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FORREST FENN REPORTS TREASURE FOUNDRichard Miranda, Arthur Shippee and Dick Hanscom passed along this new story about that Forest Fenn treasure. -Editor
Fenn, 89, told the Santa Fe New Mexican that a treasure hunter located the chest a few days ago. "The guy who found it does not want his name mentioned. He's from back East," Fenn said, adding that it was confirmed from a photograph the man sent him. Fenn did not reveal exactly where it had been hidden. Fenn posted clues to the treasure's whereabouts online and in a 24-line poem that was published in his 2010 autobiography "The Thrill of the Chase." Hundreds of thousands have hunted in vain across remote corners of the U.S. West for the bronze chest believed to be filled with gold coins, jewelry and other valuable items. Many quit their jobs to dedicate themselves to the search and others depleted their life savings. At least four people died searching for it. Fenn, who lives in Santa Fe, said he hid his treasure as a way to tempt people to get into the wilderness and give them a chance to launch an old-fashioned adventure and expedition for riches. For more than a decade, he packed and repacked his treasure chest, sprinkling in gold dust and adding hundreds of rare gold coins and gold nuggets. Pre-Columbian animal figures went in, along with prehistoric "mirrors" of hammered gold, ancient Chinese faces carved from jade and antique jewelry with rubies and emeralds. Fenn told The New Mexican in 2017 that the chest weighs 20 pounds and its contents weigh another 22 pounds. He said he delivered the chest to its hiding place by himself over two separate trips. Asked how he felt now that the treasure has been found, Fenn said: "I don't know, I feel halfway kind of glad, halfway kind of sad because the chase is over." I was surprised to see mainstream publications including the New York Times carrying this story without seeming to investigate its claim. All along people have taken Fenn at his word that the treasure exists in the first place, even after treasure hunters have died searching for it. And now that he claims it's been found we have no evidence of that, either. I'm not from Missouri, but please Show Me. -Editor
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However, while the Daily Mail tabloid isn't a paragon of fact-checking accuracy, it did publish the first article I'd seen questioning the existence of Fenn's treasure. Thanks to Dick Hanscom for passing this along. -Editor But some people have expressed skepticism over Fenn's announcement given the lack of details about who found the treasure, when and where. Among the critics is Linda Bilyeu, whose ex-husband, Randy Bilyeu, disappeared during his search in the New Mexico wilderness in January 2016 and was found dead six months later. 'I believe [Fenn] never hid the treasure,' Linda Bilyeu told Westworld on Monday morning. 'He needed attention and this is how he got it. Fenn needed more attention, which is why he said the treasure has been found with "no proof." 'Randy lost his life searching for "nothing."'
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The New York Post has one of the best articles I've seen so far. Interesting reading, at least. -Editor Fenn, who has readily admitted that he sold forged art at his gallery in the past, has said little else, and has not made the image of the "found" treasure chest public. He did not return phone or email messages from The Post. So far, his announcement, which effectively ended the treasure hunt, has resulted in a great deal of bitterness and even a lawsuit. "This is all really heartbreaking. When I heard the news last week I just freaked out," said Barbara Andersen, a Chicago lawyer who claims she spent tens of thousands of dollars on 20 trips to New Mexico and had communicated her findings in dozens of emails to Fenn over the years. She alleges her computer was hacked and her "solve stolen" by a man she doesn't know who had been threatening her with texts over the last few months. She filed suit against Fenn and the "unknown defendant" in Chicago federal court on Monday, two days after Fenn's announcement. The unidentified hunter "found the precise location of the Forrest Fenn treasure not because he solved the puzzle, but because he intentionally hacked Andersen's computer and e-mails … and stalked Andersen physically at the location site," the lawsuit charges. Andersen, 47, who refuses to give up the search, spoke to The Post from a campsite in New Mexico. She said that she was first drawn to the state after Fenn offered a clue in a blog post where he showed a picture of a beat-up hat with a large hole in it. "If you look closely the hole is in the shape of the state of New Mexico," said Andersen, who has made the trips to search for the treasure accompanied by her dog, Cupcake. Thousands of others are also furious at Fenn, a transplanted Texan and former Air Force pilot who flew in hundreds of combat missions during the Vietnam war, and has long run the Old Santa Fe Trading Company where he has a vast collection of arrowheads and native American art. "Why aren't you showing us the picture?" demanded Terry Kasberg, a Florida realtor who has spent the last four years searching for the treasure, and belongs to a Facebook group of more than 4,000 ardent treasure seekers — "Treasures Galore" — devoted to sharing information about the search for Fenn's cache. He said he has read Fenn's book 23 times searching for clues. "Everyone is really concerned because there is a real lack of transparency," he told The Post. "It has left everyone in a depressed state of mind."
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Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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