Forrest Fenn, a wealthy, eccentric art dealer, started a treasure hunt by hiding over 20 pounds of gold and jewels in a bronze treasure chest somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Fenn hid details of the treasure hunt in the book The Thrill of the Chase. The book contained a poem. The poem contained nine clues. Solve the clues to find the treasure chest. According to Fenn, if you could solve the poem and find the chest, you could have it.
More than 300,000 people had searched for the treasure without success. The chest, hidden more than ten years prior, had been waiting patiently for someone to find it. According to a message released by Fenn on June 6, 2020, somebody had finally found it. But the chase ended in a cloud of mystery. Who found it? Where was it hidden? What was the solution to the poem? No one was talking.
In the months following Fenn's message, long-time treasure searchers eagerly waited for details of the deed. They were anxious to hear Fenn's explanation of the 24-line poem that each of them had worked so hard trying to decipher. That explanation was not forthcoming and, apparently, never would be. Depression, anger, and angst set in amongst searchers. "This could not be the end of it. There was no feeling of closure at all, no sense of completeness. It was disappointing." Those words, a virtual prophecy from the author of the treasure hunt himself, were now felt by searchers the world over.
And then, on September 7, 2020, two weeks after his 90th birthday, Forrest Fenn passed away. A strangely insidious something began to gnaw at me. Two others knew the secret: one of them had died, the other wasn't talking, and the reasons given for the silence seemed specious. It seemed as though the answers would forever be hidden.
Until now.
The Place Where a Story Ended is the true tale of one man's epic quest that spanned hundreds of miles through the Rocky Mountains. There, he discovers that the treasure hunt was never about a treasure chest. The chest was a lure that Fenn cast into a sea of people, hoping someone would take the bait and figure out the story behind the story. This book weaves together all the loose ends into a cohesive last chapter of The Thrill of the Chase, and in so doing, it reveals the solution to the mystery and story hidden within.
