From "A Statement on the Disclosure of My Identity" by Jack Stuef (Medium), via "Adventurer who discovered hidden treasure left by eccentric antique dealer is unmasked" (WaPo). See also, "The Man Who Found Forrest Fenn's Treasure/The decade-long hunt captured the world's attention, but when it finally ended in June, everyone still wanted to know: Who had solved the mystery? This week, as legal proceedings threaten his anonymity, a 32-year-old medical student is ready to go on the record" (Outside Magazine).
December 9, 2020
"When I found the treasure, it ended the hopes of the many people around the world who wanted to one day find it."
"I understand both the disappointment and disbelief many have and are experiencing and do not take personally the vitriolic comments made about me or the conspiracy theories that some seem to find comfort. But, to be clear, I am not and was never employed by Forrest, nor did he 'pick' me in any way to 'retrieve' the treasure. I was a stranger to him and found the treasure as he designed it to be found.... I do not see myself as being better than anyone else who searched for the treasure because I found it. I do not think more or less of anyone based on how close they were to its location, and I don’t think anyone else should either. This treasure hunt was not a referendum on anyone’s intelligence or abilities. Rather, it was a fun challenge based on figuring out what the words of a poem meant to the elderly man who wrote them, and nothing more than that.
I do not care to spend my time disputing anyone’s convictions about where the treasure was. Everyone is entitled to their opinion in the United States of America. But when they sue me, they cross a line.
This is an abuse of the court system...."
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36 comments:
Outside magazine! That's the one you get free from ordering online from certain sports equipment makers and it's really hard to cancel the free subscription. It takes several phone calls.
Awful mag.
Season 5 of 'Longmire' has treasure hunters running around trying to decipher the meaning of a poem that will lead them to a treasure...
I'm assuming this real-life story was the inspiration for their story line.
'Longmire' is shot in New Mexico but the location is supposed to be Wyoming.
They all sound about half loony to me.
One of the lawsuits, filed immediately after Fenn announced the hunt was over, also targets the unknown finder as a defendant, claiming that he had stolen the plaintiff’s solve and used it to find the chest. That litigation had advanced to a procedural stage during which the finder expected his name would likely come out in court. So while he remained guarded about his solve and the location where he discovered the treasure, he now didn’t mind telling me who he really was.
I'm unclear as to why his name would "likely come out in court". Are the details of such cases a matter of public record?
You're locked in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and a lawyer. You have a pistol and two bullets. Q: What do you do? A: Shoot the lawyer. Twice.
Nope. Shoot Hitler and Stalin and then beat the lawyer to death with the empty pistol.
Hopefully he gets to keep the treasure.
Last nights episode of NCIS, centered on an eccentric that hid a treasure and published coded clues. I mentioned that it mirrored a real life event. This is the first I heard the real treasure was found
i thought Fen's treasure was that he was the person that said:
The Left doesn't really believe in the things they lecture the rest of us about
you know? back before Professor Althouse banned him?
He was unmasked?! Does he want to kill Mawmaw -- or was it Susan Rice who ordered the unmasking?
https://www.reddit.com/r/FindingFennsGold/comments/971c7k/what_this_subreddit_has_been_like_recently/
When I saw it wasn't a technical solve I kind of lost interest. Some people did a 'narrowing' of the geographic possibilities and I used that to hazard a guess- in Wyoming. Based on the photo of the chest where it was found I doubt it was my spot...
Unmasking? Isn't that dangerous?
None of this sounds the least bit interesting, and even the comments lack a certain verve.
And I'm guessing that a "solve" is what the cool kids call a solution nowadays?
Narr
I'll look for a cafe later
Was there a sheet metal monolith involved? If not, why not?
That's a pretty interesting story! Thanks for highlighting it.
I like the "litigiousness" tag; it kind of encompasses both of my thoughts: "people are crazy" and "people are sore losers".
That was refreshing. There was similar anger and conspiracy-mongering about that Golden Rabbit treasure a couple of decades ago. I have participated in and designed much smaller versions of sending people out in groups to find information or smaller treasures, though those have all be created with the idea of completing it in an evening in a restricted geographic area. But it is exhilarating to pit yourself against the words and pictures of another, trying to fathom what they meant and how the ambiguities resolve - or, as the designer, to look at one's own words and try to understand how others will see them.
People who like that sort of puzzle-solving hunt can likely extrapolate from this post what the rest would be like.
https://assistantvillageidiot.blogspot.com/2011/01/road-rally-ii.html
Arashi said...
Nope. Shoot Hitler and Stalin and then beat the lawyer to death with the empty pistol.
Point the pistol at Hitler and Stalin, tell them to beat the lawyer to death (not that you'd really need a pistol to get them to do that) and you'll spare their lives. Once that's done shoot Hitler and Stalin. When they scream in their final agonies; "You lied to us!", you reply; "So sue me!".
rhhardin said...
Outside magazine! That's the one you get free from ordering online from certain sports equipment makers and it's really hard to cancel the free subscription. It takes several phone calls.
Awful mag.
Outside was a worth paying for back in the '70's. Of course that is the same time I had a Patagonia raincoat to keep me dry and a North Face parka to keep me warm, not as fashion statements.
"Outside was a worth paying for back in the '70's."
I enjoyed it until they dialed the "Econut" setting up to 11.
Whole thing sounds like a trailer park dumpster fire to me.
Completely specious reasons for not revealing the solution. As an obvious result, no one is going to know if he actually solved the puzzle or not.
Sorry, but that's on him. The only acceptable excuse I can see for his actions is that he didn't really solve it. Then it would be perfectly understandable.
Hey, that guy owes me money!
My Precious!!
Are the details of such cases a matter of public record?
Generally court records, whether criminal or civil, are public. They can be sealed but that is usually for specific situations, like when it involves a child. For example court cases that involve adoption proceedings are typically sealed. This doesn't mean that everything that comes out during a court case is part of the record. During discovery parties will ask questions and request documents from the other party and those answers and documents are generally not part of the court record.
Blogger Joe Smith said...
Season 5 of 'Longmire' has treasure hunters running around trying to decipher the meaning of a poem that will lead them to a treasure...
Even bigger, the latest episode of NCIS has the Gibbs group hunting for a treasure cache.
Suing him?
Time for a Rule 12(b)(6), plus attorney fees for filing a frivolous complaint.
I would have been the one to find the treasure if I'd known about it.
No one disputes that. Not even the guy who found it.
Back in the late 1970s, Metagaming, an Austin game company published a solo adventure for their Melee and Wizard fantasy games called The Treasure of the Silver Dragon. The game also included clues to a buried treasure - a silver dragon miniature. The company also promised (and delivered) a check for $10,000. The treasure was found buried near the solar observatory in Sunspot, NM in a week or so by a grad student from UT Austin.
A year later, they did a second treasure hunt module, the Treasure of the Golden Unicorn, that was never found. From the clues it's pretty clear that it was in a park in Tennessee near a nuclear power plant (the exact park is either a state park or national forest park area - opinions differ). At least one of the locations is now under water - it appears that the river bordering the parks is now higher or changed course. The other is in an area that suffered a forest fire at about that time. If the Golden Unicorn was never found, Metagaming was going to retrieve it and award it in a drawing in 1984. It was never found, and Metagaming went out of business in 1983 and the owner has never said what happened. It is believed that either he retrieved it or it was washed away/ destroyed in the fire.
I had a subscription to Outside for 30+ years. Back in the late 70s and early 80s, it had some great writers such as David Quammen. I will even suggest Krakauer; they had an extract from his Everest book, Into Thin Air, before the book came out (also thought well of his Mormon book). Ditto for Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods." Then they went down the tubes. Much later, I sat down and went through about six issues I hadn't read and there pretty much wasn't a single article I wanted to read. Plus they ramped up on sending out separate catalog issues that were all about selling stuff. Canceled the subscription years ago.
--gpm
What are the chances? I have that Golden Unicorn right here!
No, wait, that's a Big Gold Dog.
Narr
No horn, dead giveaway
I guess I'm not part of "the world" or "everyone."
I ripped the map out of my copy of Treasure Island and kept it in a secret place for a long time. I don't even know anymore what my nine-year-old self thought she was doing.
The Kraken is in that chest. Guy has a moral obligation to turn it over.
I guess the finder wants some fame for finding it. If they were more sporting; they would have left a note at the previous location with a note as a clue on how to figure out the identity of the finder.
If you click the Outside Magazine link you learn the finder of the treasure is a former BuzzFeed writer who mocked Sarah Palin's mentally challenged child and tried to "out" a popular comic artist as a closet "Republican." (The comic guy was forced to declare "I voted for Obama twice!")
So it's a compelling story with an unsympathetic character is what I'm saying.
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