1
00:00:07,007 --> 00:00:09,009
[brooding music playing]

2
00:00:12,053 --> 00:00:14,264
- [bird of prey cries]
- [Forrest] It's the Rocky Mountains.

3
00:00:14,347 --> 00:00:16,433
There are certain rules
that you need to observe

4
00:00:16,516 --> 00:00:18,184
when you go into the forest.

5
00:00:18,685 --> 00:00:21,271
I would urge people
to know where you're going.

6
00:00:21,354 --> 00:00:23,690
The mountains can be terribly unforgiving.

7
00:00:25,150 --> 00:00:28,486
But, you know, the American people
should not have to be told those things.

8
00:00:28,570 --> 00:00:32,282
There are always exceptions,
and they learn the hard way.

9
00:00:33,616 --> 00:00:36,661
[Ben] Randy Bilyeu's death
was huge news, international news.

10
00:00:36,745 --> 00:00:39,330
[reporter 1] <i>Fenn told </i>Inside Edition
<i>it's not his fault</i>

11
00:00:39,414 --> 00:00:40,915
<i>people are risking their lives.</i>

12
00:00:40,999 --> 00:00:44,044
{\an8}Now, we asked Forrest Fenn
if he would stop the treasure hunts

13
00:00:44,127 --> 00:00:46,254
{\an8}to try to save lives.
He wouldn't give us an answer.

14
00:00:50,175 --> 00:00:52,218
[Ben] You might think
all this bad news about the hunt

15
00:00:52,302 --> 00:00:54,095
would've been a cautionary tale

16
00:00:54,179 --> 00:00:56,389
and that the number of hunters
would've dwindled…

17
00:00:56,473 --> 00:00:58,016
[horns honking]

18
00:00:58,099 --> 00:00:59,434
…but, instead, in effect,

19
00:00:59,517 --> 00:01:02,145
it was a tremendously successful
advertising campaign.

20
00:01:03,605 --> 00:01:07,317
The more national attention it got,
the more people poured into the hunt.

21
00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:09,486
[reporter 2] <i>Santa Fe has seen</i>
<i>a dramatic influx</i>

22
00:01:09,569 --> 00:01:12,947
<i>of what we're calling treasure tourism</i>
<i>since this first death occurred.</i>

23
00:01:13,531 --> 00:01:16,284
[Cynthia] All the media attention
just meant

24
00:01:16,367 --> 00:01:20,121
that there are more and more searchers
hearing about this for the first time.

25
00:01:20,205 --> 00:01:21,748
I mean, one guy dies,

26
00:01:21,831 --> 00:01:27,754
and now there's 50,000 more people
that year going out into the mountains,

27
00:01:27,837 --> 00:01:31,007
not knowing what the hell they're doing,
and risk their lives.

28
00:01:31,508 --> 00:01:35,887
[Ben] It drew in, like, a whole new wave
of desperate characters to it,

29
00:01:35,970 --> 00:01:39,808
and it's not just a few people now
who are searching for it.

30
00:01:39,891 --> 00:01:43,186
You know that there are tens of thousands,
if not hundreds of thousands, of people

31
00:01:43,269 --> 00:01:44,896
doing the exact same thing you are.

32
00:01:44,979 --> 00:01:47,816
You're all in competition,
and only one person's gonna win.

33
00:01:47,899 --> 00:01:50,777
So it brought in a new group of people,

34
00:01:50,860 --> 00:01:52,946
but it also brought a lot of trouble,

35
00:01:53,029 --> 00:01:56,032
and it's a much more competitive,
high-pressure situation.

36
00:01:56,116 --> 00:01:57,075
[dramatic music playing]

37
00:01:57,158 --> 00:02:00,703
[Justin] I have to wonder, if Forrest knew
everything that would come to pass,

38
00:02:00,787 --> 00:02:02,956
would he have hidden the treasure again,

39
00:02:03,039 --> 00:02:05,375
and would he have done things differently?

40
00:02:07,544 --> 00:02:08,837
[bear roars]

41
00:02:09,420 --> 00:02:10,463
[metallic ringing]

42
00:02:12,799 --> 00:02:14,175
[music fades]

43
00:02:14,259 --> 00:02:16,636
[whooshing]

44
00:02:18,847 --> 00:02:20,849
[upbeat music playing]

45
00:02:26,062 --> 00:02:28,314
"Treasure Hunter," huh?

46
00:02:29,023 --> 00:02:31,693
All right, so you weren't lying.
This isn't a totally different show.

47
00:02:31,776 --> 00:02:34,946
- It's not a <i>Love Island-</i>type thing.
- [woman] It's not a prank show.

48
00:02:35,029 --> 00:02:38,283
Well, I'm waiting
for the ex-girlfriend to jump out.

49
00:02:38,366 --> 00:02:40,285
That kid looks sorta like me.

50
00:02:40,368 --> 00:02:41,578
[man 1 laughing]

51
00:02:41,661 --> 00:02:42,829
Good Lord. [chuckles]

52
00:02:45,290 --> 00:02:46,833
{\an8}I'm not a treasure-hunt guy.

53
00:02:46,916 --> 00:02:49,169
It wasn't like
I was looking for a treasure hunt.

54
00:02:49,252 --> 00:02:50,837
The treasure hunt found me.

55
00:02:50,920 --> 00:02:54,591
{\an8}[reporter 2] <i>People are literally dying</i>
<i>to find Forrest Fenn's hidden treasure.</i>

56
00:02:54,674 --> 00:02:57,677
[Lou] I first found out about
the whole thing by watching the news.

57
00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:00,138
I think a treasure hunter died
during that period.

58
00:03:00,221 --> 00:03:02,015
Now, that's not on him.

59
00:03:02,098 --> 00:03:03,933
They… you know, they did what they did,

60
00:03:04,017 --> 00:03:05,852
and whatever happened,
I wouldn't blame him.

61
00:03:06,853 --> 00:03:11,983
The fact that it had started ten years ago
and nobody's found it in all these years.

62
00:03:12,066 --> 00:03:15,570
I'm like, "Well, hold on a second.
This is findable. I can do this."

63
00:03:15,653 --> 00:03:17,113
[intriguing music playing]

64
00:03:17,197 --> 00:03:20,992
I've been a 747 captain
for almost 25 years,

65
00:03:21,075 --> 00:03:23,786
and I like to video things
that go on in my life.

66
00:03:23,870 --> 00:03:24,871
[grunts]

67
00:03:25,413 --> 00:03:27,081
Yeah, he just bit my face.

68
00:03:27,165 --> 00:03:29,209
All right, well,
how cool was that encounter?

69
00:03:29,292 --> 00:03:30,585
I have a YouTube channel.

70
00:03:30,668 --> 00:03:33,004
{\an8}It's a crazy pilot looking for snakes
all over the world.

71
00:03:33,087 --> 00:03:35,715
And if you subscribe,
I'd really appreciate it. No, I'm kidding.

72
00:03:36,758 --> 00:03:40,136
{\an8}So I was always looking
for new adventures.

73
00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:42,555
When I first found out
about the treasure hunt,

74
00:03:42,639 --> 00:03:44,557
I read Forrest's book,
like everybody else,

75
00:03:44,641 --> 00:03:47,977
and Forrest mentioned that he was a pilot.
That kinda stuck with me.

76
00:03:48,061 --> 00:03:50,980
Maybe the pilot thing, since we're sort of
a brotherhood of pilots,

77
00:03:51,064 --> 00:03:53,816
maybe there's something I can relate to
that nobody else can.

78
00:03:54,442 --> 00:03:56,694
Maybe something
to do with latitude and longitude

79
00:03:56,778 --> 00:03:58,655
because, when he navigated in the war,

80
00:03:58,738 --> 00:04:01,241
everything's done
on a grid of latitude and longitude,

81
00:04:01,324 --> 00:04:03,826
and that's what people have overlooked
for the last ten years.

82
00:04:03,910 --> 00:04:05,495
They didn't think quite like he did.

83
00:04:05,578 --> 00:04:06,955
[inaudible]

84
00:04:07,038 --> 00:04:09,791
I was on a trip,
sitting in cruise for eight, ten hours.

85
00:04:09,874 --> 00:04:12,335
There's a lot of time to think.
I'm like, "Okay."

86
00:04:12,919 --> 00:04:15,672
"I'll give this poem a shot."
All right, "warm waters halt."

87
00:04:15,755 --> 00:04:18,675
Then I started thinking
of the definition of what warm is.

88
00:04:18,758 --> 00:04:21,261
I'm like, "Well, everybody's definition's
a little different,

89
00:04:21,344 --> 00:04:23,179
but they all measure it in degrees."

90
00:04:24,430 --> 00:04:27,600
Anything above your body temperature
is warmer than you.

91
00:04:27,684 --> 00:04:30,812
Anything colder than your body temperature
is colder than you.

92
00:04:30,895 --> 00:04:35,400
So warm waters do halt
right at body temperature, 37 degrees.

93
00:04:35,483 --> 00:04:38,319
Soon as I thought that, I'm like,
"Let me look at the map of the Rockies

94
00:04:38,403 --> 00:04:40,822
and see where 37 degrees happens to lie."

95
00:04:41,531 --> 00:04:43,741
{\an8}I opened a map, I looked at it,

96
00:04:43,825 --> 00:04:49,330
{\an8}and 37 degrees is the exact border
between New Mexico and Colorado.

97
00:04:50,039 --> 00:04:53,293
And a light bulb went off.
I'm like, "This is it."

98
00:04:53,376 --> 00:04:54,961
{\an8}- [bell tolls]
- There was five canyons.

99
00:04:55,044 --> 00:04:57,505
{\an8}I went through all of them,
drew lines 30 miles down,

100
00:04:57,588 --> 00:04:59,590
{\an8}which was "not far, but too far to walk."

101
00:04:59,674 --> 00:05:03,928
{\an8}And I happened to find one that goes
right into a place called Beaver Creek,

102
00:05:04,012 --> 00:05:05,888
{\an8}and I'm like, "That's my spot."

103
00:05:05,972 --> 00:05:08,683
So that's where we're going, Beaver Creek.

104
00:05:08,766 --> 00:05:11,060
We are on the freeway.
We are heading eastbound

105
00:05:11,144 --> 00:05:13,771
on the 405 freeway
to Orange County Airport.

106
00:05:13,855 --> 00:05:16,232
- Got the family with me. Here's my wife.
- Hi.

107
00:05:16,316 --> 00:05:17,942
My daughter, my son.

108
00:05:18,026 --> 00:05:20,778
Chance is back there.
Can you wave, Chance?

109
00:05:20,862 --> 00:05:23,948
Getting ready to go on
a secret treasure hunt.

110
00:05:24,032 --> 00:05:25,199
- Secret treasure hunt.
- Sh!

111
00:05:25,283 --> 00:05:26,451
Anyway, let's do it.

112
00:05:26,534 --> 00:05:27,702
[Lou's wife] Here we go.

113
00:05:28,244 --> 00:05:30,246
[adventurous country music playing]

114
00:05:31,831 --> 00:05:33,916
{\an8}I think Lou's got a good head
on his shoulders,

115
00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:36,377
{\an8}and so I didn't doubt him.

116
00:05:36,961 --> 00:05:40,006
He came up with something
that no one else had thought of yet.

117
00:05:40,089 --> 00:05:41,382
He was sure.

118
00:05:41,966 --> 00:05:44,552
I was like, "Okay, I'm going with you,

119
00:05:44,635 --> 00:05:46,346
and the kids are too." [chuckles]

120
00:05:46,429 --> 00:05:50,183
[Lou] Starbucks. No treasure hunt begins
without a trip to Starbucks.

121
00:05:51,768 --> 00:05:55,021
It was a beautiful day.
The weather was great.

122
00:05:55,605 --> 00:05:58,775
Once I figured where we were gonna park,
it would take us a half hour, maybe, tops,

123
00:05:58,858 --> 00:06:00,902
to walk in, grab it, and bail.

124
00:06:00,985 --> 00:06:04,614
We weren't gonna hang out and see scenery.
We were there to pick up the treasure.

125
00:06:05,615 --> 00:06:07,575
But as we started
going on these dirt roads

126
00:06:07,658 --> 00:06:08,951
and they turned into rocky roads,

127
00:06:09,035 --> 00:06:12,955
I started thinking, "Okay,
this is a little more than I thought."

128
00:06:13,039 --> 00:06:17,126
I'm telling you, we walk out of here
with $2 million, it'll be well-earned.

129
00:06:17,627 --> 00:06:20,380
- [Sherri] Oh no.
- [Lou's son] Private property.

130
00:06:20,463 --> 00:06:22,173
- [music fades]
- [Sherri sighs]

131
00:06:23,841 --> 00:06:27,178
[Lou] All right, so we've stopped
because, uh, ran into this.

132
00:06:27,845 --> 00:06:31,307
Oh man. I am three miles
from where I wanna be.

133
00:06:32,225 --> 00:06:34,060
I really wanted to keep going,

134
00:06:34,143 --> 00:06:37,063
but I was in such a remote place
with my family.

135
00:06:37,146 --> 00:06:39,941
You know, the whole
"trespassers will be shot" type thing.

136
00:06:40,525 --> 00:06:42,443
I wasn't gonna risk our lives over it.

137
00:06:43,569 --> 00:06:44,654
[Sherri] It was emotional.

138
00:06:44,737 --> 00:06:47,448
I remember Lou threw his hands
up in the air and was like,

139
00:06:48,366 --> 00:06:52,412
you know, "Could I… could I be wrong?
Why would… why would there be, uh…"

140
00:06:52,495 --> 00:06:56,541
You know, he wouldn't hide it and make us
trespass to find this treasure.

141
00:06:56,624 --> 00:06:58,126
That's gonna do it for this one, guys.

142
00:06:58,209 --> 00:07:00,211
Uh, not the trip we started out to…

143
00:07:00,294 --> 00:07:02,672
[chuckles] …not the trip
we were starting out for.

144
00:07:02,755 --> 00:07:04,090
- [tuts]
- [somber music playing]

145
00:07:04,173 --> 00:07:05,675
I was disappointed.

146
00:07:05,758 --> 00:07:08,845
I just felt like I let everybody down,
especially for my kids.

147
00:07:08,928 --> 00:07:12,849
Like, "Hey, Dad… Dad knows where this is.
Dad's gonna go grab it," you know?

148
00:07:13,516 --> 00:07:15,726
I sorta owed it to them
to be right as a father.

149
00:07:15,810 --> 00:07:18,938
Like, they look up to you, you know,
as the person who knows things,

150
00:07:19,021 --> 00:07:22,525
and I don't wanna be the wrong…
the wrong person, I guess.

151
00:07:23,109 --> 00:07:23,943
So…

152
00:07:24,902 --> 00:07:26,654
Kinda ran into a roadblock,

153
00:07:26,737 --> 00:07:30,116
but… I wasn't gonna let it stop me 100%.

154
00:07:30,199 --> 00:07:33,119
You know, I still thought I was right.
I just couldn't get there.

155
00:07:33,202 --> 00:07:36,873
The private property was a big flag
of, like, something's not right.

156
00:07:36,956 --> 00:07:38,708
I went home.
I didn't think about it for long.

157
00:07:38,791 --> 00:07:41,169
- I got on the computer right away.
- [intriguing music playing]

158
00:07:41,252 --> 00:07:44,964
I looked up the owner of the land first.
The guy's name is Don Mullins.

159
00:07:45,047 --> 00:07:48,551
Is there any relationship
between Don Mullins and Forrest Fenn?

160
00:07:48,634 --> 00:07:50,553
Google search, "Fenn Mullins."

161
00:07:51,137 --> 00:07:52,138
Get a hit right away.

162
00:07:52,221 --> 00:07:55,016
Fenn and Mullins coauthored
a couple books together,

163
00:07:55,099 --> 00:07:57,477
but the guy's name was Mark Mullins.

164
00:07:57,560 --> 00:07:59,645
So I Google searched Mark Mullins.

165
00:07:59,729 --> 00:08:01,856
He named one of his kids Fenn.

166
00:08:01,939 --> 00:08:04,484
Like, who would name their kid Fenn,
right?

167
00:08:04,567 --> 00:08:06,944
That still doesn't help me
with Don Mullins. I…

168
00:08:07,028 --> 00:08:09,739
You know, it's not Don Mullins.
It's Mark Mullins.

169
00:08:10,323 --> 00:08:12,575
So I look up the parents of Mark Mullins.

170
00:08:13,326 --> 00:08:16,454
Mark Mullins's dad
happens to be named Don Mullins.

171
00:08:17,121 --> 00:08:18,122
And I was like,

172
00:08:18,206 --> 00:08:21,250
"Okay, this is too strange."

173
00:08:22,126 --> 00:08:24,420
I've taken the entire Rocky Mountains,

174
00:08:24,504 --> 00:08:26,756
came to all these intersections of clues,

175
00:08:26,839 --> 00:08:29,759
came to a gate
that kept me out of a property,

176
00:08:29,842 --> 00:08:33,763
and it's tied to a guy
that wrote a book with Forrest Fenn

177
00:08:33,846 --> 00:08:35,723
out in the middle
of all the Rocky Mountains.

178
00:08:35,806 --> 00:08:38,476
And I'm like,
"That can't be a coincidence."

179
00:08:38,559 --> 00:08:40,269
"It… it just can't be."

180
00:08:40,353 --> 00:08:43,272
There was enough to it
where I'm like, "I… I've gotta go back."

181
00:08:43,356 --> 00:08:46,817
Like, "I've gotta go back,"
and… and that's exactly what I did, and

182
00:08:47,818 --> 00:08:49,028
it didn't stop us.

183
00:08:49,529 --> 00:08:51,531
[rock music playing]

184
00:08:53,074 --> 00:08:54,116
[tires screech]

185
00:08:54,742 --> 00:08:55,826
[man 1] That is a rainbow.

186
00:08:55,910 --> 00:08:58,663
- We found Forrest's rainbow!
- [Christopher] The pot of gold.

187
00:08:58,746 --> 00:08:59,705
[man 2] See that rock?

188
00:08:59,789 --> 00:09:01,666
- That's where the gold is.
- [man 1] Look at that.

189
00:09:02,250 --> 00:09:04,085
We knew the treasure was under the rock.

190
00:09:04,168 --> 00:09:06,879
He placed the chest right about here.

191
00:09:06,963 --> 00:09:09,590
Unfortunately, it's under a big-ass rock.

192
00:09:10,258 --> 00:09:12,718
We're gonna dig the bank out,
gonna get rid of the boulder.

193
00:09:12,802 --> 00:09:16,305
[man 2] My dad is not the type of guy
to go look out for a treasure for fun.

194
00:09:16,389 --> 00:09:17,598
Yep.

195
00:09:17,682 --> 00:09:20,434
He's the type of guy
that'd go look for a treasure

196
00:09:20,518 --> 00:09:21,686
'cause he knows where it's at.

197
00:09:22,603 --> 00:09:25,231
So I'm… I'm starting to take it serious.

198
00:09:25,314 --> 00:09:27,441
{\an8}- He wants his cut.
- [laughs] Yeah.

199
00:09:27,525 --> 00:09:29,318
Day two on the boulder.

200
00:09:29,402 --> 00:09:31,862
- Day three.
- [man 2] We'll chip this rock away, Dad.

201
00:09:32,363 --> 00:09:33,281
Chip away.

202
00:09:33,364 --> 00:09:35,866
What did a day look like?
You get up crack of dawn…

203
00:09:35,950 --> 00:09:37,910
[Christopher] Good morning to you. Coffee?

204
00:09:37,994 --> 00:09:39,745
[man 2] …drink fucking coffee grounds,

205
00:09:40,329 --> 00:09:41,163
Yeehaw!

206
00:09:41,247 --> 00:09:43,749
…and then start walking
all the way up the canyon.

207
00:09:43,833 --> 00:09:45,960
- [adventurous music playing]
- Like a wolf with his pack.

208
00:09:46,502 --> 00:09:49,255
Makin' sure they're okay.
We'll follow them in.

209
00:09:49,338 --> 00:09:51,924
[man 2] I had no liner in my boots,
couldn't feel my toes.

210
00:09:52,508 --> 00:09:54,927
Digging all day, hands blistering.

211
00:09:55,011 --> 00:09:58,264
He's wearing Dorito bags on his feet
'cause his socks are wet! [laughs]

212
00:09:58,347 --> 00:10:01,309
[man 1] Best socks around, baby.
Best thermal.

213
00:10:01,392 --> 00:10:04,186
- [man 2] You don't have socks under those?
- [man 1] No, didn't have none.

214
00:10:04,270 --> 00:10:07,064
I was walking in snow out there.
I had to run to the truck.

215
00:10:07,148 --> 00:10:10,651
We were consumed by it.
Oh my God. We lived there all year round.

216
00:10:10,735 --> 00:10:12,278
Day eight. Day 12.

217
00:10:12,361 --> 00:10:15,323
Sixteenth day out here on the boulder.

218
00:10:15,406 --> 00:10:17,408
Yeah, we were out there a full year.

219
00:10:19,410 --> 00:10:21,954
And I'm going out there
with four-wheelers, backhoes.

220
00:10:22,038 --> 00:10:23,331
- Pickaxes.
- Oh, everything.

221
00:10:23,414 --> 00:10:25,041
- Jackhammers.
- Jackhammers.

222
00:10:25,791 --> 00:10:27,585
We were really just pissed off at it.

223
00:10:27,668 --> 00:10:31,088
- How deep is the hole, Forrest Fenn?
- [man 2] Too fuckin' deep!

224
00:10:31,172 --> 00:10:33,424
- How deep is the hole, Fenn?
- [music fades]

225
00:10:33,507 --> 00:10:35,092
How deep is the damn hole?

226
00:10:38,179 --> 00:10:40,556
[Christopher] It sucked, yeah.
We were freezing.

227
00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:41,849
We might've died.

228
00:10:41,932 --> 00:10:45,394
I risked my life out there.
We both risked our lives out there.

229
00:10:45,478 --> 00:10:47,605
We were in the middle of the canyon,
freezing to death.

230
00:10:47,688 --> 00:10:48,814
[man 1] It's snowing on us.

231
00:10:49,690 --> 00:10:52,068
- Separate the boys from the men.
- [Christopher] Yes, sir.

232
00:10:52,151 --> 00:10:56,113
We did all this
just so my sister and my mother…

233
00:10:56,197 --> 00:10:58,658
they need a comfortable house.
They need to live well.

234
00:10:58,741 --> 00:11:00,159
They need to be taken care of.

235
00:11:00,242 --> 00:11:02,036
[poignant music playing]

236
00:11:02,119 --> 00:11:05,373
A more comfortable life
for my little sister Angelina.

237
00:11:05,456 --> 00:11:07,083
She has Down syndrome.

238
00:11:07,166 --> 00:11:08,334
And my mother.

239
00:11:09,126 --> 00:11:12,922
'Cause she's… [exhales sharply]
Man, it makes me sad thinking about it.

240
00:11:13,005 --> 00:11:16,175
She has worked hard for our family.
Very hard.

241
00:11:16,801 --> 00:11:18,344
[man 2] She was the main motivation too.

242
00:11:18,427 --> 00:11:21,722
We wanted to set them up
for early retirement.

243
00:11:21,806 --> 00:11:26,102
We wanted to make sure
they have everything they wanted.

244
00:11:26,185 --> 00:11:29,397
Not just simple things,
but extra things, you know?

245
00:11:29,980 --> 00:11:33,526
{\an8}Saturday, the 11th,

246
00:11:33,609 --> 00:11:36,612
{\an8}day before Mother's Day
and my wife's birthday.

247
00:11:38,489 --> 00:11:41,492
{\an8}Out here trying to make it happen
for her birthday, Mother's Day.

248
00:11:41,992 --> 00:11:43,077
{\an8}Oh, Lord help us.

249
00:11:44,161 --> 00:11:45,413
{\an8}Lord help me.

250
00:11:45,496 --> 00:11:48,999
Every seven years,
her birthday falls on Mother's Day.

251
00:11:49,667 --> 00:11:51,711
And it was her birthday or Mother's Day,

252
00:11:51,794 --> 00:11:54,630
and I was out there digging,
talking in the phone.

253
00:11:54,714 --> 00:11:56,340
"I'm trying to bring it home to us, Mama."

254
00:11:56,424 --> 00:11:59,885
"If we can get this, boy, we can…
we can actually get the house you want

255
00:11:59,969 --> 00:12:01,095
and lay down somewhere."

256
00:12:02,638 --> 00:12:05,307
Basically was choosing that over her.

257
00:12:05,391 --> 00:12:07,601
And she wanted a divorce.

258
00:12:07,685 --> 00:12:10,354
She's like,
"You either gotta choose or I'm gone."

259
00:12:10,938 --> 00:12:13,190
And I was like,
"I'll live in the mountains."

260
00:12:13,274 --> 00:12:15,401
"You'll get over it when I bring it home."

261
00:12:16,026 --> 00:12:17,194
That's what I told her.

262
00:12:18,612 --> 00:12:19,655
[camera flashes]

263
00:12:19,739 --> 00:12:24,160
She hated it, but she's just trying
to make the best of it with us.

264
00:12:24,243 --> 00:12:26,328
She knew we were going through something,

265
00:12:26,412 --> 00:12:29,707
and it… it was… it upsets her, too,

266
00:12:29,790 --> 00:12:32,793
to see us going through the stuff
we were going through.

267
00:12:36,088 --> 00:12:38,924
So, after six months
of hitting boots on the ground,

268
00:12:39,008 --> 00:12:41,677
we knew we wasted all our resources,

269
00:12:41,761 --> 00:12:44,555
and we knew we had to regroup then.

270
00:12:44,638 --> 00:12:46,182
"We need to figure out a better system."

271
00:12:46,265 --> 00:12:48,768
"This is knocking the fight out of us.
Too much work."

272
00:12:49,935 --> 00:12:52,313
[Christopher] We kinda
just backed off a little bit.

273
00:12:52,396 --> 00:12:54,857
Packed our tools
and, boom, we were outta there.

274
00:12:55,649 --> 00:12:58,861
I went back home.
Take a break, give your mind a rest.

275
00:12:58,944 --> 00:13:00,488
I really didn't take a break.

276
00:13:00,571 --> 00:13:03,657
I really still was constantly on my phone,

277
00:13:03,741 --> 00:13:06,160
digging and reading up on history, and…

278
00:13:06,243 --> 00:13:08,996
- We were consumed by it, for sure.
- Yeah.

279
00:13:09,079 --> 00:13:11,707
We didn't wanna let it go.
We were stuck on it hard.

280
00:13:11,791 --> 00:13:14,919
[reporter] <i>Treasure hunter Randy Bilyeu</i>
<i>has been found dead.</i>

281
00:13:15,002 --> 00:13:16,253
<i>And new tonight, his wife...</i>

282
00:13:16,337 --> 00:13:18,964
[man 1] And we're watching YouTube.
We're watching Forrest Fenn.

283
00:13:19,048 --> 00:13:21,175
We were consuming
Forrest Fenn's interviews.

284
00:13:21,258 --> 00:13:23,469
[Forrest on TV] <i>I…</i>
<i>I don't feel responsible.</i>

285
00:13:24,178 --> 00:13:26,138
<i>I… I don't feel like I'm to blame</i>

286
00:13:26,222 --> 00:13:28,557
<i>for any…</i>
<i>any… any of those things that happened.</i>

287
00:13:28,641 --> 00:13:31,977
[Christopher] At that point in time,
the treasure hunt was fucking nuts.

288
00:13:32,061 --> 00:13:34,188
If I was in his position,
I would have called it.

289
00:13:34,271 --> 00:13:36,607
That's how crazy this shit was.

290
00:13:36,690 --> 00:13:37,566
[somber music playing]

291
00:13:37,650 --> 00:13:39,777
[Ben] Forrest had always been
this media darling,

292
00:13:39,860 --> 00:13:43,572
{\an8}and it really… the tone did change
after Randy Bilyeu died

293
00:13:43,656 --> 00:13:45,282
{\an8}because there was no romance

294
00:13:45,366 --> 00:13:48,661
{\an8}to the fact that this poor guy had drowned
looking for the treasure.

295
00:13:48,744 --> 00:13:52,665
It just completely changed
how you could look at that treasure hunt.

296
00:13:52,748 --> 00:13:54,500
You started seeing headlines

297
00:13:54,583 --> 00:13:57,711
like, "The book that lures readers
to their death."

298
00:13:57,795 --> 00:14:01,423
And it turns out that Randy Bilyeu's death
was not a one-off.

299
00:14:01,507 --> 00:14:04,385
- It was a sign of things to come.
- [unsettling music playing]

300
00:14:04,468 --> 00:14:08,389
[reporter 2] <i>It was only a year ago</i>
<i>when 54-year-old Randy Bilyeu died</i>

301
00:14:08,472 --> 00:14:10,474
<i>while looking for treasure</i>
<i>in the Rio Grande.</i>

302
00:14:10,558 --> 00:14:13,227
<i>Now the body</i>
<i>of Colorado pastor Paris Wallace,</i>

303
00:14:13,310 --> 00:14:14,728
<i>found 80 miles away,</i>

304
00:14:14,812 --> 00:14:17,648
<i>marks the second confirmed death</i>
<i>of the treasure hunt.</i>

305
00:14:17,731 --> 00:14:19,817
Then other people died.

306
00:14:19,900 --> 00:14:23,654
{\an8}[man 2] <i>Eric Ashby was reported</i>
<i>missing on June 28th by his friends</i>

307
00:14:23,737 --> 00:14:26,782
{\an8}<i>after a rafting accident</i>
<i>on the Arkansas River.</i>

308
00:14:26,866 --> 00:14:31,161
{\an8}2017, it was like the year of death.
Three different searchers died.

309
00:14:31,245 --> 00:14:33,539
At that point,
you have to be extrapolating out,

310
00:14:33,622 --> 00:14:37,084
like, "Okay, one, three…"

311
00:14:37,167 --> 00:14:39,461
Like, "What's next?
I mean, it's gonna get really bad."

312
00:14:40,588 --> 00:14:43,674
And people started just asking Forrest,
"Why don't you call off the hunt?"

313
00:14:43,757 --> 00:14:47,303
"How can you continue
now that we know that people are dying?"

314
00:14:47,386 --> 00:14:49,388
[music fades]

315
00:14:55,102 --> 00:14:58,147
[man] Control is a large part
of what we do in law enforcement.

316
00:14:58,230 --> 00:15:00,608
We wanna control the outcome.
That saves lives.

317
00:15:00,691 --> 00:15:02,860
{\an8}And I had no control, right?

318
00:15:02,943 --> 00:15:04,737
{\an8}I did not know how to stop this.

319
00:15:04,820 --> 00:15:07,698
I wanted to quit sending in people
to save the searchers.

320
00:15:07,781 --> 00:15:10,367
It was a colossal waste of resources,
I felt.

321
00:15:11,076 --> 00:15:13,537
I think I'd done an interview
with a local newspaper,

322
00:15:13,621 --> 00:15:15,289
<i>The Santa Fe New Mexican.</i>

323
00:15:15,372 --> 00:15:19,126
I said that the Forrest Fenn treasure hunt
was stupid

324
00:15:19,627 --> 00:15:21,587
and that the treasure should be pulled,

325
00:15:21,670 --> 00:15:24,798
and that's when <i>Good Morning America</i>
grasped onto it.

326
00:15:24,882 --> 00:15:25,883
[intriguing music playing]

327
00:15:25,966 --> 00:15:28,302
[Ben] Pete Kassetas,
head of the state police in New Mexico,

328
00:15:28,385 --> 00:15:29,637
went on <i>Good Morning America.</i>

329
00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:34,850
He implores Forrest to end it,
and then he calls Forrest live on air.

330
00:15:34,934 --> 00:15:37,561
I also wanna know
what the GMA producers told Forrest

331
00:15:37,645 --> 00:15:40,940
'cause clearly they're like, "We're gonna
call you with a special guest,"

332
00:15:41,023 --> 00:15:42,983
and look, the guy, like, ambushes him.

333
00:15:43,067 --> 00:15:45,027
{\an8}And again, I call for you to… to pull it.

334
00:15:45,110 --> 00:15:48,197
{\an8}[Forrest] <i>I'm not gonna give a clue</i>
<i>to help people find the treasure.</i>

335
00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:51,033
{\an8}<i>I'm gonna give a clue</i>
<i>to try to keep them out of trouble.</i>

336
00:15:51,116 --> 00:15:53,285
{\an8}- Yeah, yeah.
- <i>To make them safer.</i>

337
00:15:53,369 --> 00:15:56,997
As… as the call winded down, um,
I realized it was kind of a stalemate.

338
00:15:57,665 --> 00:16:02,002
He was understanding of my position,
so he said he would think about it.

339
00:16:02,086 --> 00:16:05,756
At that point, I'm agreeing,
like, "Okay, let's see how this one ends."

340
00:16:05,839 --> 00:16:07,800
Like, "Let's see what happens,
what's the result."

341
00:16:07,883 --> 00:16:11,220
[woman] <i>Forrest explained, "I have given</i>
<i>a lot of thought about ending the search,</i>

342
00:16:11,303 --> 00:16:13,847
<i>but I am not sure</i>
<i>what that would accomplish."</i>

343
00:16:13,931 --> 00:16:16,016
Forrest's basic response was

344
00:16:16,100 --> 00:16:21,605
this kind of, like, American,
self-sufficient, bootstraps, libertarian,

345
00:16:21,689 --> 00:16:24,274
uh, you know, "We're all grown-ups here."

346
00:16:24,358 --> 00:16:27,528
If somebody drowns in a swimming pool,
should… should we drain the pool,

347
00:16:27,611 --> 00:16:29,405
or should we teach people to swim?

348
00:16:29,488 --> 00:16:31,490
- [brooding music playing]
- [scribbling]

349
00:16:33,117 --> 00:16:38,038
[Justin] It's amazing how quickly
the narrative for something truly amazing

350
00:16:38,122 --> 00:16:40,290
can shift so dramatically.

351
00:16:40,874 --> 00:16:45,004
Forrest was getting pressure at that time
to just call this off.

352
00:16:46,714 --> 00:16:48,257
I wrote a letter to Forrest,

353
00:16:48,340 --> 00:16:49,675
and I told him that,

354
00:16:50,509 --> 00:16:53,721
{\an8}while we are
in the wake of a true tragedy,

355
00:16:55,305 --> 00:16:57,307
{\an8}don't forget the vision that you had.

356
00:16:57,808 --> 00:17:01,603
I know that you didn't want
to imperil anyone's life,

357
00:17:02,271 --> 00:17:05,816
but it felt like we had
a very fleeting window of time

358
00:17:05,899 --> 00:17:07,693
in order to find the treasure.

359
00:17:07,776 --> 00:17:08,610
[music fades]

360
00:17:10,529 --> 00:17:13,365
After I had created
that facial-recognition software,

361
00:17:13,949 --> 00:17:18,871
I had a strong belief that the treasure
was located in Yellowstone National Park.

362
00:17:18,954 --> 00:17:20,831
[stirring music playing]

363
00:17:20,914 --> 00:17:22,916
I knew it was there somewhere.

364
00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:24,710
All the data had lined up.

365
00:17:26,003 --> 00:17:27,838
Now, there's a story in… in the book

366
00:17:27,921 --> 00:17:30,841
where he talks about
going to fish with his father

367
00:17:30,924 --> 00:17:33,886
on the Firehole,
the Madison, and the Gibbon River.

368
00:17:33,969 --> 00:17:37,598
[Forrest] I can't remember how many times
that I could hardly wait in Yellowstone

369
00:17:37,681 --> 00:17:42,311
to go trout fishing on the Madison River,
the Gallatin, the Firehole, the Gibbon.

370
00:17:42,394 --> 00:17:44,897
[Justin] All of which
are relatively warm bodies of water.

371
00:17:44,980 --> 00:17:48,275
{\an8}Firehole and the Gibbon end abruptly,

372
00:17:48,358 --> 00:17:50,069
{\an8}and the Madison begins.

373
00:17:50,152 --> 00:17:52,988
And so, when you talk about
"where warm waters halt,"

374
00:17:53,072 --> 00:17:54,364
waters is plural.

375
00:17:54,448 --> 00:17:57,826
{\an8}You've got three major bodies of water
on the map.

376
00:17:58,327 --> 00:18:01,455
So that's a very compelling
starting location.

377
00:18:02,081 --> 00:18:05,084
The second clue is
"And take it in the canyon down."

378
00:18:05,167 --> 00:18:07,669
Well, he's a fisherman.
What does down mean?

379
00:18:07,753 --> 00:18:09,088
Down means downstream.

380
00:18:09,171 --> 00:18:11,131
That's Madison Canyon.

381
00:18:11,215 --> 00:18:13,467
From there,
it's "Put in below the home of Brown."

382
00:18:13,550 --> 00:18:15,761
I think immediately about fishing holes.

383
00:18:15,844 --> 00:18:17,971
Great places to fish for brown trout.

384
00:18:18,472 --> 00:18:22,768
Furthermore, he's got his father
standing in front of this large rock.

385
00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:25,521
That's Nine Mile Hole.

386
00:18:26,605 --> 00:18:30,025
I was so excited,
I immediately called my brother Brandon.

387
00:18:30,734 --> 00:18:32,194
[man] Okay, let's start over here.

388
00:18:32,694 --> 00:18:33,862
You go first, Brandon.

389
00:18:33,946 --> 00:18:36,615
Um, I'm Brandon from Tucson, Arizona.

390
00:18:36,698 --> 00:18:39,660
And I'm Justin from Tucson, Arizona,
and I'm his brother.

391
00:18:39,743 --> 00:18:40,744
[woman chuckles]

392
00:18:40,828 --> 00:18:43,288
- [camera clicks]
- [gentle country music playing]

393
00:18:43,372 --> 00:18:45,666
[Justin] Brandon was three years younger
than I was.

394
00:18:46,542 --> 00:18:47,793
He followed me everywhere,

395
00:18:47,876 --> 00:18:52,005
and we were always on the verge
of the next great discovery.

396
00:18:52,089 --> 00:18:54,550
[energetic rock music playing]

397
00:18:54,633 --> 00:18:56,552
When I started this treasure hunt,

398
00:18:56,635 --> 00:18:59,263
I had probably shared hundreds of solves
with Brandon,

399
00:18:59,346 --> 00:19:01,098
and, up until that time,

400
00:19:01,181 --> 00:19:04,268
he hadn't really been all that invested.

401
00:19:04,935 --> 00:19:10,232
But, that time, his response was, "Huh.
That actually might make some sense."

402
00:19:12,484 --> 00:19:16,572
After I told him about the solution,
he wanted to come out and search together.

403
00:19:18,031 --> 00:19:20,075
It was more
than just a treasure hunt to him.

404
00:19:20,159 --> 00:19:22,452
It was a way for us
to spend time together.

405
00:19:23,328 --> 00:19:25,581
We slowly worked our way down the canyon,

406
00:19:25,664 --> 00:19:28,000
and I could see, as I walked through it,

407
00:19:28,083 --> 00:19:31,837
his excitement continued to grow
to the point where he was invested.

408
00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:32,754
[music fades]

409
00:19:32,838 --> 00:19:35,799
We walked right up to that rock,
and it was an aha moment

410
00:19:35,883 --> 00:19:38,343
because it was directly out of the book.

411
00:19:38,427 --> 00:19:40,220
[magical tinkling]

412
00:19:41,471 --> 00:19:43,891
Well, when we made it
to the other side of the river,

413
00:19:45,517 --> 00:19:47,102
it was all new growth.

414
00:19:47,769 --> 00:19:52,441
Uh, a lot of them
are chest height to head height on me,

415
00:19:52,524 --> 00:19:54,484
and you're just wading through them.

416
00:19:55,319 --> 00:19:57,029
You're covered in sap,

417
00:19:57,529 --> 00:19:59,114
torn up from head to toe.

418
00:19:59,198 --> 00:20:02,075
- [gentle music playing]
- That was probably weeks of work.

419
00:20:02,159 --> 00:20:03,410
Anything?

420
00:20:03,493 --> 00:20:07,080
[clicks tongue] The hunt continues.
Still no luck.

421
00:20:07,164 --> 00:20:11,293
However, I didn't have the confidence
that I could safely eliminate this.

422
00:20:12,377 --> 00:20:14,880
Tucker would sniff out bronze anywhere.

423
00:20:14,963 --> 00:20:16,632
The problem was the law.

424
00:20:16,715 --> 00:20:19,092
- [Tucker snorting]
- [Justin clicking tongue]

425
00:20:19,593 --> 00:20:22,387
Yellowstone does not allow dogs on trails.

426
00:20:22,471 --> 00:20:24,181
Jump up. There ya go.

427
00:20:25,224 --> 00:20:27,893
And without Tucker there, it was, uh…

428
00:20:28,894 --> 00:20:30,020
[music fades]

429
00:20:30,103 --> 00:20:32,064
…it felt like you were searching blind.

430
00:20:32,147 --> 00:20:34,107
[Tucker whimpering]

431
00:20:34,858 --> 00:20:35,859
Speak of the devil.

432
00:20:40,405 --> 00:20:43,784
[Ben] After weeks of speculation,
Forrest reaches out to the media

433
00:20:43,867 --> 00:20:46,203
with his final decision
on the treasure hunt.

434
00:20:46,286 --> 00:20:48,538
I mean,
even the reporters seemed skeptical.

435
00:20:49,206 --> 00:20:51,917
{\an8}Fenn tells me,
regardless of the loss of life,

436
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:54,169
{\an8}he won't call off the treasure hunt.

437
00:20:54,253 --> 00:20:55,837
[brooding music playing]

438
00:20:56,630 --> 00:20:57,965
[Pete] He wasn't gonna budge.

439
00:20:58,715 --> 00:21:00,842
Forrest was a worthy adversary.

440
00:21:00,926 --> 00:21:04,554
I thought I could take this old man on
and get him to do what I wanted to do,

441
00:21:04,638 --> 00:21:07,099
but I couldn't get him
to stop and pull the treasure.

442
00:21:07,182 --> 00:21:10,102
It had come too far for him.
He couldn't turn back.

443
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:17,609
After I went on TV, I inadvertently caused
this wave of, essentially, outrage.

444
00:21:17,693 --> 00:21:21,154
I knew there was gonna be fallout.
I didn't realize how big it was gonna be.

445
00:21:25,242 --> 00:21:29,204
Some people are apparently not happy
with Police Chief Pete Kassetas's call

446
00:21:29,288 --> 00:21:30,747
for Forrest Fenn to end…

447
00:21:30,831 --> 00:21:33,292
[woman 2] <i>Police Chief Kassetas</i>
<i>has become a pariah.</i>

448
00:21:33,375 --> 00:21:36,211
There was this onslaught
of calls and emails.

449
00:21:36,295 --> 00:21:38,338
People, like, literally
making death threats

450
00:21:38,422 --> 00:21:39,881
because of the position I took.

451
00:21:39,965 --> 00:21:42,467
[man] <i>I'm outraged</i>
<i>by your public comments,</i>

452
00:21:42,551 --> 00:21:45,762
<i>and I'm gonna tell you to mind</i>
<i>your own </i>[bleep] <i>business and shut up.</i>

453
00:21:45,846 --> 00:21:49,975
But it was just the beginning
of the craziness around Forrest Fenn.

454
00:21:52,644 --> 00:21:53,979
[music fades]

455
00:21:54,062 --> 00:21:57,024
It's a lot to expect
that someone who would be…

456
00:21:57,107 --> 00:22:00,319
the kind of person who would start
this thing would give it up

457
00:22:00,986 --> 00:22:02,571
under almost any circumstances.

458
00:22:02,654 --> 00:22:04,656
- [applause]
- Hey! Forrest Fenn!

459
00:22:04,740 --> 00:22:06,742
[intriguing music playing]

460
00:22:08,535 --> 00:22:10,203
He was having the time of his life,

461
00:22:10,287 --> 00:22:12,622
but he also becomes
kind of a godlike figure

462
00:22:12,706 --> 00:22:15,584
in the treasure community,
and that's a lot of power to have.

463
00:22:17,669 --> 00:22:20,088
So why is he not ending it?

464
00:22:20,756 --> 00:22:22,090
I come back to relevance.

465
00:22:22,174 --> 00:22:26,303
It's… it's really hard to…
to stay relevant into your late eighties.

466
00:22:26,386 --> 00:22:28,638
And if he were to end the hunt,
that's kinda the end.

467
00:22:28,722 --> 00:22:29,890
That's his last chapter.

468
00:22:29,973 --> 00:22:32,726
- [music fades]
- [woman] Why do you engage with searchers?

469
00:22:32,809 --> 00:22:34,895
- Why do I engage with them?
- [woman] Mm-hmm.

470
00:22:36,063 --> 00:22:38,148
That's the only thing I have left.

471
00:22:38,231 --> 00:22:40,233
[jaunty music playing]

472
00:22:40,692 --> 00:22:42,110
[camera clicking]

473
00:22:45,447 --> 00:22:47,741
[Justin] Cynthia was ubiquitous
in the chase.

474
00:22:48,241 --> 00:22:50,035
She was very well-known.

475
00:22:50,118 --> 00:22:52,329
{\an8}- [man 1] <i>Cynthia Meachum.</i>
- [woman 1] <i>…Cynthia Meachum.</i>

476
00:22:52,412 --> 00:22:54,122
{\an8}[woman 2] <i>Cynthia Meachum, I made…</i>

477
00:22:54,206 --> 00:22:55,874
{\an8}[man 2 in Spanish] <i>Cynthia Meachum, una…</i>

478
00:22:56,708 --> 00:22:59,127
[man 3] <i>Amateur treasure hunters</i>
<i>like Cynthia Meachum…</i>

479
00:22:59,211 --> 00:23:02,255
{\an8}And so by virtue of just
getting to know Forrest,

480
00:23:02,339 --> 00:23:05,634
uh, you'd have to get to know Cynthia
'cause she was there a lot of the time.

481
00:23:05,717 --> 00:23:07,260
- [camera clicks]
- [music fades]

482
00:23:07,344 --> 00:23:08,970
[Cynthia] I never really knew,

483
00:23:09,054 --> 00:23:12,516
{\an8}out of the hundreds
or thousands of searchers that he met,

484
00:23:12,599 --> 00:23:17,062
why did he let me come into his life
to the extent that he did?

485
00:23:17,145 --> 00:23:18,522
[intriguing music playing]

486
00:23:18,605 --> 00:23:20,482
[Cynthia] Forrest and I
were like playmates.

487
00:23:20,565 --> 00:23:23,110
I'd get up in the morning,
and I'd send an email to Forrest

488
00:23:23,193 --> 00:23:25,570
and say, "Can you come out
and play today?"

489
00:23:25,654 --> 00:23:27,406
[camera clicking]

490
00:23:27,489 --> 00:23:30,200
[Cynthia] Our friendship, you know,
just got more and more intimate.

491
00:23:30,283 --> 00:23:32,494
I got to know Forrest Fenn the man,

492
00:23:32,577 --> 00:23:36,373
and it's like he… he reached in
and grabbed my soul.

493
00:23:36,873 --> 00:23:39,709
- [interviewer] Can you elaborate?
- No. [chuckles softly]

494
00:23:40,210 --> 00:23:41,670
We'll just keep it like that.

495
00:23:42,546 --> 00:23:43,672
[indistinct chatter]

496
00:23:43,755 --> 00:23:46,675
[Cynthia] I never went there
hoping to get clues.

497
00:23:47,300 --> 00:23:48,885
But, as a searcher,

498
00:23:48,969 --> 00:23:51,721
any time that Forrest told me stories
face-to-face,

499
00:23:51,805 --> 00:23:53,432
I always listened like,

500
00:23:53,515 --> 00:23:57,602
"Is he telling me
something that I need to analyze?"

501
00:23:57,686 --> 00:23:59,521
[mysterious music playing]

502
00:23:59,604 --> 00:24:02,357
And I remember one time
when Forrest looked at me

503
00:24:02,441 --> 00:24:06,820
and he said, "You should go spend
the summer in Yellowstone Park."

504
00:24:06,903 --> 00:24:09,156
And to me that was like, "Holy cow."

505
00:24:10,449 --> 00:24:13,452
And then there were media people
taking our pictures.

506
00:24:13,535 --> 00:24:14,369
[camera clicks]

507
00:24:14,453 --> 00:24:15,454
And I said to him,

508
00:24:15,537 --> 00:24:19,499
"Whisper something in my ear
like you're giving me a hint."

509
00:24:19,583 --> 00:24:24,212
He leaned over,
and he whispered in my ear, "Go to hell,"

510
00:24:24,296 --> 00:24:27,007
and then he laughed his ass off.

511
00:24:27,090 --> 00:24:28,550
[laughter]

512
00:24:28,633 --> 00:24:30,469
[Cynthia] He was so tickled by this.

513
00:24:30,969 --> 00:24:32,929
Forrest never cussed in front of me,

514
00:24:33,013 --> 00:24:35,348
and so it's like,
"Well, this is really weird too."

515
00:24:35,432 --> 00:24:37,309
And I got to thinking about…

516
00:24:37,392 --> 00:24:38,477
[incoming message beep]

517
00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:40,479
…if you look up
the history of Yellowstone,

518
00:24:40,562 --> 00:24:44,566
the early explorers described Yellowstone
as being hell.

519
00:24:45,275 --> 00:24:49,362
And I'm thinking, "Oh my God.
Is… is he directing me to Yellowstone?"

520
00:24:50,530 --> 00:24:53,658
{\an8}So I drove to Yellowstone
the very next day.

521
00:24:54,159 --> 00:24:55,660
[adventurous music playing]

522
00:25:06,213 --> 00:25:08,715
It was, like,
the most incredible place ever.

523
00:25:08,798 --> 00:25:12,093
You go in there and you see it,
and you're gonna understand

524
00:25:12,177 --> 00:25:15,096
that's where Forrest
is going to hide that treasure chest.

525
00:25:15,639 --> 00:25:18,975
I was convinced
the treasure was in Yellowstone.

526
00:25:20,602 --> 00:25:23,730
That summer, I searched all over the park.

527
00:25:23,813 --> 00:25:27,359
I started searching
around the Ojo Caliente area.

528
00:25:27,442 --> 00:25:30,320
I went upstream to Pocket Basin there

529
00:25:30,403 --> 00:25:32,864
that had all these hot springs.

530
00:25:32,948 --> 00:25:36,076
I searched Sunlight Creek
and Sunlight Basin.

531
00:25:37,035 --> 00:25:39,037
[music fades]

532
00:25:39,621 --> 00:25:42,165
What made Yellowstone so special

533
00:25:42,249 --> 00:25:45,418
was the fact
that there was this added danger to it.

534
00:25:45,502 --> 00:25:46,670
[tense music playing]

535
00:25:46,753 --> 00:25:51,049
In New Mexico, I never worried about
black bears or even rattlesnakes,

536
00:25:51,550 --> 00:25:54,970
but searching in Yellowstone,
that's a different ball game.

537
00:25:55,053 --> 00:25:58,848
When you're searching and there's
the possibility of grizzly bears,

538
00:25:58,932 --> 00:26:01,768
you're just so on edge and… and alive.

539
00:26:01,851 --> 00:26:02,936
[bear snarling]

540
00:26:03,019 --> 00:26:05,105
And one time I saw a grizzly bear.

541
00:26:05,188 --> 00:26:07,566
It's like,
"Okay, I'm gonna be really careful today."

542
00:26:07,649 --> 00:26:08,775
[bear growling]

543
00:26:08,858 --> 00:26:12,070
And I took the trigger guard
off my bear spray,

544
00:26:12,153 --> 00:26:13,863
put that canister in my pocket,

545
00:26:13,947 --> 00:26:15,532
and I scrunched down.

546
00:26:15,615 --> 00:26:17,617
[gas hissing loudly]

547
00:26:17,701 --> 00:26:18,868
Oh fuck.

548
00:26:18,952 --> 00:26:21,413
And all of a sudden, I heard this "pssh."

549
00:26:21,496 --> 00:26:23,206
[Cynthia coughing]

550
00:26:23,290 --> 00:26:26,334
And I'm thinking, "It sounds like
they have sprinklers here,

551
00:26:26,418 --> 00:26:29,462
but there can't be sprinklers,"
and then I felt the pain.

552
00:26:29,546 --> 00:26:31,006
Oh my God.

553
00:26:31,089 --> 00:26:33,633
I just sprayed myself with bear spray.

554
00:26:33,717 --> 00:26:35,135
The burn.

555
00:26:35,218 --> 00:26:36,761
[grunts] Holy fuck.

556
00:26:37,262 --> 00:26:38,847
And I had sprayed my crotch.

557
00:26:40,056 --> 00:26:44,144
- [mischievous music playing]
- I got the crotch, and it burns.

558
00:26:44,227 --> 00:26:46,146
And then it's like,
"Okay, now what do I do?"

559
00:26:46,229 --> 00:26:49,816
I will now be taking my pants off
and washing out my pants.

560
00:26:49,899 --> 00:26:53,361
Well, I'm not not gonna search.
I went there to search. I don't care.

561
00:26:53,945 --> 00:26:57,324
So I put a clean pair of pants on,
put my boots back on,

562
00:26:57,407 --> 00:26:58,783
and hiked across the river.

563
00:26:58,867 --> 00:27:00,076
[music fades]

564
00:27:03,330 --> 00:27:06,333
When I got back to the hotel,

565
00:27:06,416 --> 00:27:07,834
I'd send an email to Forrest

566
00:27:07,917 --> 00:27:10,420
and say, you know,
"I'm back home. I wasn't killed,"

567
00:27:10,503 --> 00:27:12,839
and he'd say,
"Well, the night's not over."

568
00:27:12,922 --> 00:27:15,300
[mysterious music playing]

569
00:27:15,884 --> 00:27:18,845
He would ask me to let him know
when I got back safely,

570
00:27:19,846 --> 00:27:24,976
and I would give him a little highlight
of where I searched, what I saw,

571
00:27:25,060 --> 00:27:30,482
{\an8}and he would say, "That's nice," whatever,
"but there's no fish there."

572
00:27:31,441 --> 00:27:35,236
And, the first time he said that,
it's like, "What the hell does that mean?"

573
00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:38,031
There's tons of fish there.
I saw fish. There's fish!

574
00:27:38,782 --> 00:27:42,160
{\an8}And then I noticed,
other times after that,

575
00:27:42,243 --> 00:27:45,205
{\an8}it'd be like, "If you want fish,
go to the grocery store."

576
00:27:47,082 --> 00:27:48,750
It was definitely a hint,

577
00:27:48,833 --> 00:27:52,712
and he was telling me I needed to go
to a different search location.

578
00:27:54,964 --> 00:27:58,009
There were times
that he would talk really, really candidly

579
00:27:58,093 --> 00:28:00,679
about my, uh, my solutions and whatever,

580
00:28:00,762 --> 00:28:03,181
and, basically, it…
there was an understanding

581
00:28:03,264 --> 00:28:06,393
that you don't repeat
what we say to each other.

582
00:28:08,144 --> 00:28:09,646
"This is for you only."

583
00:28:09,729 --> 00:28:12,482
"You are not to share this
with everybody else."

584
00:28:13,733 --> 00:28:16,569
Somebody asked me was he playing fair?

585
00:28:16,653 --> 00:28:20,073
The fairest thing that could've been done
in the treasure hunt is

586
00:28:20,156 --> 00:28:23,284
Forrest Fenn hides the treasure,

587
00:28:23,368 --> 00:28:24,953
he writes that book,

588
00:28:25,662 --> 00:28:27,497
and he does nothing more.

589
00:28:27,580 --> 00:28:29,999
- [brooding music playing]
- He does no interviews.

590
00:28:30,083 --> 00:28:32,293
He never exchanges emails.

591
00:28:32,377 --> 00:28:34,754
He never has all these people
come to his house.

592
00:28:35,588 --> 00:28:38,007
But who the fuck said life is fair?

593
00:28:38,508 --> 00:28:40,719
[music fades]

594
00:28:40,802 --> 00:28:42,178
[clicking]

595
00:28:43,138 --> 00:28:44,514
[intriguing music playing]

596
00:28:44,597 --> 00:28:47,475
[Ben] I think Forrest
just couldn't help getting involved.

597
00:28:47,559 --> 00:28:49,519
He was a bit of a prankster that way.

598
00:28:49,602 --> 00:28:52,814
He was doing things that kept putting him
back in the center of the race.

599
00:28:52,897 --> 00:28:54,107
He was still appearing on TV

600
00:28:54,190 --> 00:28:57,485
and giving out mysterious answers
to the simplest questions.

601
00:28:57,986 --> 00:29:00,029
People have been within 200 feet,

602
00:29:00,739 --> 00:29:02,907
and I know that
because they send me emails,

603
00:29:02,991 --> 00:29:04,909
and they tell me exactly where they are.

604
00:29:04,993 --> 00:29:08,788
Like, so that's just tormenting to people
who are like, "Was I that person?"

605
00:29:08,872 --> 00:29:10,665
Like, he didn't…
he doesn't say who it was.

606
00:29:10,749 --> 00:29:12,167
Holy fucking shit.

607
00:29:12,250 --> 00:29:16,755
So searchers have been about 200 feet
from the treasure chest and not known.

608
00:29:18,131 --> 00:29:20,091
- [woman] No. Shut the front door!
- What the hell?

609
00:29:20,175 --> 00:29:22,218
- Holy shanky doodles!
- Oh my gosh.

610
00:29:22,302 --> 00:29:25,430
This is so insane!

611
00:29:26,181 --> 00:29:27,849
- [music fades]
- [train horn honks]

612
00:29:29,851 --> 00:29:32,771
[Christopher] 1After we found the boulder,
I've been emailing Forrest.

613
00:29:33,271 --> 00:29:36,316
{\an8}He would read our email within minutes.

614
00:29:36,399 --> 00:29:37,692
{\an8}[man 1] Minutes. Every time.

615
00:29:38,401 --> 00:29:39,986
{\an8}Notification popped up on the phone.

616
00:29:40,069 --> 00:29:41,654
"Forrest Fenn has read your email."

617
00:29:41,738 --> 00:29:43,740
I screenshotted them. Crazy.

618
00:29:43,823 --> 00:29:44,866
[man 1] Whoo-ee!

619
00:29:44,949 --> 00:29:48,578
- [Christopher] Once we found the rock…
- [man 1] Everyone thought we found it.

620
00:29:49,078 --> 00:29:51,122
Our… our hometown thought we found it.

621
00:29:51,206 --> 00:29:54,459
- Everybody who's in Cody.
- [Christopher] They were rooting for us.

622
00:29:54,542 --> 00:29:58,546
They were all ready to come together
as a team and finish this once and for all

623
00:29:58,630 --> 00:30:00,381
by funding us and working with us.

624
00:30:00,465 --> 00:30:02,926
- And helping us.
- To get this treasure hunt done.

625
00:30:03,009 --> 00:30:05,386
[man 2] Some people
threw in money for gas,

626
00:30:05,470 --> 00:30:07,972
but mainly, it was a lot of manpower.

627
00:30:08,556 --> 00:30:11,100
[man 1] At that point,
we knew the treasure was under the rock.

628
00:30:11,184 --> 00:30:13,478
We were like,
"We need to figure out a better system."

629
00:30:13,561 --> 00:30:15,855
I… I said, "The boulder's gotta go."

630
00:30:15,939 --> 00:30:18,274
I figured we'd blast it with dynamite.

631
00:30:18,358 --> 00:30:19,859
[man 3] You first tried to move it,

632
00:30:19,943 --> 00:30:23,112
and then, when you couldn't move it,
you tried basically…

633
00:30:23,822 --> 00:30:24,823
Blowing it up.

634
00:30:26,491 --> 00:30:28,117
[Christopher] Rocks are flying!

635
00:30:30,119 --> 00:30:31,329
I'm a little aggravated.

636
00:30:32,497 --> 00:30:33,414
I thought…

637
00:30:33,498 --> 00:30:38,336
I didn't think it'd be that much work
after the… the boulder had gone

638
00:30:39,170 --> 00:30:41,005
fucking out of the hole.

639
00:30:41,089 --> 00:30:42,841
This is tomfuckery!

640
00:30:42,924 --> 00:30:44,759
Complete tomfuckery.

641
00:30:44,843 --> 00:30:47,262
[somber music playing]

642
00:30:47,345 --> 00:30:49,848
When we finally moved this boulder

643
00:30:50,557 --> 00:30:51,766
and nothing was there…

644
00:30:55,478 --> 00:30:58,857
{\an8}oh my God, it's the hardest work
that I've ever did in my life.

645
00:30:58,940 --> 00:31:01,484
He could've just said,
"No, you're wrong, son."

646
00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:05,947
I wish he could've just said that,
you know? He told other people that.

647
00:31:06,030 --> 00:31:07,740
Why couldn't he just tell me that?

648
00:31:08,950 --> 00:31:09,868
It was a defeat.

649
00:31:10,368 --> 00:31:11,452
Pretty sad.

650
00:31:11,536 --> 00:31:13,288
[music fades]

651
00:31:13,371 --> 00:31:15,248
Pretty sad. Yeah.

652
00:31:16,374 --> 00:31:18,459
- [man 2] I love you.
- I love you too.

653
00:31:21,921 --> 00:31:24,090
We kinda just backed off a little bit.

654
00:31:25,341 --> 00:31:27,886
We moved back east to Kentucky.

655
00:31:28,386 --> 00:31:31,347
But, anything you put in front of us,
we have perseverance.

656
00:31:31,431 --> 00:31:32,807
- We're not gonna stop.
- Chaos.

657
00:31:32,891 --> 00:31:35,727
I was never gonna give up,
no matter what it took.

658
00:31:35,810 --> 00:31:38,313
[intriguing music playing]

659
00:31:38,396 --> 00:31:40,899
[Justin] So many people
believed it was them.

660
00:31:40,982 --> 00:31:42,567
"I must be this close."

661
00:31:42,650 --> 00:31:44,068
"What if this is me?"

662
00:31:44,569 --> 00:31:46,654
And, yeah, I thought about that too

663
00:31:46,738 --> 00:31:48,907
because I would send Forrest emails,

664
00:31:49,699 --> 00:31:53,119
and so he knew the areas
that I was searching in.

665
00:31:53,202 --> 00:31:54,579
So when he would come out and say,

666
00:31:54,662 --> 00:31:57,832
"Oh," you know, "there's somebody
who's within 200 feet," or something,

667
00:31:57,916 --> 00:32:01,127
you know, everybody wonders,
"Is that… is that me?"

668
00:32:02,629 --> 00:32:05,715
The search season for me
would depend on snow melt,

669
00:32:05,798 --> 00:32:08,635
so February, March, started getting itchy.

670
00:32:08,718 --> 00:32:10,178
So you'd be on the computer

671
00:32:10,261 --> 00:32:12,931
checking the snow-depth reports
at different areas,

672
00:32:13,014 --> 00:32:15,266
trying to figure out
when it's gonna clear.

673
00:32:15,350 --> 00:32:17,477
That's when the search season would begin.

674
00:32:17,977 --> 00:32:18,978
[music fades]

675
00:32:22,190 --> 00:32:23,358
In early January,

676
00:32:23,441 --> 00:32:26,277
- I was prepping for the next season.
- [somber music playing]

677
00:32:26,361 --> 00:32:28,655
I was headed toward Yellowstone

678
00:32:29,155 --> 00:32:31,741
to search the Nine Mile Hole area again

679
00:32:32,992 --> 00:32:34,911
when I got a call from my mother.

680
00:32:36,287 --> 00:32:38,414
She was very upset.

681
00:32:39,415 --> 00:32:41,042
[unsettling music playing]

682
00:32:41,125 --> 00:32:43,252
My brother Brandon was missing.

683
00:32:44,921 --> 00:32:48,383
So I hopped on the first plane out
and went… and went to Tucson.

684
00:32:48,883 --> 00:32:50,843
I was just kinda frantic to find him.

685
00:32:52,762 --> 00:32:55,848
He had left a note. It had a symbol on it,

686
00:32:55,932 --> 00:33:01,604
and I figured out it was basically
a mile-marker post just east of Tucson,

687
00:33:01,688 --> 00:33:03,690
so that's where I went.

688
00:33:05,441 --> 00:33:10,947
I pretty quickly found his pack and towel
up on a mountainside.

689
00:33:11,531 --> 00:33:16,119
I was pretty concerned at that point,
and so I called search and rescue.

690
00:33:17,370 --> 00:33:21,207
He had left some messages in the area
that I knew came from him,

691
00:33:21,290 --> 00:33:25,920
and the last one that I found
was the name Forrest Fenn

692
00:33:26,004 --> 00:33:27,839
with a X marks the spot.

693
00:33:31,259 --> 00:33:32,301
But I, um,

694
00:33:32,802 --> 00:33:34,095
I couldn't find him.

695
00:33:35,555 --> 00:33:36,514
Uh…

696
00:33:37,682 --> 00:33:38,891
Just couldn't find him.

697
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:41,602
[mournful music playing]

698
00:33:42,186 --> 00:33:45,732
Eventually, he was found
up on the mountainside.

699
00:33:47,734 --> 00:33:48,860
{\an8}He, uh…

700
00:33:49,944 --> 00:33:51,195
{\an8}[breathing shakily]

701
00:33:51,279 --> 00:33:52,822
{\an8}…he… [groans]

702
00:33:53,865 --> 00:33:55,575
{\an8}…he, uh, he shot himself.

703
00:33:59,287 --> 00:34:00,997
The autopsy report showed

704
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:03,875
that if I had figured out
that message sooner,

705
00:34:05,126 --> 00:34:07,378
it would've probably been
a different ending.

706
00:34:09,255 --> 00:34:10,631
[breathing shakily]

707
00:34:12,925 --> 00:34:13,801
Um…

708
00:34:15,094 --> 00:34:16,929
He was my responsibility.

709
00:34:18,097 --> 00:34:20,433
Um… [shuddering]

710
00:34:23,394 --> 00:34:25,313
I was disappointed in myself,

711
00:34:25,396 --> 00:34:29,609
but I made a pact with myself at that time
that I would keep searching.

712
00:34:31,402 --> 00:34:34,197
I felt that I owed it to him to find

713
00:34:35,448 --> 00:34:37,075
what we had started to hunt for.

714
00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:41,162
[adventurous music playing]

715
00:34:42,497 --> 00:34:43,998
I went back to Wyoming…

716
00:34:46,125 --> 00:34:48,628
and I tore that place up.

717
00:34:49,629 --> 00:34:51,464
I searched an area
I probably shouldn't have

718
00:34:51,547 --> 00:34:53,633
in weather that I know I shouldn't have.

719
00:34:53,716 --> 00:34:56,594
I really did throw personal safety
to the wind.

720
00:34:57,428 --> 00:35:01,557
I didn't have any other thought
than finding that.

721
00:35:01,641 --> 00:35:03,810
[music fades]

722
00:35:03,893 --> 00:35:05,895
[somber music playing]

723
00:35:08,439 --> 00:35:11,526
[Ben] A million-dollar treasure
is easy to get obsessed about.

724
00:35:12,443 --> 00:35:13,861
And in fact, 10% of the searchers

725
00:35:13,945 --> 00:35:17,615
said that their connection to the hunt
might qualify as an addiction.

726
00:35:18,866 --> 00:35:20,785
This gave them meaning in their lives,

727
00:35:20,868 --> 00:35:24,914
and it led people to give up everything
in pursuit of the treasure.

728
00:35:24,997 --> 00:35:28,751
People were going through their savings
to fund their searches,

729
00:35:28,835 --> 00:35:31,838
relationships ending,
some people going to prison.

730
00:35:31,921 --> 00:35:34,924
I mean, so many crazy things happened

731
00:35:35,007 --> 00:35:37,760
that tells you the level of obsession
for some of these people.

732
00:35:39,011 --> 00:35:41,222
It started getting personal
for Forrest too.

733
00:35:41,973 --> 00:35:43,432
For a period, it was like

734
00:35:43,516 --> 00:35:47,186
some of the more zealous
and inexperienced treasure hunters

735
00:35:47,270 --> 00:35:49,147
were getting into physical trouble,

736
00:35:49,230 --> 00:35:52,984
but at a certain point, like, Forrest
and his family started suffering, right?

737
00:35:53,067 --> 00:35:55,611
They started experiencing
their own threats.

738
00:35:55,695 --> 00:35:57,697
[music fades]

739
00:36:01,409 --> 00:36:04,620
[woman] When he started
the whole treasure-chest thing,

740
00:36:04,704 --> 00:36:10,793
{\an8}it really was to get people outside
and doing stuff together,

741
00:36:10,877 --> 00:36:12,170
and… and it really did.

742
00:36:12,253 --> 00:36:16,549
It really, um, changed
a lot of people's lives for the good.

743
00:36:17,592 --> 00:36:20,803
I don't think it really hit me

744
00:36:20,887 --> 00:36:24,390
that people were so crazy
and obsessed with the whole thing

745
00:36:24,473 --> 00:36:26,142
until it hit

746
00:36:27,393 --> 00:36:29,061
my family personally.

747
00:36:29,145 --> 00:36:31,063
[tense music playing]

748
00:36:31,147 --> 00:36:33,900
People would constantly show up
at the gate.

749
00:36:33,983 --> 00:36:38,905
Shiloh's had to… to throw people out
that have jumped over the gate

750
00:36:38,988 --> 00:36:40,740
'cause Shiloh lived here.

751
00:36:40,823 --> 00:36:43,367
He was the keeper of the gate
for many, many years.

752
00:36:43,451 --> 00:36:45,453
[music fades]

753
00:36:48,164 --> 00:36:50,583
[man] I don't believe things
ever spun out of control,

754
00:36:50,666 --> 00:36:53,336
and I don't believe that anybody
was at fault.

755
00:36:53,419 --> 00:36:55,796
{\an8}I think, at a certain point,

756
00:36:56,672 --> 00:37:01,385
{\an8}the Forrest Fenn treasure story
took on a life of its own,

757
00:37:01,469 --> 00:37:03,179
{\an8}and it was its own beast.

758
00:37:04,138 --> 00:37:06,557
{\an8}Not a monster. Just a beast.

759
00:37:07,308 --> 00:37:09,894
And, uh, nobody was in control.

760
00:37:10,561 --> 00:37:12,230
Nobody was driving the ship.

761
00:37:15,775 --> 00:37:18,986
About the time
that the search really started to heat up,

762
00:37:19,070 --> 00:37:22,698
my family felt that it would be best
if somebody were to live here,

763
00:37:22,782 --> 00:37:24,116
and I agreed with them.

764
00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:26,369
[tense music playing]

765
00:37:26,452 --> 00:37:27,495
One day,

766
00:37:27,995 --> 00:37:33,000
my mother and my grandparents were
out and about running errands around town.

767
00:37:34,585 --> 00:37:36,295
After having been gone
for a couple of hours,

768
00:37:36,379 --> 00:37:37,797
they returned to the property.

769
00:37:38,714 --> 00:37:41,842
And just about the time
she looked over to the guesthouse,

770
00:37:42,635 --> 00:37:45,221
this guy was walking out
of the front door.

771
00:37:45,304 --> 00:37:47,306
[dog barking]

772
00:37:48,516 --> 00:37:49,684
[man 1] Uh, walk forward, sir.

773
00:37:50,351 --> 00:37:52,478
- Get on your knees. Get on your knees.
- [man 2] I am.

774
00:37:52,561 --> 00:37:54,230
[man 1] Cross your… cross your feet.

775
00:37:54,313 --> 00:37:55,940
All right, you gotta go in handcuffs.

776
00:37:56,023 --> 00:37:57,149
- [man 2] Sorry.
- [radio beeps]

777
00:37:57,233 --> 00:37:58,442
213. One detained.

778
00:37:59,443 --> 00:38:00,695
So what the hell is going on?

779
00:38:01,195 --> 00:38:03,531
I thought the poem directed me into here.

780
00:38:03,614 --> 00:38:05,366
- I thought it said…
- [man 1] Poem?

781
00:38:05,449 --> 00:38:08,869
Yeah, the… the treasure map,
the treasure hunt, you know?

782
00:38:08,953 --> 00:38:11,205
He had broken through the gate.

783
00:38:11,289 --> 00:38:12,665
I have a hatchet there,

784
00:38:12,748 --> 00:38:16,836
and he took a hatchet and broke through
the glass on this front door,

785
00:38:17,712 --> 00:38:18,879
let himself in.

786
00:38:20,256 --> 00:38:23,551
He'd opened up my refrigerator
and helped himself to a beer.

787
00:38:23,634 --> 00:38:26,762
He'd used my facilities
and not bothered to flush.

788
00:38:26,846 --> 00:38:30,141
And, as my mother and grandparents
were driving through the gate,

789
00:38:30,224 --> 00:38:33,144
he was walking out of the door
holding this chest,

790
00:38:33,227 --> 00:38:35,896
which is just full of linens.

791
00:38:35,980 --> 00:38:36,897
[music fades]

792
00:38:36,981 --> 00:38:41,360
And sees my mom, who has just gotten out
of the car with my grandparents.

793
00:38:41,444 --> 00:38:43,446
- [uneasy music playing]
- [Zoe] I don't know the guy.

794
00:38:43,529 --> 00:38:47,199
I've got my 88-year-old dad
standing in the driveway.

795
00:38:47,283 --> 00:38:49,869
So I stood there with my gun on the guy

796
00:38:49,952 --> 00:38:55,624
because I wasn't gonna take a chance
that… he could've hurt somebody.

797
00:38:55,708 --> 00:38:57,877
- [music fades]
- [man 1] Ma'am, can you put the gun away?

798
00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:00,004
We're almost down the road, okay?

799
00:39:00,087 --> 00:39:02,131
- So you broke the window to get in there?
- Yeah.

800
00:39:02,214 --> 00:39:04,342
[man 1] Why would you do that?
Over a poem?

801
00:39:05,217 --> 00:39:06,302
It told me to do it.

802
00:39:08,262 --> 00:39:09,597
He was struggling.

803
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:11,932
He was trying to provide for his family

804
00:39:12,808 --> 00:39:16,854
and, you know, figured
if he could find that treasure chest,

805
00:39:16,937 --> 00:39:19,774
that it would… it would change his life,

806
00:39:19,857 --> 00:39:21,650
change his kids' lives.

807
00:39:21,734 --> 00:39:23,152
[approaching siren]

808
00:39:23,235 --> 00:39:27,698
But a treasure chest
that is worth millions and millions,

809
00:39:27,782 --> 00:39:30,701
you know, it…
it does cr… it does crazy stuff,

810
00:39:31,702 --> 00:39:33,496
really crazy stuff to people.

811
00:39:38,459 --> 00:39:40,795
The minute it got out of control for me

812
00:39:40,878 --> 00:39:43,422
was when a stalker,
one of the treasure hunters,

813
00:39:43,506 --> 00:39:45,674
decided to start stalking my daughter.

814
00:39:45,758 --> 00:39:47,218
{\an8}- [camera clicks]
- [tense music plays]

815
00:39:47,301 --> 00:39:48,344
{\an8}[mysterious music playing]

816
00:39:48,427 --> 00:39:54,642
{\an8}Paco is a treasure hunter that had come
to my dad's gate a couple of times.

817
00:39:54,725 --> 00:39:56,435
Very odd guy.

818
00:39:56,519 --> 00:39:58,062
[system beeps]

819
00:39:58,145 --> 00:39:59,647
[Shiloh] He rang the doorbell,

820
00:40:01,065 --> 00:40:03,567
and my grandfather
cautiously opened the gate…

821
00:40:05,653 --> 00:40:08,572
and he stood there this far away from him
and didn't say a word.

822
00:40:08,656 --> 00:40:10,366
Just blank face. Just creepy.

823
00:40:10,449 --> 00:40:11,492
[unsettling music playing]

824
00:40:11,575 --> 00:40:13,327
[Zoe] My dad, at the beginning,

825
00:40:13,411 --> 00:40:16,580
thought it was very harmless,
and it… it was not harmless.

826
00:40:18,791 --> 00:40:19,625
[Shiloh] After that,

827
00:40:19,708 --> 00:40:22,962
he began sending envelopes
addressed to my grandfather,

828
00:40:23,045 --> 00:40:26,298
the contents of which, however,
were addressed to one of my sisters.

829
00:40:26,382 --> 00:40:29,802
There were some really vile things
that were put in these envelopes.

830
00:40:29,885 --> 00:40:32,221
On the very, very low end
of the scary spectrum,

831
00:40:32,304 --> 00:40:34,640
there were stickers of duct tape

832
00:40:34,723 --> 00:40:38,060
and machetes and bloody dolls.

833
00:40:38,144 --> 00:40:40,896
Just really disgusting,
dangerous, messed-up stuff.

834
00:40:40,980 --> 00:40:42,982
[music intensifies, fades]

835
00:40:44,316 --> 00:40:49,697
It became very clear that he believed
that my sister <i>was </i>the treasure.

836
00:40:50,197 --> 00:40:51,323
{\an8}[menacing music playing]

837
00:40:51,407 --> 00:40:54,743
{\an8}That the treasure was not a physical chest
full of golds and jewels,

838
00:40:54,827 --> 00:40:56,412
{\an8}that the treasure was my sister.

839
00:40:57,746 --> 00:41:01,125
And as the poem says,
it's yours to take if you find it.

840
00:41:01,625 --> 00:41:04,462
So he believed
that this girl was the treasure,

841
00:41:04,545 --> 00:41:06,422
and he was gonna find her and take her.

842
00:41:07,965 --> 00:41:11,343
[Zoe] My dad called me in
and gave them to me,

843
00:41:11,927 --> 00:41:14,638
and it really freaked me out.

844
00:41:14,722 --> 00:41:16,515
I turned into a mama bear

845
00:41:17,391 --> 00:41:19,810
because you don't mess with my kids.

846
00:41:19,894 --> 00:41:21,437
You don't mess with my family.

847
00:41:22,354 --> 00:41:25,774
[Zoe] <i>We have had some threats</i>
<i>made against my daughter,</i>

848
00:41:26,442 --> 00:41:28,652
<i>and I would like to speak with somebody.</i>

849
00:41:28,736 --> 00:41:31,655
[woman] <i>Okay. Are they making</i>
<i>these threats over the telephone?</i>

850
00:41:31,739 --> 00:41:35,034
- [Zoe] <i>No, it's via a package we received.</i>
- [music intensifies]

851
00:41:37,286 --> 00:41:39,997
[Shiloh] There were security measures.
My grandfather had guns

852
00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:42,625
just about in every room in the house
and knew how to use them.

853
00:41:43,334 --> 00:41:44,502
There was a restraining order,

854
00:41:44,585 --> 00:41:47,046
and he wasn't allowed to come
within a certain distance of her,

855
00:41:47,129 --> 00:41:49,006
which he, of course, rapidly broke.

856
00:41:49,089 --> 00:41:51,383
[man] <i>Santa Fe 911.</i>
<i>What is your emergency?</i>

857
00:41:51,467 --> 00:41:54,386
[woman] <i>We have a gentleman at our gate</i>
<i>stalking my niece,</i>

858
00:41:54,470 --> 00:41:56,847
<i>and there's</i>
<i>a restraining order against him.</i>

859
00:41:56,931 --> 00:41:58,307
<i>His name is Paco.</i>

860
00:41:58,390 --> 00:42:00,017
[man] <i>And he's been stalking your niece?</i>

861
00:42:00,100 --> 00:42:02,353
[woman] <i>My dad's going to talk to him</i>
<i>through the gate.</i>

862
00:42:02,436 --> 00:42:05,272
<i>This is just a bad situation.</i>
<i>Can you just send somebody right away?</i>

863
00:42:05,356 --> 00:42:07,233
[man] <i>We're sending somebody</i>
<i>as soon as possible.</i>

864
00:42:07,316 --> 00:42:08,817
<i>- Does he seem intoxicated?</i>
- [woman] <i>No.</i>

865
00:42:08,901 --> 00:42:12,112
<i>- He seems emphatic, like he has a plan.</i>
- [music intensifies]

866
00:42:12,196 --> 00:42:14,198
[music subsides]

867
00:42:14,865 --> 00:42:16,909
[Shiloh] He was extradited to Nevada.

868
00:42:17,868 --> 00:42:21,372
He was let out of jail in due course
with an ankle monitor,

869
00:42:21,455 --> 00:42:23,666
which he then very quickly cut off.

870
00:42:23,749 --> 00:42:25,876
- [menacing music playing]
- [siren wailing]

871
00:42:28,045 --> 00:42:32,883
We had the SWAT team at our house
and my parents' house.

872
00:42:32,967 --> 00:42:35,594
They wanted to take us all
into protective custody.

873
00:42:37,513 --> 00:42:38,889
All because of Paco.

874
00:42:39,473 --> 00:42:41,016
[indistinct police radio chatter]

875
00:42:41,100 --> 00:42:43,936
There had been a roadblock set up
looking for him,

876
00:42:44,019 --> 00:42:47,064
and they caught him
coming into New Mexico.

877
00:42:48,107 --> 00:42:51,026
Inside of the vehicle,
they found suitcases full of clothes

878
00:42:51,110 --> 00:42:53,195
as if he were planning on
going on a long trip,

879
00:42:53,279 --> 00:42:54,947
weapons, including a long machete,

880
00:42:55,030 --> 00:42:57,366
rolls of duct tape, quite a bit of cash,

881
00:42:57,449 --> 00:43:00,911
and some other things that
I care not to mention on camera, frankly.

882
00:43:02,371 --> 00:43:05,541
Obviously that put him back in jail
for a much longer period of time.

883
00:43:05,624 --> 00:43:07,626
- [cell door slams]
- [indistinct chatter]

884
00:43:07,710 --> 00:43:09,712
[music fades]

885
00:43:11,338 --> 00:43:15,050
[Zoe] I think my dad
really didn't want us too much involved

886
00:43:15,134 --> 00:43:21,557
because he… he was… he was
a little bit frightened by… by some of it,

887
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:23,100
and with good reason.

888
00:43:23,642 --> 00:43:26,437
[man] Did you ever think,
"I wish this could be over"?

889
00:43:26,937 --> 00:43:28,731
[hesitates] You know,

890
00:43:28,814 --> 00:43:31,775
I'm not one to wish things

891
00:43:33,485 --> 00:43:36,363
that I know aren't gonna happen
and have no control over.

892
00:43:36,447 --> 00:43:39,700
And, you know,
the things I have no control over,

893
00:43:39,783 --> 00:43:42,536
I leave in the hands of God,
and he's carrying me.

894
00:43:43,621 --> 00:43:45,623
[somber music playing]

895
00:43:46,457 --> 00:43:49,084
[Justin] There was a belief
that Forrest's family held a…

896
00:43:49,168 --> 00:43:50,961
they called it an intervention

897
00:43:51,045 --> 00:43:55,549
and had asked him to stop
the treasure hunt for their own safety.

898
00:43:55,633 --> 00:43:58,636
I certainly would not have faulted them
if they had done that.

899
00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:00,346
He probably thought that,

900
00:44:00,429 --> 00:44:02,723
by continuing with this treasure hunt,

901
00:44:02,806 --> 00:44:04,933
"I risked my own personal safety,"

902
00:44:05,017 --> 00:44:07,853
and probably more importantly to him,
his… his family.

903
00:44:08,937 --> 00:44:11,148
[Christopher] I think
he got in a little over his head.

904
00:44:11,231 --> 00:44:14,360
His family's looking at him like,
"Don't leave us with this shit show."

905
00:44:14,443 --> 00:44:17,196
[Cynthia] There was more and more pressure
for him to call it off,

906
00:44:17,279 --> 00:44:19,114
and I'm not even a mom.

907
00:44:19,198 --> 00:44:21,367
Well, I was a mom to my dogs,

908
00:44:21,450 --> 00:44:23,869
and my God,
if I had someone threatening my dogs,

909
00:44:23,952 --> 00:44:25,704
I would've certainly taken action.

910
00:44:25,788 --> 00:44:27,414
[music fades]

911
00:44:28,415 --> 00:44:30,459
[Shiloh] It wasn't our decision.
It was his decision.

912
00:44:30,542 --> 00:44:33,420
It wasn't the family ganging up on him.
It was never like that.

913
00:44:33,504 --> 00:44:36,715
However, the… the… the topic arose

914
00:44:36,799 --> 00:44:40,678
about the possibility of finding a way to

915
00:44:42,179 --> 00:44:43,555
change the ending

916
00:44:44,306 --> 00:44:47,893
so that we became less of a target
for people.

917
00:44:47,976 --> 00:44:49,812
[somber music playing]

918
00:44:49,895 --> 00:44:51,188
But the more we thought about it,

919
00:44:51,271 --> 00:44:52,981
there were already people
that were obsessed.

920
00:44:53,065 --> 00:44:56,026
There were already people
that had spent many thousands of dollars

921
00:44:56,110 --> 00:44:57,736
that maybe they shouldn't have.

922
00:44:58,404 --> 00:45:00,322
What would you say to those people?

923
00:45:00,406 --> 00:45:02,658
Would it have been fair to those people

924
00:45:02,741 --> 00:45:05,327
if my grandfather had decided
to go retrieve the chest?

925
00:45:05,411 --> 00:45:06,745
I say absolutely not.

926
00:45:07,955 --> 00:45:10,916
But I had, never in my life…

927
00:45:10,999 --> 00:45:15,087
at least I don't remember him
being as challenged as he was

928
00:45:15,170 --> 00:45:17,381
during certain points
within the treasure hunt.

929
00:45:17,464 --> 00:45:21,260
No matter what decision he made,
it was going to have consequences.

930
00:45:22,845 --> 00:45:26,557
[Forrest] <i>Everything I do today</i>
<i>is as a result of that treasure chest,</i>

931
00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:27,975
<i>and it was fun to begin with,</i>

932
00:45:28,058 --> 00:45:31,270
<i>but I'm trying to figure out now</i>
<i>how I can get out.</i>

933
00:45:32,062 --> 00:45:34,690
<i>I mean, tell me what I can do.</i>

934
00:45:34,773 --> 00:45:36,275
<i>How can I get out now?</i>

935
00:45:36,358 --> 00:45:38,360
[music fades]

936
00:45:40,988 --> 00:45:43,657
[Ben] There are signs
that something's going on with Forrest,

937
00:45:43,741 --> 00:45:48,370
that he's changing how he is viewing
the hunt and his role in it

938
00:45:48,454 --> 00:45:50,998
and even the decision
of whether or not to keep it going.

939
00:45:51,081 --> 00:45:55,586
At this point, four people have died.
Your granddaughter's being stalked.

940
00:45:55,669 --> 00:45:57,921
You know,
people are breaking into your home.

941
00:45:58,005 --> 00:46:02,676
Why on earth would you continue…
a… a game, a treasure hunt?

942
00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:05,053
{\an8}- Here's a wonderful artifact.
- [mysterious music playing]

943
00:46:05,137 --> 00:46:06,221
{\an8}This is a lantern.

944
00:46:06,305 --> 00:46:08,307
{\an8}[Ben] And that's when
he goes on <i>Nightline.</i>

945
00:46:08,891 --> 00:46:12,644
{\an8}[man] <i>Fenn says this may be</i>
<i>his last TV interview.</i>

946
00:46:12,728 --> 00:46:15,689
{\an8}I just don't feel like
I have anything to say anymore.

947
00:46:15,773 --> 00:46:20,110
[Ben] And then, in 2018, he types
a short little message for an interview.

948
00:46:20,194 --> 00:46:22,154
[adventurous music playing]

949
00:46:26,617 --> 00:46:29,953
This was a very strange thing to say
for someone who earlier had said,

950
00:46:30,037 --> 00:46:33,040
"I think it will take 900 years
for people to find it."

951
00:46:33,791 --> 00:46:36,168
If you're a searcher, you have to…

952
00:46:36,251 --> 00:46:39,630
I mean, it's very reasonable
to interpret that as, "This is the end."

953
00:46:39,713 --> 00:46:42,466
[Pete] Fenn has created a situation

954
00:46:42,549 --> 00:46:45,677
where people are scrambling
to find the treasure.

955
00:46:45,761 --> 00:46:49,097
[Cynthia] I think Forrest wanted someone
to find it and for it to come to an end.

956
00:46:50,182 --> 00:46:51,475
It was like, "Holy cow."

957
00:46:51,558 --> 00:46:53,852
"I've got to do
one last boots on the ground

958
00:46:53,936 --> 00:46:55,813
before the chase is over."

959
00:46:58,899 --> 00:47:02,778
All of a sudden, it was clear I was
running out of time to find the treasure.

960
00:47:04,905 --> 00:47:06,782
{\an8}All right, so remember this gate.

961
00:47:07,908 --> 00:47:09,535
The fact that that private property

962
00:47:09,618 --> 00:47:13,288
belonged to somebody that I believe
had strong ties to Forrest Fenn

963
00:47:13,372 --> 00:47:16,250
was… too much of a coincidence
to be a coincidence.

964
00:47:16,333 --> 00:47:19,419
I'm like, "This is the place,
and we are going back."

965
00:47:24,341 --> 00:47:26,593
{\an8}[Cynthia] What made Yellowstone so special

966
00:47:26,677 --> 00:47:30,556
{\an8}was the fact that Forrest basically
told me to spend my summer there.

967
00:47:30,639 --> 00:47:31,473
I mean,

968
00:47:32,599 --> 00:47:34,726
how could I look at anything else?

969
00:47:34,810 --> 00:47:36,687
It's really rare for me

970
00:47:36,770 --> 00:47:41,483
to find a situation
where data drove me to a location

971
00:47:41,567 --> 00:47:45,487
that also coincided with,
dare I say, a feeling.

972
00:47:45,571 --> 00:47:47,948
{\an8}Yellowstone feels like Forrest.

973
00:47:48,031 --> 00:47:49,700
[mysterious music playing]

974
00:47:50,450 --> 00:47:52,619
- Happy treasure-hunt day.
- Yeah.

975
00:47:53,495 --> 00:47:56,498
This was gonna be a different adventure
than the first one.

976
00:47:56,582 --> 00:47:57,708
[adventurous music playing]

977
00:47:57,791 --> 00:47:59,710
Now we're gonna come
from the back of the creek

978
00:47:59,793 --> 00:48:01,837
and then all the way back
to where the treasure is,

979
00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:04,172
and I wasn't gonna
let another gate stop me.

980
00:48:05,549 --> 00:48:07,092
All right, let's go find some treasure.

981
00:48:07,593 --> 00:48:10,137
I was like, "This is it.
We're gonna find it." Like, "It's here."

982
00:48:10,220 --> 00:48:12,347
[birds honking]

983
00:48:12,431 --> 00:48:16,852
I felt very confident that there was
a shortlist of places where this could be.

984
00:48:18,353 --> 00:48:19,938
And as I walked around Yellowstone,

985
00:48:20,022 --> 00:48:24,443
I just felt myself getting closer
and closer and closer.

986
00:48:26,111 --> 00:48:28,196
[Cynthia] Absolutely, there was hope now.

987
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:32,117
I mean, I would often say, "Is this
the day we're gonna find Fenn's treasure?"

988
00:48:32,200 --> 00:48:34,202
[music fades]

989
00:48:36,204 --> 00:48:38,749
[Christopher] We wasted
a lot of time and energy on that boulder.

990
00:48:39,249 --> 00:48:40,834
[man] How long were you guys there for?

991
00:48:40,918 --> 00:48:41,752
Two years.

992
00:48:41,835 --> 00:48:43,420
- [man] Two years on the boulder?
- Yeah.

993
00:48:44,212 --> 00:48:45,964
God, that was so absurd.

994
00:48:46,048 --> 00:48:48,842
I wish we would've never told you that
because, like, that is…

995
00:48:48,926 --> 00:48:51,094
looking back on it now,
that was just, you know…

996
00:48:51,178 --> 00:48:53,347
that was gold fever for sure.

997
00:48:55,641 --> 00:48:57,684
And this is where
it gets a little bit tricky.

998
00:48:57,768 --> 00:48:59,144
This is bizarre.

999
00:48:59,227 --> 00:49:02,522
This is absolutely
the most mind-blowing thing

1000
00:49:02,606 --> 00:49:05,275
of all of the thrill of the chase.

1001
00:49:05,359 --> 00:49:06,360
[intriguing music playing]

1002
00:49:06,443 --> 00:49:09,696
What if the definition of treasure
for Forrest Fenn

1003
00:49:09,780 --> 00:49:12,240
is different
than the definition you think?

1004
00:49:12,991 --> 00:49:13,992
See what I'm saying?

1005
00:49:15,744 --> 00:49:18,372
[Forrest, echoing] Imagination is
better than knowledge.

1006
00:49:18,455 --> 00:49:21,875
Doesn't matter what it is.
It only matters what you think it is.

1007
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:26,630
[Christopher] Maybe the treasure
that he speaks of is not the box of gold.

1008
00:49:26,713 --> 00:49:29,091
It's a treasure of another kind.

1009
00:49:30,968 --> 00:49:34,054
But… that's out of his own mouth,
not mine.

1010
00:49:34,137 --> 00:49:36,390
[man] If you had to
summarize your message,

1011
00:49:36,473 --> 00:49:38,016
what would that message be?

1012
00:49:38,517 --> 00:49:41,728
How do you know where the edge is
if you don't go out there and look?

1013
00:49:42,729 --> 00:49:44,398
[man 1] And that's when it hit me.

1014
00:49:44,481 --> 00:49:47,818
The treasure was not
what we… what everybody thought.

1015
00:49:47,901 --> 00:49:51,571
You think he's gonna be some crackpot,
and just…

1016
00:49:51,655 --> 00:49:55,158
No, he's… a very, very smart guy.

1017
00:49:55,242 --> 00:49:57,619
He knew geography, geology.

1018
00:49:57,703 --> 00:49:59,037
He knew literature.

1019
00:49:59,538 --> 00:50:01,665
So it's much deeper
than just words on a piece of paper.

1020
00:50:01,748 --> 00:50:03,208
That's the tip of the iceberg.

1021
00:50:06,211 --> 00:50:09,548
So we went back
and read one of the chapters in his book

1022
00:50:10,048 --> 00:50:11,633
called "Me in the Middle."

1023
00:50:11,717 --> 00:50:14,428
- [suspenseful music playing]
- And I said, "Holy cow."

1024
00:50:15,137 --> 00:50:17,472
"Whatever this thing is,
it's in the middle."

1025
00:50:22,144 --> 00:50:23,770
I realized we had three points.

1026
00:50:25,564 --> 00:50:27,065
We had our point A here,

1027
00:50:27,149 --> 00:50:30,110
which is the F
on the side of the mountain.

1028
00:50:31,069 --> 00:50:32,029
You see it?

1029
00:50:32,529 --> 00:50:36,241
[man 1] Okay, that was my F, my gray F.

1030
00:50:36,324 --> 00:50:38,452
[Christopher] And then we had our point B,

1031
00:50:38,535 --> 00:50:41,705
which was Cascade Creek,
just like the poem says.

1032
00:50:42,456 --> 00:50:44,958
"There will be no paddle up your creek."

1033
00:50:45,584 --> 00:50:48,462
[man 1] Cascade should be in there.

1034
00:50:49,838 --> 00:50:51,214
[Christopher] And then Kirwin.

1035
00:50:51,298 --> 00:50:53,592
[man 1, chuckling] Yeehaw!

1036
00:50:53,675 --> 00:50:54,509
[music subsides]

1037
00:50:54,593 --> 00:50:57,804
[Christopher] So what we do then
was bisect the triangle.

1038
00:50:57,888 --> 00:51:01,349
Boom, boom, boom.

1039
00:51:03,560 --> 00:51:07,105
What it means,
the treasure is dead center.

1040
00:51:07,189 --> 00:51:09,024
[dramatic music playing]

1041
00:51:10,192 --> 00:51:12,736
We're making it happen, Fenn.
You already know it.

1042
00:51:12,819 --> 00:51:14,237
All right, so, yeah,

1043
00:51:14,321 --> 00:51:16,656
we're searching what I consider
a really, really good spot.

1044
00:51:17,491 --> 00:51:19,034
Where's my blaze?

1045
00:51:19,701 --> 00:51:23,205
My guess would be one of these
downed trees here has a mark in it.

1046
00:51:24,915 --> 00:51:28,752
Here's where it gets crazy.
The center of the triangle, boom,

1047
00:51:29,336 --> 00:51:32,005
dropped us dead on a new blaze marker.

1048
00:51:32,589 --> 00:51:35,383
[man 1] Well, you can see
the hatchet marks where he made.

1049
00:51:35,884 --> 00:51:36,927
You know what I mean?

1050
00:51:37,427 --> 00:51:40,388
So we stood at the blaze marker
and took pictures…

1051
00:51:40,472 --> 00:51:42,641
[camera clicking]

1052
00:51:43,767 --> 00:51:46,645
…because we knew
we were looking for something.

1053
00:51:46,728 --> 00:51:50,398
We knew we were supposed to be
finding something significant.

1054
00:51:50,941 --> 00:51:52,943
Now, we're studying these photos for days.

1055
00:51:54,778 --> 00:51:57,572
And I was like,
"What the hell? Ain't nothing here."

1056
00:51:58,448 --> 00:52:00,826
But finally I see it.

1057
00:52:01,993 --> 00:52:03,203
No way.

1058
00:52:03,286 --> 00:52:05,205
That's a… that's a bear head.

1059
00:52:05,288 --> 00:52:07,874
- [bear roars]
- [intriguing music playing]

1060
00:52:07,958 --> 00:52:10,335
Bears have many connections
to Forrest Fenn.

1061
00:52:10,919 --> 00:52:12,170
[man 1] He has even told stories

1062
00:52:12,254 --> 00:52:15,006
about him and his brother
cutting off the head of a grizzly

1063
00:52:15,090 --> 00:52:17,551
and putting it in someone's bed,
playing a joke on 'em.

1064
00:52:17,634 --> 00:52:19,219
[Christopher] It's an amazing correlation

1065
00:52:19,302 --> 00:52:24,266
because the treasure hunt was ended
in the exact same way.

1066
00:52:24,349 --> 00:52:27,435
We are led to a grizzly bear sculpture,

1067
00:52:27,519 --> 00:52:28,895
and what do we do?

1068
00:52:28,979 --> 00:52:31,022
We cut off the head of the grizzly bear.

1069
00:52:32,858 --> 00:52:35,569
- [bear roars]
- It was all destiny. It was all destiny.

1070
00:52:35,652 --> 00:52:37,863
That this was something he treasured.

1071
00:52:37,946 --> 00:52:41,199
That art, that story,
is what he treasured.

1072
00:52:41,283 --> 00:52:43,201
- [man] The bear statue?
- Yeah.

1073
00:52:44,161 --> 00:52:46,913
I started to think it was something
like a Willy Wonka ending.

1074
00:52:47,414 --> 00:52:50,417
I thought it was all about finding someone
to fill his shoes,

1075
00:52:50,500 --> 00:52:52,794
and I thought, once you solved it,

1076
00:52:52,878 --> 00:52:57,716
you know, he says, uh,
"I give you the riches." You know?

1077
00:52:58,383 --> 00:53:00,260
This was the key to solving it.

1078
00:53:02,846 --> 00:53:06,433
[man 1] As soon as we found the bear,
I sent him pictures of everything.

1079
00:53:10,478 --> 00:53:12,898
And then, that night,
when we got back to town,

1080
00:53:13,899 --> 00:53:14,774
he called it.

1081
00:53:15,275 --> 00:53:19,237
It was like news reporters were like,
"What the fuck is going on?"

1082
00:53:19,321 --> 00:53:21,198
[intriguing music playing]

1083
00:53:21,281 --> 00:53:24,409
{\an8}[woman] <i>The search</i>
<i>for Forrest Fenn's treasure is now over.</i>

1084
00:53:24,492 --> 00:53:26,745
Forrest Fenn confirmed with News 13

1085
00:53:26,828 --> 00:53:30,665
that someone has found the treasure
he hid more than ten years ago.

1086
00:53:30,749 --> 00:53:33,668
When the news comes out,
you know, everyone's texting each other,

1087
00:53:33,752 --> 00:53:35,587
it's on all the forums and the blogs,

1088
00:53:35,670 --> 00:53:38,465
and people are…
are en route to their search zone,

1089
00:53:38,548 --> 00:53:41,009
they get the news,
and it's just suddenly over.

1090
00:53:41,593 --> 00:53:42,719
Oh my gosh.

1091
00:53:42,802 --> 00:53:45,055
"There's just no way. There's no way!"

1092
00:53:45,138 --> 00:53:46,264
"No, no, no. No, no, no."

1093
00:53:46,348 --> 00:53:48,308
"That's not… that's not true
You're lying to us."

1094
00:53:48,391 --> 00:53:50,977
- And we're like, "Oh my God."
- [man 2 chuckles]

1095
00:53:51,061 --> 00:53:52,229
- "That's us."
- Yeah.

1096
00:53:52,729 --> 00:53:53,980
"We did it."

1097
00:53:54,064 --> 00:53:55,523
[music fades]

1098
00:53:55,607 --> 00:53:57,525
[closing theme music playing]

1099
00:54:34,145 --> 00:54:35,605
[music fades]