The “finder” of a treasure buried in the Rocky Mountains claims to be a millennial who found the cache of gold coins and jewelry in Wyoming — but dozens of fortune hunters in the decade-long search are not convinced by his story.
In a recent article published in Medium, an online “open” publishing platform, the anonymous writer said he figured out the location of the treasure buried by Forrest Fenn, an eccentric art collector based in Santa Fe, in 2018 but took “many months” to hone in on the exact spot.
Fenn, who died in September at age 90, announced in June that the $2-million treasure he buried somewhere in the Rockies in 2010 had been found “by a man from out East.” Fenn would not identify the “finder” by name and refused to disclose the exact location of the treasure.
“It just doesn’t add up,” said Miriam De Fronzo, a massage therapist and mother of two from St. Petersburg, Fla, who spent four years poring over clues that Fenn, a prolific writer, inserted in a poem that he said would lead people to the treasure. “I still have so many questions.”
“We need verification,” said Barbara Andersen, a Chicago lawyer, who claims she spent thousands of dollars on 20 trips to New Mexico and communicated her findings to Fenn over the years. She says her emails and texts were hacked and is suing Fenn’s estate to demand answers.
De Fronzo and Andersen are among 350,000 people who set off in search of Fenn’s El Dorado. Over the years, five men died trying to find the 42-pound chest. De Fronzo was on her fourth expedition to New Mexico when Fenn announced the treasure was found.
In his essay, the “finder” provides scant details about the location, and says he plans to sell the coins and jewelry because he is struggling to pay off student loans. “When I finally found it, the primary emotion was not joy but rather the most profound feeling of relief in my entire life,” he writes. “When I got back to my rental car after the find, I put my hands on the steering wheel and bawled my eyes out.”
He said he was also grateful to Fenn for protecting his anonymity. “I didn’t want to be looking over my shoulder … for the rest of my life,” he said.
But the essay has raised more questions than answers. De Fronzo told The Post that a poll she took among a Facebook group devoted to treasure seekers — Treasures Galore — found that 86 percent of its more than 4,000 members do not believe that the anonymous writer actually found the treasure.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Forrest actually wrote the article before he died,” said De Fronzo. “It sounds like an epitaph.”