How come I never heard about this until today?

When scanning the paper this morning, I learned about an old man who was adventurous (crazy) enough to stage the treasure hunt of a lifetime. He buried a 42-pound treasure chest in a remote location in the Rocky Mountains and filled it with $2 million worth of gold, rubies, diamonds, and jewels.

This was 10 years ago.

Recently, a person finally found the jackpot. After a decade that motivated close to a half million treasure seekers to go exploring, the skillful new millionaire sent a photo of the unearthed chest to Forrest Fenn, the 89-year-old man who sponsored the hunt.

Fenn definitely has quite the personality. In his 2010 autobiography, he announced the treasure hunt and penned a 24-line poem that contained clues about where to find it. People didn’t think twice about quitting their jobs to become fulltime treasure hunterd. They also didn’t hesitate to sacrifice their well-being. At least two people died while trying to find the elusive treasure. Despite pleas from New Mexico Police (where Fenn lives) to call off the hunt, the old man believed people should be able to “immerse themselves in the wilderness” regardless of whether they perished or not.

This man, Forrest Fenn, staged an epic treasure hunt.

After reading the article and thinking about it off and on, I just have a few thoughts about the whole thing…

– If you are looking to strike it rich and have at least remedial outdoor skills, finding buried treasure surely has better odds than winning the lottery.

– The man who found the treasure has indicated to Fenn his desire to remain anonymous. When he found the treasure, do you think he was able to haul it out of there without anyone noticing?

– What would have happened if Forrest Fenn died before anyone found the treasure? Did he have a sealed document (presumably in another 42-pound chest) that gave directions to where the treasure was buried?

– Seriously, when is the movie about this coming out?!

– In addition to all the gold and rubies, I kind of hope Fenn included a bottle of champagne and some non-perishable food as well.

– Could you imagine if someone like Warren Buffet wanted to stage 100 different treasure hunts like this? He could put treasure chests containing $2 million in two different locations in each state. People would go absolutely nuts (and many more deaths would probably occur).

– Is the guy who found the treasure going to trade it all in for cold hard cash?

– Who do you think would be more interesting to have a beer with? Forrest Fenn or the guy who found the treasure?

– Will a memorial be placed at the site of where the treasure was found honoring the people who died looking for it?

– Honestly, well played to Mr. Fenn for finding a hiding spot so good that it took 350,000 people more than 3,650 days to find it.

Next time, can we make this into a reality show? Don’t Blink.