Hunting for buried treasure might sound like something that only happens in novels, but in 2010 millionaire art dealer Forrest Fenn created a treasure hunt that would grip the world for almost a decade.

Fenn filled a 12th century bronze treasure chest with valuables worth more than $1 million (over £800k), including gold, precious gems, and antiquities. He then hid it "somewhere in the Rocky Mountains."

Read on to uncover the incredible story of Forrest Fenn's epic treasure hunt, including what inspired it, how the treasure was found, and what happened afterwards. All dollar amounts are given in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

Forrest Fenn was a US Air Force veteran, art dealer, and businessman who lived near Santa Fe in New Mexico.

Born in 1930, he was the middle of three children and spent his childhood in Texas. His father, William Fenn, was a school principal, but Forrest knew that he wanted to do something different when he was older.

When he left the Air Force, he decided to turn his love of artefacts and collecting unusual objects into a business.

An avid collector, Fenn's passion for finding unique objects led him to amass a huge haul of artefacts over the years, including pottery, paintings, and ancient Indian relics.

This led to the formation of his very first art gallery, Fenn Galleries Ltd, in Santa Fe. It was a success: between 1972 and 1988, Fenn sold his wares to the glitterati, with famous clients including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (pictured), Michael Douglas, and Steve Martin.

Fenn's collection was certainly eclectic – and he kept some truly bizarre artefacts at his home in Santa Fe, too.

A 2012 Newsweek article reported that he had a mummified falcon from the tomb of King Tutankhamun on display, as well as an ancient jade mask (that he was selling for $12,500/£10,546) and even a peace pipe that had reportedly belonged to Chief Sitting Bull and which was worth more than $1.1 million (£929k).

In 2009, the US federal government swooped on Fenn's home, suspecting him to be part of a massive grave-robbing operation. The investigation, which was code-named "Cerberus Action," was the largest of its type. Fenn was never arrested.

Tragedy hit in 1988 when Fenn was diagnosed with kidney cancer and given just a few years to live.

Although he eventually made a complete recovery from the illness, it left him thinking about his legacy and how he could leave his mark on history. He decided to sell his gallery and kick-start a new project.

There was a long gap between Fenn's recovery from his illness and the launch of his treasure hunt: after all, he was busy indulging his love of exploring and treasure seeking, as well as reportedly burying bronze bells featuring raised text with snippets of his life story.

And that wasn't all. Fenn bought himself an Indian ruin and reportedly snapped up New Mexico's San Lazaro archaeological site, which had received National Historic Landmark status in 1964. He also built a mansion on the Old Santa Fe Trail. However, none of this was quite enough to satisfy him. 

Fenn wrote a memoir in 2010, the aptly-titled The Thrill of the Chase: a Memoir. In the self-published book, he confessed that he had hidden a chest containing a stunning selection of rare and valuable items in a location somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.

To help people find the treasure, Fenn composed a poem containing nine clues regarding the chest's whereabouts. He revealed that anybody who managed to figure out where he'd hidden it could keep the contents.

Here's Fenn's poem in full. What do you make of it?

As I have gone alone in there
And with my treasures bold,
I can keep my secret where,
And hint of riches new and old.

Begin it where warm waters halt
And take it in the canyon down,
Not far, but too far to walk.
Put in below the home of Brown.

From there it’s no place for the meek,
The end is drawing ever nigh;
There’ll be no paddle up your creek,
Just heavy loads and water high.

If you’ve been wise and found the blaze,
Look quickly down, your quest to cease,
But tarry scant with marvel gaze,
Just take the chest and go in peace.

So why is it that I must go
And leave my trove for all to seek?
The answer I already know
I’ve done it tired, and now I’m weak.

So hear me all and listen good,
Your effort will be worth the cold.
If you are brave and in the wood
I give you title to the gold.

In The Thrill of the Chase, Fenn wrote that the chest was hidden in an area of the Rockies that stood at 5,000ft (1,524m) above sea level, "where warm waters halt." He suggested that would-be treasure hunters start there, "and take it in the canyon down."

He also revealed that the bronze chest was packed with valuables, including hundreds of gold coins and nuggets, countless precious stones, pre-Columbian gold bracelets, and a pair of Chinese jade carvings.

It's reported that he obsessed over the contents of the bronze chest for over a decade, packing and repacking it until it was just right, and even sprinkling gold dust over its contents.

When asked why he'd started the treasure hunt, Fenn said he wanted to help American families "get off their couches" and hunt for treasure. His plan worked: it's estimated that more than 350,000 people tried to find the haul over the years.

Fenn reportedly paid out more than $5,000 (£4,221) in legal fees to ensure that whoever found the haul was legally entitled to keep it.

The hunt attracted the attention of retired filmmaker Dal Neitzel, who was so fired up by the challenge that he reportedly tried to find the chest more than 90 times, with his search spanning New Mexico, Montana, and Wyoming.

Another seriously dedicated hunter was Katya Luce, who sold all of her belongings, moved to New Mexico, and spent an estimated $75,000 (£63,330) over a period of seven years looking for the glittering haul.

Tennessee native Eric Ashby also moved, relocating to Colorado in 2016 to maximise his chances of finding the chest. Read on to learn of his fate.

As publicity surrounding the treasure reached fever pitch, fortune hunters began to risk life and limb searching for the 40-pound chest. The first death occurred in January 2016 when Randy Bilyeu (pictured), a 54-year-old treasure hunter from Colorado, went missing in the New Mexico wilderness. His body wasn't discovered until the following July.

In 2017, a second life was lost on the trail. The body of another Coloradan fortune hunter, Pastor Paris Wallace, 52, of Grand Junction was discovered on the banks of the Rio Grande River in New Mexico in June. He'd been missing since January. 

31-year-old Eric Ashby also went missing in June 2017 after the raft he was travelling in with some friends reportedly capsized on the Arkansas River (pictured). His family's fears were confirmed when his body was found in the river the following January.

While most people at first considered the challenge to be a bit of fun, there were growing accusations that it was too dangerous due to the treasure's hiding place in the Rockies. Some people even considered the whole thing to be a cruel and elaborate hoax.

The New Mexico State Police Chief asked Fenn to abandon the hunt in June 2017, by which time three people had died taking part. Fenn refused and the quest continued. 

As reported by The Mirror, all in all, it's thought that at least five people tragically died in a bid to locate Fenn's loot. And some people's obsession even led them to commit criminal acts.

Rodrick Dow Craythorn from Utah was caught digging up the Fort Yellowstone Cemetery in Yellowstone National Park on more than one occasion between 1 October 2019 and 24 May 2020, causing damage worth over $1,000 (£845). In April 2021, he was fined around $30,000 (£25.3k) and sentenced to six months in jail for yet more illegal digging.

Another hunter, Mark Lantis, was found guilty of misdemeanour and reckless disorderly conduct after he got lost in the National Park and had to be rescued. He was ordered to pay $2,880 (£2,433) to cover the cost of being extricated by helicopter.

In June 2020, the search came to an end when a man claimed that he'd found the treasure chest. He refused to be named – or to tell anyone where he had found it.

The secretive seeker said that he didn't want the location to become a tourist attraction and also wanted to keep his own identity under wraps. 

All the victorious finder would say was that he'd located the chest somewhere in Wyoming. A message on Forrest Fenn's website soon after the discovery described the hiding place as being "under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains."

Fenn also confirmed that it had not moved from its original location at any point. He promised that more information and photos would come later on. When they didn't materialise, people were quick to accuse him of making the whole thing up.

After Fenn announced that his infamous treasure chest had finally been found, he admitted that he had mixed feelings about the challenge coming to an end.

He said that he felt "halfway kind of glad, halfway kind of sad" about the chase being over. He congratulated the winner and wrote on his website that he hoped that the people who had taken part in the decade-long search would "continue to be drawn by the promise of other discoveries."

After the treasure hunt ended, people started to ask difficult questions and the prank accusations intensified.

One of them was Linda Bilyeu, whose ex-husband Randy had died four years earlier while trying to locate the chest.

She told Denver news site Westword that she didn't believe Fenn had ever hidden the treasure, and that it was just a way to generate self-publicity. She also highlighted that there was no proof that the treasure had actually been found, adding further fuel to the theories that the hunt had been a hoax from day one.

On 9 September 2020, just a few months after the treasure chest had been found, Fenn passed away from natural causes at the age of 90.

Within days, rumours were once again circulating that his treasure trail had been a con. The details about the location and the successful hunter were both still unknown, and the promised photos and updates were never published on Fenn's website.

However, the lucky treasure hunter was eventually revealed to be Michigan medical student Jack Stuef.

The 32-year-old, whose claims were later verified by Fenn's family, revealed his identity in a Medium post after staying anonymous for six months. He said that he felt he had no choice but to disclose his identity because it would soon be in the public domain regardless as a lawsuit was being launched.

Since Fenn's death, various people have attempted to discredit both him and Stuef.

Some evidently want to claim the riches for themselves: one woman, for example, filed a lawsuit alleging that she knew the hiding place and that whoever had found the treasure must have hacked her emails and texts to get the details.

Stuef claimed that he was concerned for the safety of his family, since Fenn had been on the receiving end of stalking and death threats. Stuef even claimed that there had been a kidnap plot against Fenn, with the desperate hunters evidently willing to do anything to land the prize.

In May 2022, it was revealed that the chest had been buried in Yellowstone National Park all along.

A lawsuit filed by Florida treasure hunter Jamie McCracken alleged that it had been moved several times before reaching its final resting place in the park, and that Fenn had reburied the treasure in a new hiding place whenever a treasure hunter got too close to it.

Despite objections, park rangers may be forced to reveal the exact location of the find if the lawsuit is successful, in order to disprove the claims.

And that's not the only pending lawsuit that relates to the Fenn treasure.

French treasure hunter Bruno Raphoz has filed a $10 million (£8.4m) lawsuit against the estate of the late art dealer, alleging that Fenn had dug up the treasure chest and declared someone else had found it, allowing him to keep it for himself.

Raphoz says that he told Fenn in February 2020 where he believed the treasure to be. However, before he could get to America, COVID-19 closed the airports, and Raphoz believes that Fenn used this time to move the chest before he could fly over to claim it.

Although many people had hoped that Stuef would share all the details about his discovery – including what the clues in the original poem meant – he's kept it largely to himself.

In a post shared to his Medium account in December 2020, he admitted that he felt a responsibility to keep it a "secret," adding that he has never disclosed details to anyone other than those "whose job requires them to know that information and keep it confidential." He also added that he never plans to spill the beans, either.

But who knows? Maybe one day, Stuef will change his mind. Watch this space...

Now find out what happened when intrepid treasure hunters broke into King Tutankhamun's tomb.