In 1939, when Forrest Fenn was nine years old, he found his first treasure. It was a small arrowhead
A tall and sprightly elderly man carries something into his car. He adjusts his cowboy hat and drives away from his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The car heads north, into the Rocky Mountains. The world doesn’t know it yet, but this is the start of one of history’s greatest treasure hunts.
Eventually, the man arrives at his destination, deep in the wilds of the Rockies. He carefully removes his precious cargo from his car. It’s a Romanesque (dating to Roman times) bronze chest, with beautiful carvings decorating the outside. The chest itself is a square foot in size and is worth about $25,000.
He hikes to a certain spot, leaves the chest in his chosen hiding place, and returns home.
Sometime later, he comes back to the place where he hid the chest. This time he is carrying millions of dollars’ worth of ancient treasures. Among the hoard are precious gems like rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds. There is also gold. Lots of gold. Hundreds of golden nuggets and gold artifacts dating to before the time of Columbus. There are also several Chinese jade figurines. All in all, the treasure weighs about 42 pounds (19kg).
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