Forrest Fenn 1999 New Mexico Art Dealer Forrest Fenn Brown

Antiquities dealer and writer Forrest Fenn, who gained fame after hiding a treasure chest filled with gilt, jewels and other valuables that drove hundreds of thousands of people to search remote corners of the U.Due south. West for the riches — sometimes with tragic consequences — has died. He was 90.

Police confirmed Fenn died Mon of natural causes at his home in Santa Atomic number 26, New United mexican states. Police force spokesman Greg Gurule said Tuesday that officers were alerted that afternoon and that more information would be released as it becomes available.

Information technology was only in recent months that Fenn announced his treasure had supposedly been found in Wyoming by someone he didn't proper name. Fenn said he hid the loot 10 years agone in the Rocky Mountains and dropped clues to its whereabouts in a poem published in his 2010 autobiography.

Scout TODAY All Day! Get the best news, data and inspiration from TODAY, all day long.

Fenn had said he packed and repacked his statuary treasure chest for more than a decade, sprinkling in gold dust and adding hundreds of rare golden coins and gold nuggets. Pre-Columbian animal figures went in, along with prehistoric "mirrors" of hammered golden, aboriginal Chinese faces carved from jade and antique jewelry with rubies and emeralds.

We repent, this video has expired.

He had always said he hid the treasure as a mode to tempt people to get into the wilderness and give them a run a risk to launch an old-fashioned adventure and expedition for riches.

The treasure spurred an almost a cult-like following — many people quit their jobs to dedicate themselves to the search. Others depleted their life savings, and some people died searching for it. Law enforcement officers in New Mexico and elsewhere had asked Fenn to telephone call off the hunt, proverb people were putting themselves in danger to find the valuable haul.

Fenn rebuffed those requests, saying it wouldn't exist fair to those who spent time and money looking for the treasure chest.

He tried to narrow the scope for treasure hunters, repeatedly maxim the 40-pound (18-kilogram) breast was neither in a dangerous location nor i where an one-time man couldn't schlep it alone. Only plenty of searchers forgot, overlooked or didn't hear virtually that promise of accessibility.

After announcing that the riches had been found, Fenn had mixed feelings, saying he was a bit lamentable that the chase was over.

"I congratulate the thousands of people who participated in the search and promise they will continue to be drawn by the promise of other discoveries," he posted on his website earlier this summer.

A self-described schmoozer and endless flirt who reveled in endless emails from treasure hunters, Fenn's idea to stash some of his favorite things began years earlier when he was diagnosed with cancer and given just a few years to live.

In his book "The Thrill of the Hunt," he laid out his unusual rags-to-riches story while sharing memories of his favorite adventures and mischief-making. The book said the recollections were as true as one man could average, considering that i of his natural instincts was to embellish.

Fenn was raised in Temple, Texas, where his father was a schoolhouse principal. His family spent the summers in Yellowstone National Park, where he and his brother honed their sense for adventure.

Fenn spent nigh two decades in the Air Force, including his busy service as a fighter airplane pilot in Vietnam.

Subsequently returning to Texas, he, his wife and 2 daughters moved to Santa Iron, where, over time, he became one of this artistic enclave'south all-time-known and most successful gallery owners.

Every bit an art dealer, he hosted a virtual who's who of the rich and famous at his gallery and guest business firm, including Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange and Michael Douglas, to name a few. Fifty-fifty in his 80s, he was known for throwing parties.

tracymoodderge.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.today.com/news/forrest-fenn-art-dealer-behind-treasure-hunt-rocky-mountains-dies-t191246

Share this post