Millionaire Art Dealer Sparked Decade Long Hunt After Hiding $2m Of Treasure
Texan tycoon Forrest Fenn successfully launched the treasure hunt in 2010
Art dealer Forrest Fenn hid a £2m chest of gold and jewellery in the Rocky Mountain, resulting in a 10-year global treasure hunt.
The Texan tycoon Forrest Fenn, who passed away in 2020, successfully launched the treasure hunt in 2010.
Around 350,000 are said to have joined the hunt in the hopes of discovering the secret treasure trove.
Thrill seekers spent thousands of pounds travelling to the Rocky Mountains, where the treasure chest was allegedly hidden.
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Miriam de Fronzo, a massage therapist from Florida, spent four years knee-deep in all things Forrest Fenn as she pinned her hopes on making the discovery.
De Fronzo admitted to spending between $2,000 and $3,000 on each of her trips.
Fenn, who flew 328 missions in Vietnam as a combat pilot in the U.S Air force, was skilled in flying several different aircraft, including 'most of the later jets' at the time, and also went through helicopter school.
Following the Cold War, Fenn flew the supersonic F-100C jet during nuclear alert missions in Germany under the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC).
Fenn, later took up as a job as an art dealer once he retired from the Air Force.
Some of the paintings, arrowheads and Indian artefacts were left in the bronze chest as part of the £2m treasure hunt.
In 1988, Fenn was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer which left him questioning how he could leave his mark on history.
His cancer battle prompted him to write The Thrill of the Chase and sparked the global treasure hunt.
Fenn told newspapers that he had invented the hunt to give families a reason to 'get off their couches' and experience nature.
And despite five men dying in pursuit of Fenn's treasure, he never called off the hunt, simply calling the deaths 'tragic'.
In 2017, Fenn told the New York Times: “If someone drowns in the swimming pool we shouldn’t drain the pool. We should teach people to swim.”
The hunt for Fenn's treasure ended in 2020.
A medical student is said to have found the £2m chest, and sent photographic proof to Fenn.
Fenn revealed the location of the chest in his own cryptic way, still not quite saying exactly where it had been found.
He said: "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."
The UNILAD Team