New Mexico millionaire’s $1m treasure chest hidden in Rocky Mountains found

Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, June 8

A chest full of gold, jewels and other valuables worth over $1m has been found in the Rocky Mountains in North America, bringing to an end a decade-long hunt for the treasure chest, the BBC reported on Monday.

Antiques collector Forrest Fenn hid the treasure chest in the wilderness over a decade ago and started a treasure hunt, publishing a series of clues to the treasure’s location online and in a 24-line poem that was published in his 2010 autobiography ‘The Thrill of the Chase’.

It has since drawn several adventure seekers, several of them even quitting their jobs, the BBC report said. At least four people have died trying to seek the hidden treasure.

That hunt has now come to an end—Fenn, an 89-year-old millionaire from New Mexico, said a man from “back East” has finally found the treasure chest.

“It was under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago,” a statement on his website reads.

“I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot. I congratulate the thousands of people who participated in the search and hope they will continue to be drawn by the promise of other discoveries. So the search is over. Look for more information and photos in the coming days,” the statement says.

The BBC report also quoted Fenn as having told his local paper, the Santa Fe New Mexican, that the man who found the treasure did not want his name to be released but had confirmed the find by sending over a photograph.

Fenn said the 9-kg chest contained rare gold coins, antique jewellery, pre-Columbian animal figures, prehistoric hammered gold ‘mirrors’ and ancient Chinese faces carved from jade, BBC said.