By Tim Binnall
An individual who appears to have been the person that found Forrest Fenn's legendary treasure has broken their silence and shared details about the remarkable experience. Calling themselves simply 'The Finder,' the mysterious treasure hunter penned a lengthy blog post at the website Medium in which they reflected on the eccentric art dealer's recent passing and provided some insights into how they ultimately determined the location of his elusive riches. The writer also included several never-before-seen images of Fenn inspecting the recovered cache which would seem to confirm that, indeed, the author was the one who discovered the treasure.
Although the finder did not reveal the exact location where the riches were found, they explained that they deduced the area by figuring out where Fenn wished to die, since the creator of the chase had long said that he hoped to be buried with the treasure, and then "it took me many months to figure out the exact spot." Specifically, the writer said that they "spent about 25 full days of failure looking for the treasure at that location before getting it" and mused that the moment in which they solved the mystery "was not the triumphant Hollywood ending some surely envisioned; it just felt like I had just survived something and was fortunate to come out the other end."
As for how they came up with the initial idea for solving where the treasure was hidden, the finder did not specifically say, but did seem to hint that it came to them by way of "a couple of subtle slip-ups" that Fenn made to reporters which "apparently haven't been caught by anyone besides me." In praising the art dealer's tremendous generosity, the writer marveled that "in a final act of selflessness, in what should have been his moment of redemption, he went to great lengths to protect my anonymity." To that end, the finder gave very little biographical information about themselves aside from the fact that they are "a millennial and have student loans to pay off, so it wouldn’t be prudent to continue to own the Fenn Treasure."
What will become of the riches now has yet to be determined as the finder indicated that they intend to sell it and expressed the opinion that "it should belong to a person or institution who will fully appreciate owning such an incredible thing." However, they also noted that "Forrest had a final wish for where he thought the treasure should end up" and that they are currently trying "to make that happen." Regardless of what ultimately becomes of the riches, the finder promised that "I’ll be back to answer some questions," but stressed that they do not plan on revealing where the treasure was hidden since they hope for the location to remain pristine, meaning that the ultimate answer to the mystery of the Fenn Treasure may continue on for quite some time.