large area where only a few specific points stand out, e.g. spots where several creeks merge with the river, the remains of a cabin that was built by Amelia Aerhart but never occupied, the ghost gold mining town of Kirwin. The poem at this point doesn't specify an exact spot. It's the first of the secret wheres ("and I can keep my secret where").

2. Take it in the canyon down, not far, but too far to walk
43.935347°, -109.211828°

Down river means in the direction of the river's flow. If you go down the canyon from the headwaters (in this case northward), you eventually get to a sharp turn in the river where JoJo Creek merges with the Wood. It's about 7 - 9 miles from the head waters.

3. Put in below the home of Brown

On a river, to "put in" means to pull to shore and get out. If there's a spot specifically designated to do that, it would be called a "put in". "Below" is equivalent to down stream.

Since the first two clues were instructions, I guessed that this was also an instruction. A campground is a temporary home. So is the Brown Mountain Campground the home of Brown? Could be! At this point I was convinced that this must be The River. But where exactly to put in? Another "secret where".

4. From there it's no place for the meek
43.931750°, -109.110342°

The river just after the BMC is a habitat for native Cutthroat Trout. The habitat ends where the Wood meets the South Fork.

5. The end is ever drawing nigh
44.111775°, -108.957106°

This is an intriguing clue. The word "drawing" is what got my attention. "The end is near" seems too obvious. "Drawing" can also mean "to come or go steadily". "Nigh" can mean "on the left side". So drawing nigh cold be interpreted as pulling to the left.

On page 1, I mentioned the map from "Too Far To Walk" for a reason. The red lines with marked degrees going across the map show the magnetic declinations for the area. In a nutshell, when you use an analog compass, you always have to make an adjustment because it points to magnetic North rather than True North, i.e., where the North Pole is. In the Western Hemisphere, the adjustment is always left (counter clockwise) of the original compass reading.

So could Clue 5 mean that the end of the river is running true north? On the Wood River it is! The last segement of the Wood, which ends at it's confluence with the Greybull, heads due North. Furthermore, this clue might also be interpreted to mean the end is always North. This will be obvious when I reveal the "word that is key".

6. There'll be no paddle up your creek
44.008239°, -109.020450°

"Up" on a river is against the flow, so here we turn around and go back "up" the river. The river at this point is usually so low that you cannot paddle in it in a canoe. But how far to go? Yet another "secret where"?

There is an irrigation dam on the Wood. Heavy loads - portage required if you're on a float? All dams have "water high" Could be.

Fenn suggested that the treasure could be found by making all the lines cross in the right spot. And the geographic location of the clues can make a map leading to the treasure.

So I drew lines following the clues on a map of the Wood River. (I used this map on my first trip to the Wood River in June, 2019).

1. Headwaters of Wood River (Specific location unknown)
2. End of the North Fork "X"
3. Below the Home of Brown (Specific location unknown)
4. End of the South Fork "X"
5. End of the River "X"
6. Up stream to the dam?

Dick Creek Slam Map ref: Wyoming Fish and Game

7. Just heavy loads and water high
43.876414°, -109.297929°

This can refer to the dam on the Wood River, but it can also refer to Kirwin, an old mining town ("hint of riches new and old") at the source of the river (heavy loads of ore and water at highest elevation on the river). Here is where I got stuck for quite a while. But then the next clue and something Fenn said lead me to the blaze. And then it all came together. He quoted the following from T.S. Eliot:

"We shall not cease from our exploration
And at the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time"

I had noticed that the word "end" described three of my clues. Could "end" be the "word that is key"? I came up with this:

1. End of warm waters
2. End of the North Fork of the Wood
3. End of a float (you begin it at clue 1 and end it when you put in below the HOB)
4. End of the South Fork of the Wood
5. End of the Wood River
6. end of what? at the dam
7. end of what? at Kirwin

8. If you've been wise and found the blaze,
Look quickly down, your quest to cease,
43.933800°, -109.177203°

"Been wise" means "been Y's" ("Y is it that I must go"). Every place where rivers/streams converge makes a Y. Use Google Earth and see the Y at clue 2, clue 4, clue 5, and yes, at the dam, clue 6. So we've gone over the Y's and should have "found the blaze". But why look down?

Since we put in below the HOB at clue 3 (and none of the other clues are instructions), we are still standing at that unknown spot on the river. Draw a line (blue here) connecting the dam to Kirwin (clue 7) and see what happens!

The blue line completes the blaze, an imaginary line (in aviation, a radial) running 236.63° from the dam on the Wood River to Kirwin. It crosses the Wood River below the HOB and we are standing directly on/underneath it! And each clue now has an X to mark the spot. I used this map on my second trip to the Wood River in October, 2019. Now you have:

IMG: Map of location of Put in Below the HOB, Google Earth

It appears that each clue is the END of something. Kirwin is the beginning and the end of the blaze. Could this also be true for the rest of the clues? YES

Clue 1. Kirwin End of warm waters and the beginning of The north fork, a float, the Forks, the river, the Y's, the blaze, ??, the Chase
43.876414°, -109.297929°
Clue 2. End of the North Fork
43.935347°, -109.211828°
Clue 3. End of a float
43.933800°, -109.177203°
Clue 4. End of the Forks
43.931750°, -109.110342°
Clue 5. End of the river
44.111775°, -108.957106°
Clue 6. End of the Y's
44.008239°, -109.020450°
Clue 7. End of the blaze
43.876414°, -109.297929°
Clue 8. End of ?? (location of the put in below the HOB)
43.933800°, -109.177203°
Clue 9. End of the chase (the next 2 lines in the poem - But tarry scant with marvel gaze, Just take the chest and go in peace)

So "it" refers to all the things that Kirwin begins! Amazing! But what about Clue 8? We know where it is but what is it the end of? This took the most time to solve. I knew I had to follow the blaze to get to the chest. But to where (there's that word again)? The blaze crossed a small spring near the Brown Mountain Campground, but I couldn't tie it to the poem. My main mistake at this point was that I believed that the chest was hidden in Shoshone National Forest ("brave and in the wood"?) which is not within the purview of the Dept of the Interior. I stood at that very spot below the home of Brown and wondered how that last clue could possibly get me to the hidey spot. It turns out that Clue 8 is just the end of Part 1 - Finding the Blaze.

I didn't realize any of this when I searched the area up and around that spring. I left empty handed, disappointed, and determined to return with a new ending the following June. Then the COVID pandemic happpened. Then the chest was found.

PART 2 - THE CLUES AGAIN

One possible location of the chest might be where the Blaze crosses the radial from end of South Fork to End of River where the blue line crosses the black line at 43° 59' 19"N, 109° 03' 44"W see MAP

BUT .... Every clue has been a point on the river. And when Fenn described the treasure location at "New Mexico True Stories"(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJBakBqwQVs), he added that he knew that the tresure chest was wet. This location is not near any water. More importantly, you cannot tie that location to the poem. However, aside from the Wood River, the blaze crosses only one other body of water in the area - Dick Creek, which flows into the Wood River. That fact is what lead me to understand what Part 2 was - and a certain verification. Dick Creek can be described using almost the same set of clues!

1. It begins where warm waters halt
2. A portion of it, just above the Wood River, is a cutthroat trout habitat so it's no place for the meek
3. At the start of the habitat, Dick Creek is flowing through a canyon. It reaches the Wood in 5 miles - not far, but too far to walk.
4. The end is ever drawing nigh (Dick Creek turns sharply from E to NNE just before it merges with the Wood River)
5. The Dick Creek is shallow so there's no need for a paddle. Turn around at the where the creek meets the Wood, then wade back up stream.
6. If you've found the blaze, look quickly down to end your quest. In other words, follow the creek until you reach the Blaze.

I believe the solve is in/near Dick creek (in yellow) at the point where the blaze (in red) meets Dick Creek, likely on the north bank, at approximately

43.990878°, -109.058281° (43° 59' 27.16" N , 109° 03' 29.81" W) elevation 6,860 ft

DICK CREEK MEETS THE WOOD RIVER AND THE BLAZE CROSSES DICK CREEK

Dick Creek ref: Wyoming Game and Fish Dept

BUT WAIT!!

The GPS coordinates of the treasure chest were determined by solving only 8 of the 9 clues. What is the significance the ninth clue "But tarry scant with marval gaze, Just take the chest and go in peace?" And why couldn't I solve it?

For one, Fenn had said that the last clue could only be solved BOTG. That makes sense because any solution, mine included, can only provide a close approximation. In this solve, the location is calculated using the coordinates of the dam and Kirwin. These are not exact. The fact that my solve lies on or next to a small body of water limits the search area, but how could one know where the EXACT spot is?

And how can the last clue help in this situation? One way could be by describing the exact location or something marking it. I believe that's exactly what it does.

This idea is not as far fetched as it might seem. A buttery ("but tarry") is a type of panty. Native Americans used grain storage pits which could be considered pantries. Fenn even showed a drawing of such a pit in Scrapbook #233 "Prehistoric Corn". Is one near by?

A scant is a slab of stone. Perhaps there was a yellowish (buttery) stone on top of the hidey spot. I would definitely look "with marvel gaze" if I came across that.

You can come up with your own interpretation, but as I've said before, I believe the final clue decribes the hidey spot in some manner.

THE REST OF THE HINTS

What about the rest of the hints in Fenn's poem, specifically in stanzas 1,5 and 6? Here's how they fit into my solve:

I have gone alone in there with my treasures bold The location is very remote but easy to walk

I can keep my secret where, "secret wheres" appear throughout the poem

hint of riches new and old The chest(new riches) and Kirwin(old mining town)

why is it that I must go WYoming and the Y's

leave my trove Treasure trove is a legal concept

I've done it tired "Tired" could mean driving (a road is close) or using a cart

Your effort will be worth the cold.
If you are brave and in the wood Shoshone NF (Part1)? In Part 2 you're literally "in the Wood" - Brrrr

You have now seen for yourself that my solution fits all of Fenn's hints :

✓ All of the information needed to find the treasure is in the poem
✓ There are nine clues in the poem
✓ The poem will lead to the treasure if you know where to start
✓ The first clue in the poem is 'Begin it where warm waters halt'
✓ "Where warm waters halt" is not a dam
✓ It starts with the first clue and follows the others consecutively to the treasure location
✓ The clues are all married to a map
✓ and all the lines cross in the right spot
✓ As quoted by Fenn from T.S Eliot:"at the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time"
✓ The treasure chest would not be under water, nor is it near the Rio Grande River
✓ It is not in a structure
✓ You wouldn't need to walk a long distance to get to the treasure location
✓ There is no human trail near by
✓ The solve is located above 5,000 ft and below 10,200 ft
✓ It is at least 8.25 miles North of Santa Fe, New Mexico
✓ It is not in grave yard
✓ It is not in a mine, tunnel, or cave
✓ There are pine trees, mountains, sagebrush and the chest would be wet.
✓ See all the other hints mentioned on this site
✓I can attest to the fact that I have "studied the poem over and over, and thought, and analyzed" and I would have moved with confidence - nothing would be coincidental.

"Playing a hunch is not worth much in the search and those who start out by looking for the blaze, are wasting their time." Forrest Fenn

Return to Beginning

Retun to The Solve

AFTERWORD

Armchair treasure hunts have been popular since the publication of Kit Williams' "Masquerade" in 1979. Sometimes when a large prize was promised, a treasure hunt's solution was surrounded by controversy. The biggest reasons for controversy were: the location of the treasure not being revealed; the solution to the puzzle not being revealed, and; the finder was not the solver or vice versa. The outcome of Forrest Fenn's "The Thrill of the Chase" puzzle is similar in that regard.

First and foremost, the Finder has revealed neither the location of the find nor the puzzle's solution. And, based on a December 17, 2021 interview at Mysterious Writings, the Finder might not have solved the entire puzzle. In that interview he makes little mention of the clues and says that the poem is not the point. Basically, he says he read a lot of material about Forrest Fenn, intuited the general area, and then went BOTG to find the blaze.

Aside from that, it's clear that the Finder and I do not share the same solution. First, he believes the blaze is a physical object, e.g., he said the blaze is damaged, that the treasure had been sitting in a nook beneath it, and it took slow and methodical effort on the ground to find it.

Second, Fenn had said many searchers were giving serious thought to the clues, but few were focussed on a word that is key. In spite of this, The Finder said that "a word that is key" was nothing remarkable and scoffed at the idea that a keyword somehow unlocks the poem.

MY COMMENT: The solution to "The Thrill of the Chase" is unique among the larger treasure hunts in a huge way. Like the others, it's very complicated - in this case, clues point to two locations, you cannot solve the clues' locations in order, and two separate solutions are required. It is different because it is totally logical and actually solveable. In other words, it's a great puzzle.

That said, based on my solve, I think a searcher does not need to read anything about Fenn in order to solve the puzzle. Knowing about Fenn's childhood visits to Cody Wy might narrow down the general area quite a bit. But still, somehow you have to find the right river to begin the solve. You cannot determine the clues' locations in order, but, as Fenn said, you need to solve the clues in order.

Also, in my solve, the blaze is clearly not a physical object. And finally, without understanding "the word that is key", I don't see how one could tie all the clues together or even figure all of them out.

Whatever it is, the Finder's solution is clearly not the same as mine. One possible explanation is that my solve is just the product of confirmation bias (in other words, bunk) and not the real solution. But it could also be that the Finder is not the Solver. After all, it wouldn't be the first time that happened in a treasure hunt.

THE END

Forrest Fenn 1930 - 2020 Thanks for the Memories

Brown Mountain Campground ref: U.S. Department of Agriculture

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End of the Chase THE SOLVE - THE WHOLE SOLVE - AND NOTHING BUT THE SOLVE The location of Forrest Fenn's treasure is finally revealed! This is a site for searchers of Forrest Fenn's treasure chest. It reveals the poem's solution, the treasure location, the word that is key, the blaze, and the meaning of IT. This is the only logic-based and complete interpretation of Fenn's TTOTC poem and it reveals quite an extraordinary puzzle. QUICK INTRO: In 2010, an art dealer from Santa Fe named Forrest Fenn published a memoir titled "The Thrill of the Chase". Within that book was a poem which, he said, contained nine clues which would lead a person to a bronze treasure chest filled with over a million dollars worth of treasure. You can use your copy of TTOTC to reference that poem. Over a period of ten years, thousands of searchers scoured the Rocky Mountains in a quest for gold and adventure. The prize remained elusive until June, 2020 when Fenn announced that the chest had been found. He later revealed the Finder's name to be Jack Stuef. To date ( ), no person with inside knowledge of the chase has revealed the location of the find or the solution to the poem. Like so many before me, I believe I have a complete solution that many searchers would appreciate. My solve is unique because it is the only one so far that can be tied to each of Fenn's many hints. You will learn "the word that is key", what the blaze is, and the location of several "secret wheres". You will also finally know the meaning of "it" and I promise "it" will be quite a surprise. And X marks the spot of every clue. Why do I believe that I have The Correct Solve? Because I bear the burden of the curse on every searcher with a solve. ➩The contents of this website, including text, graphics, images, and other material are intended for informational purposes and entertainment only. At least two people know where the late Forrest Fenn hid his treasure - the man who found it and the Chief Ranger of Yellowstone National Park who admitted that Fenn and Jack Stuef revealed the location in August of 2020. My solve is in Wyoming ("WY is it that I must go"), the state which was verified by Fenn on YAHOO News, July 27, 2020. It lies within the jurisdiction of the Dept of Interior. It is not in Yellowstone National Park. There is some controversy about revealing the location of the find. Fenn said in a recording that he would leave it up to the finder to decide whether or not to reveal the chest's location. However, the DOI has taken the position the location should not be made public - the environment is remote, fragile, has no infrastructure and so it would be negatively impacted by any human traffic. So please keep in mind the importance of respecting and preserving all our national lands for the whole of America. In the spirit of The Chase, even if you believe my solution, please stay away from the search area. Plus, since the chest has already been found, THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE THERE. Just enjoy the solution for what it is - a unique and interesting interpretation of the poem and hopefully a satisfying end to a good adventure. After "The Thrill Of The Chase", Fenn published "Too Far To Walk". Within that book was a map which contained several hints. You might have a copy. 1. The map limits the search area to a four state region - northern New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. Before TFTW was published, Fenn placed no limits on the search area. 2. Attention is drawn to the fact that most of the search area is government property. If you have a copy of the map, look at Land Status: BLM Bureau of Land Management, USFS US Forest Service, NPS National Parks Service, FWS Fish and Wildlife Service, Tribal Bureau of Indian Affairs This is important because, for each jurisdiction, there are different legal issues for finding abandoned property. But even more interesting is that each of these agencies fall under the Dept of Interior. Except the USForest Service. If I had recognized the importance of this hint, I would have saved a lot of time. 3. Faint red lines appear across the map like latitude lines. On the map it states that the red lines reflect the magnetic declination for the region. When you use an analog compass, it will point to magnetic north (affected by the earth's magnetic field) rather than true north (the location of the North Pole). While understanding this concept is not necessary to solve the puzzle, it does help with one of the clues. It also provides a pretty big hint.
	MENU The Solve The Basic Solve AfterWord To print a copy of this website To convert this website into an e-book format, go to DotePUB In an interview on Radio New Zealand, April 13, 2013, Fenn said the first clue in the poem is "Begin it where warm waters halt". He added that you don't have anything if you can't figure that clue out.	MY METHOD I first came across Forrest Fenn and "The Thrill of the Chase" in October, 2018. The fact that no one had solved the puzzle after nearly ten years intrigued me. I've been a puzzler and a student of puzzles all my life. I even did several websites about puzzles like "Masquerade" and "The Search For The Golden Horse". For me, like many others, this was the thrill of the chase. First and foremost, I approached the poem totally as a puzzle. This meant that, even though it seems obscure, it's also structured, logical, and cohesive. This turned out to be most helpful because the solve is complicated - clues point to more than one location and you have to follow the clues in order even though you cannot solve the clues in order. Along the very same lines, I also explicated the poem, something I learned to do in a poetry class. Just as each stroke of a painter's brush adds more depth and interest to a painting, so does each word and nuance in a poem. Every component has to be thoroughly examined from many angles to truly understand the depth of its meaning. Finally, I believed that everything Fenn wrote or said related to the Chase was important and must be understood. I kept a lengthy list of such things from interviews, Scrapbooks, "Six Questions" from Mysterious Writings, etc. In the end, everything made sense and the puzzle came together. My solution fits all of Fenn's hints as follows: ✓ All of the information needed to find the treasure is in the poem ✓ There are nine clues in the poem ✓ The poem will lead to the treasure if you know where to start ✓ The first clue in the poem is 'Begin it where warm waters halt' ✓ "Where warm waters halt" is not a dam ✓ It starts with the first clue and follows the others consecutively to the treasure location ✓ The clues are all married to a map ✓ and all the lines cross in the right spot ✓ As quoted by Fenn from T.S Eliot:"at the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time" ✓ The treasure chest would not be under water, nor is it near the Rio Grande River ✓ It is not in a structure ✓ You wouldn't need to walk a long distance to get to the treasure location ✓ There is no human trail near by ✓ The solve is located above 5,000 ft and below 10,200 ft ✓ It is at least 8.25 miles North of Santa Fe, New Mexico ✓ It is not in grave yard ✓ It is not in a mine, tunnel, or cave ✓ As you can see here, there are pine trees, mountains, and sagebrush. At the solve site, the chest would be wet. ✓ See all the other hints mentioned on this site THE BEGINNING The first thing I considered was the poem's stated purpose - to direct a reader to a very specific, tiny spot on the earth. This is quite an extra-ordinary thing to do. Especially with only nine clues to work with. I did not believe that any kind of secret code was involved. The question: How was the "X" that marks the spot created? Every search has to begin somewhere, anywhere. The poem is filled with many allusions related to a river, e.g. paddle, below, canyon, put in. Fenn loved the wilderness and told a lot of fish tales both in "The Thrill of the Chase" and otherwise. So I started with a working premise that the clues would be on, in or near one river. I was not, by any means, the only searcher with this idea. The biggest difficulty with this approach is that you have to first find the right river then see if it you can "marry it" to the poem. There are many hundreds of rivers and tributaries in the four state region. How to filter them? The poem mentions "heavy loads" so I thought perhaps a rail line ran along the river. It turns out that a great many rivers have a rail line running alongside. The poem also had a line "the end is ever drawing nigh". As I'll explain later, I thought this might mean that the river flows north. I searched for a list of all the rivers in the 4 state region that run north. There were over 300 in my final list and that did not include all of them!! I tried to tie the poem to each one in any way I could, but none passed the test. For no apparent reason, I was drawn to the Wind River Canyon south of Boysen Reservoir in Wyoming. The Wind River does run north, has a rail line alongside, and flows past a town named Thermopolis (as in Hot Spring City). "Begin it where warm waters halt". Three clues matched !!! It just had to be right. But I could not make it fit the entire poem. I just sat and stared at it on Google Earth day after day bemoaning my fate. Then, without warning, one day fate came and tapped me on the shoulder. On the verge of giving up and out of sheer desperation, I decided to use Google Earth to look in that area for anything that had a name related to brown. As I panned back from the Wind River Canyon, I noticed Brown Mountain. Oh sure, I thought, just like the hundreds of other places named Brown that have already been searched to death. But I persisted and searched on GE using "Brown mountain". Lo and behold there appeared before me the Brown Mountain campground. Could that be "the home of Brown"?? I zoomed in and OMG it was on a river. The Wood River. "Brave and in the wood"? OMG OMG OMG ✤ marks Wood River ref: Ontheworldmap.com/usa The Wood River Map data ©2022 Google THE SOLVE In this section I'm going to present a lot of details and verifications about the solution for each clue. It would be helpful to use Google Maps or, even better, Google Earth (if you have it installed) to follow the clues as we go along. Start at Wood River WY. If you want to see a bare bones solution, you will find that at Basic Solve. 1. Begin it where warm waters halt Of course the first question that comes to mind is "What exactly is 'it' ". As you'll see, "it" is quite a surprise The logical place to begin is at the physical beginning - the head waters of the river. Ironically, it's a sizeable area in Park County within 20 miles of Hot Springs County. But do warm waters actually halt there? In a word, Yes. The headwaters of the Wood River (inside the blue circle below) are surrounded by geothermal and hydrothermal systems, most notably: Yellowstone Geothermal System to the West (141°F); Cody Hydrothermal System to the North ( 75° F); Hot Springs County to the East which includes Hot springs State Park in Thermopolis (temp 71° to 121° F); and, to the South, Warm Spring Creek Springs (84° F) and Little Warm Springs (77° F). Truly warm waters. ref: "A Summary of Geothermal Potential in Wyoming" by Henry P. Heasler, University of WY, January 1985 The warm waters end in the Abrasoka Mtns which supply the head waters of the Wood and Greybull Rivers. However, the headwaters cover a large area where only a few specific points stand out, e.g. spots where several creeks merge with the river, the remains of a cabin that was built by Amelia Aerhart but never occupied, the ghost gold mining town of Kirwin. The poem at this point doesn't specify an exact spot. It's the first of the secret wheres ("and I can keep my secret where"). 2. Take it in the canyon down, not far, but too far to walk 43.935347°, -109.211828° Down river means in the direction of the river's flow. If you go down the canyon from the headwaters (in this case northward), you eventually get to a sharp turn in the river where JoJo Creek merges with the Wood. It's about 7 - 9 miles from the head waters. 3. Put in below the home of Brown On a river, to "put in" means to pull to shore and get out. If there's a spot specifically designated to do that, it would be called a "put in". "Below" is equivalent to down stream. Since the first two clues were instructions, I guessed that this was also an instruction. A campground is a temporary home. So is the Brown Mountain Campground the home of Brown? Could be! At this point I was convinced that this must be The River. But where exactly to put in? Another "secret where". 4. From there it's no place for the meek 43.931750°, -109.110342° The river just after the BMC is a habitat for native Cutthroat Trout. The habitat ends where the Wood meets the South Fork. 5. The end is ever drawing nigh 44.111775°, -108.957106° This is an intriguing clue. The word "drawing" is what got my attention. "The end is near" seems too obvious. "Drawing" can also mean "to come or go steadily". "Nigh" can mean "on the left side". So drawing nigh cold be interpreted as pulling to the left. On page 1, I mentioned the map from "Too Far To Walk" for a reason. The red lines with marked degrees going across the map show the magnetic declinations for the area. In a nutshell, when you use an analog compass, you always have to make an adjustment because it points to magnetic North rather than True North, i.e., where the North Pole is. In the Western Hemisphere, the adjustment is always left (counter clockwise) of the original compass reading. So could Clue 5 mean that the end of the river is running true north? On the Wood River it is! The last segement of the Wood, which ends at it's confluence with the Greybull, heads due North. Furthermore, this clue might also be interpreted to mean the end is always North. This will be obvious when I reveal the "word that is key". 6. There'll be no paddle up your creek 44.008239°, -109.020450° "Up" on a river is against the flow, so here we turn around and go back "up" the river. The river at this point is usually so low that you cannot paddle in it in a canoe. But how far to go? Yet another "secret where"? There is an irrigation dam on the Wood. Heavy loads - portage required if you're on a float? All dams have "water high" Could be. Fenn suggested that the treasure could be found by making all the lines cross in the right spot. And the geographic location of the clues can make a map leading to the treasure. So I drew lines following the clues on a map of the Wood River. (I used this map on my first trip to the Wood River in June, 2019). Map Data ©2019 Google 1. Headwaters of Wood River (Specific location unknown) 2. End of the North Fork "X" 3. Below the Home of Brown (Specific location unknown) 4. End of the South Fork "X" 5. End of the River "X" 6. Up stream to the dam?
	Dick Creek Slam Map ref: Wyoming Fish and Game	7. Just heavy loads and water high 43.876414°, -109.297929° This can refer to the dam on the Wood River, but it can also refer to Kirwin, an old mining town ("hint of riches new and old") at the source of the river (heavy loads of ore and water at highest elevation on the river). Here is where I got stuck for quite a while. But then the next clue and something Fenn said lead me to the blaze. And then it all came together. He quoted the following from T.S. Eliot: "We shall not cease from our exploration And at the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time" I had noticed that the word "end" described three of my clues. Could "end" be the "word that is key"? I came up with this: 1. End of warm waters 2. End of the North Fork of the Wood 3. End of a float (you begin it at clue 1 and end it when you put in below the HOB) 4. End of the South Fork of the Wood 5. End of the Wood River 6. end of what? at the dam 7. end of what? at Kirwin 8. If you've been wise and found the blaze, Look quickly down, your quest to cease, 43.933800°, -109.177203° "Been wise" means "been Y's" ("Y is it that I must go"). Every place where rivers/streams converge makes a Y. Use Google Earth and see the Y at clue 2, clue 4, clue 5, and yes, at the dam, clue 6. So we've gone over the Y's and should have "found the blaze". But why look down? Since we put in below the HOB at clue 3 (and none of the other clues are instructions), we are still standing at that unknown spot on the river. Draw a line (blue here) connecting the dam to Kirwin (clue 7) and see what happens! Map Data ©2019 Google The blue line completes the blaze, an imaginary line (in aviation, a radial) running 236.63° from the dam on the Wood River to Kirwin. It crosses the Wood River below the HOB and we are standing directly on/underneath it! And each clue now has an X to mark the spot. I used this map on my second trip to the Wood River in October, 2019. Now you have: 1. End of warm waters 2. End of the North Fork of the Wood 3. End of a float (you begin it at clue 1 and end it when you put in below the HOB) 4. End of the South Fork of the Wood 5. End of the Wood River 6. End of the Y's 7. End of the Blaze back at Kirwin 8. The location of the "secret where" where you're standing below the HOB It appears that each clue is the END of something. Kirwin is the beginning and the end of the blaze. Could this also be true for the rest of the clues? YES Clue 1. Kirwin End of warm waters and the beginning of The north fork, a float, the Forks, the river, the Y's, the blaze, ??, the Chase 43.876414°, -109.297929° Clue 2. End of the North Fork 43.935347°, -109.211828° Clue 3. End of a float 43.933800°, -109.177203° Clue 4. End of the Forks 43.931750°, -109.110342° Clue 5. End of the river 44.111775°, -108.957106° Clue 6. End of the Y's 44.008239°, -109.020450° Clue 7. End of the blaze 43.876414°, -109.297929° Clue 8. End of ?? (location of the put in below the HOB) 43.933800°, -109.177203° Clue 9. End of the chase (the next 2 lines in the poem - But tarry scant with marvel gaze, Just take the chest and go in peace) So "it" refers to all the things that Kirwin begins! Amazing! But what about Clue 8? We know where it is but what is it the end of? This took the most time to solve. I knew I had to follow the blaze to get to the chest. But to where (there's that word again)? The blaze crossed a small spring near the Brown Mountain Campground, but I couldn't tie it to the poem. My main mistake at this point was that I believed that the chest was hidden in Shoshone National Forest ("brave and in the wood"?) which is not within the purview of the Dept of the Interior. I stood at that very spot below the home of Brown and wondered how that last clue could possibly get me to the hidey spot. It turns out that Clue 8 is just the end of Part 1 - Finding the Blaze. I didn't realize any of this when I searched the area up and around that spring. I left empty handed, disappointed, and determined to return with a new ending the following June. Then the COVID pandemic happpened. Then the chest was found. PART 2 - THE CLUES AGAIN One possible location of the chest might be where the Blaze crosses the radial from end of South Fork to End of River where the blue line crosses the black line at 43° 59' 19"N, 109° 03' 44"W see MAP BUT .... Every clue has been a point on the river. And when Fenn described the treasure location at "New Mexico True Stories"(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJBakBqwQVs), he added that he knew that the tresure chest was wet. This location is not near any water. More importantly, you cannot tie that location to the poem. However, aside from the Wood River, the blaze crosses only one other body of water in the area - Dick Creek, which flows into the Wood River. That fact is what lead me to understand what Part 2 was - and a certain verification. Dick Creek can be described using almost the same set of clues! 1. It begins where warm waters halt 2. A portion of it, just above the Wood River, is a cutthroat trout habitat so it's no place for the meek 3. At the start of the habitat, Dick Creek is flowing through a canyon. It reaches the Wood in 5 miles - not far, but too far to walk. 4. The end is ever drawing nigh (Dick Creek turns sharply from E to NNE just before it merges with the Wood River) 5. The Dick Creek is shallow so there's no need for a paddle. Turn around at the where the creek meets the Wood, then wade back up stream. 6. If you've found the blaze, look quickly down to end your quest. In other words, follow the creek until you reach the Blaze. I believe the solve is in/near Dick creek (in yellow) at the point where the blaze (in red) meets Dick Creek, likely on the north bank, at approximately 43.990878°, -109.058281° (43° 59' 27.16" N , 109° 03' 29.81" W) elevation 6,860 ft DICK CREEK MEETS THE WOOD RIVER AND THE BLAZE CROSSES DICK CREEK Dick Creek ref: Wyoming Game and Fish Dept BUT WAIT!! The GPS coordinates of the treasure chest were determined by solving only 8 of the 9 clues. What is the significance the ninth clue "But tarry scant with marval gaze, Just take the chest and go in peace?" And why couldn't I solve it? For one, Fenn had said that the last clue could only be solved BOTG. That makes sense because any solution, mine included, can only provide a close approximation. In this solve, the location is calculated using the coordinates of the dam and Kirwin. These are not exact. The fact that my solve lies on or next to a small body of water limits the search area, but how could one know where the EXACT spot is? And how can the last clue help in this situation? One way could be by describing the exact location or something marking it. I believe that's exactly what it does. This idea is not as far fetched as it might seem. A buttery ("but tarry") is a type of panty. Native Americans used grain storage pits which could be considered pantries. Fenn even showed a drawing of such a pit in Scrapbook #233 "Prehistoric Corn". Is one near by? A scant is a slab of stone. Perhaps there was a yellowish (buttery) stone on top of the hidey spot. I would definitely look "with marvel gaze" if I came across that. You can come up with your own interpretation, but as I've said before, I believe the final clue decribes the hidey spot in some manner. THE REST OF THE HINTS What about the rest of the hints in Fenn's poem, specifically in stanzas 1,5 and 6? Here's how they fit into my solve: I have gone alone in there with my treasures bold The location is very remote but easy to walk I can keep my secret where, "secret wheres" appear throughout the poem hint of riches new and old The chest(new riches) and Kirwin(old mining town) why is it that I must go WYoming and the Y's leave my trove Treasure trove is a legal concept I've done it tired "Tired" could mean driving (a road is close) or using a cart Your effort will be worth the cold. If you are brave and in the wood Shoshone NF (Part1)? In Part 2 you're literally "in the Wood" - Brrrr You have now seen for yourself that my solution fits all of Fenn's hints : ✓ All of the information needed to find the treasure is in the poem ✓ There are nine clues in the poem ✓ The poem will lead to the treasure if you know where to start ✓ The first clue in the poem is 'Begin it where warm waters halt' ✓ "Where warm waters halt" is not a dam ✓ It starts with the first clue and follows the others consecutively to the treasure location ✓ The clues are all married to a map ✓ and all the lines cross in the right spot ✓ As quoted by Fenn from T.S Eliot:"at the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time" ✓ The treasure chest would not be under water, nor is it near the Rio Grande River ✓ It is not in a structure ✓ You wouldn't need to walk a long distance to get to the treasure location ✓ There is no human trail near by ✓ The solve is located above 5,000 ft and below 10,200 ft ✓ It is at least 8.25 miles North of Santa Fe, New Mexico ✓ It is not in grave yard ✓ It is not in a mine, tunnel, or cave ✓ There are pine trees, mountains, sagebrush and the chest would be wet. ✓ See all the other hints mentioned on this site ✓I can attest to the fact that I have "studied the poem over and over, and thought, and analyzed" and I would have moved with confidence - nothing would be coincidental.


	"Playing a hunch is not worth much in the search and those who start out by looking for the blaze, are wasting their time." Forrest Fenn Return to Beginning Retun to The Solve	AFTERWORD Armchair treasure hunts have been popular since the publication of Kit Williams' "Masquerade" in 1979. Sometimes when a large prize was promised, a treasure hunt's solution was surrounded by controversy. The biggest reasons for controversy were: the location of the treasure not being revealed; the solution to the puzzle not being revealed, and; the finder was not the solver or vice versa. The outcome of Forrest Fenn's "The Thrill of the Chase" puzzle is similar in that regard. First and foremost, the Finder has revealed neither the location of the find nor the puzzle's solution. And, based on a December 17, 2021 interview at Mysterious Writings, the Finder might not have solved the entire puzzle. In that interview he makes little mention of the clues and says that the poem is not the point. Basically, he says he read a lot of material about Forrest Fenn, intuited the general area, and then went BOTG to find the blaze. Aside from that, it's clear that the Finder and I do not share the same solution. First, he believes the blaze is a physical object, e.g., he said the blaze is damaged, that the treasure had been sitting in a nook beneath it, and it took slow and methodical effort on the ground to find it. Second, Fenn had said many searchers were giving serious thought to the clues, but few were focussed on a word that is key. In spite of this, The Finder said that "a word that is key" was nothing remarkable and scoffed at the idea that a keyword somehow unlocks the poem. MY COMMENT: The solution to "The Thrill of the Chase" is unique among the larger treasure hunts in a huge way. Like the others, it's very complicated - in this case, clues point to two locations, you cannot solve the clues' locations in order, and two separate solutions are required. It is different because it is totally logical and actually solveable. In other words, it's a great puzzle. That said, based on my solve, I think a searcher does not need to read anything about Fenn in order to solve the puzzle. Knowing about Fenn's childhood visits to Cody Wy might narrow down the general area quite a bit. But still, somehow you have to find the right river to begin the solve. You cannot determine the clues' locations in order, but, as Fenn said, you need to solve the clues in order. Also, in my solve, the blaze is clearly not a physical object. And finally, without understanding "the word that is key", I don't see how one could tie all the clues together or even figure all of them out. Whatever it is, the Finder's solution is clearly not the same as mine. One possible explanation is that my solve is just the product of confirmation bias (in other words, bunk) and not the real solution. But it could also be that the Finder is not the Solver. After all, it wouldn't be the first time that happened in a treasure hunt. THE END Forrest Fenn 1930 - 2020 Thanks for the Memories Brown Mountain Campground ref: U.S. Department of Agriculture



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