A rollicking, funny, and personal account of the band of eccentrics who scoured the Rocky Mountains from 2010 to 2020 in search of New Mexico art dealer Forest Fenn's hidden chest of gold and jewels. The author started searching for the treasure in 2017 but eventually became more taken with his fellow hunters than the treasure itself. Full of plot twists and insights into the nature of obsession, this is a great read for fans of The Orchid Thief and Born to Run.Publisher description:
A full-throttle, first-person account of the treasure hunt set in motion by Forest Fenn--an eccentric art dealer and, some would say, robber baron--in 2010 that lasted a full decade and became the stuff of contemporary legend. When Forest Fenn was told he was going to die, he hid a chest full of jewels and gold in the wilderness and published a poem that contained a series of clues about the treasure's secret location. But he didn't die, and he wouldn't reveal the location. The wild hunt went on for another ten years. Daniel Barbarisi first learned of Fenn's hunt in 2017 when a friend began decoding the poem and convinced Barbarisi to catalogue his search. What began as a great story documenting the history of Fenn's treasure hunt--the rumors, characters, and pitfalls--quickly turned into a personal quest, as Barbarisi found himself on a sometimes reckless and possibly dead-end path, despite having a family at home. Over the course of the next three years, several searchers would die, endless controversies would erupt, and one anonymous unknown would find the ultimate prize. Rich with mystery, danger, and break-neck action, Barbarisi's account of the imagination and drive of desire, of obsession, and of a particularly unbridled adventure is pure gold on the page.