When I was outed as the finder of the Fenn Treasure a month ago, I didn’t predict I would answer so many emails from searchers, or that I would continue to receive so much gratitude back from kind people around the world who loved this treasure hunt as much as I did. Today, I looked at my inbox, and I have received over 2,400 emails from searchers. That may be paltry by Forrest Fenn’s standards, but to me that’s quite a lot.
I haven’t been able to get to all of them, but I’ve tried my best to get back to people when I’ve had time. It’s been an unexpected pleasure to answer them. If you have a question you think I would feel comfortable answering, you can send it to me at jack85319834@gmail.com. …
[originally posted on dalneitzel.com 12/10/20]
When I posted my statement revealing myself as the finder Monday, I left an email address fellow searchers could use to reach me. I figured it would be a sort of release valve for pent-up frustration and would become full of hate mail pretty quickly. But what I received surprised me.
Over the past few days, I’ve been overwhelmed with hundreds of kind, heartfelt, and congratulatory emails, and now I feel like a lousy cynic for thinking most searchers would hate me. When I interviewed with Dan Barbarisi, he told me, from his reporting the last few years, he believes there’s a silent majority of good and decent people who took up this adventure. …
My name is Jack Stuef, and I am the finder of the Forrest Fenn Treasure. I searched for it for two years, and on June 6 of this year, I retrieved the treasure from the place I found it in Wyoming, the same place Forrest hid it 10 years ago. I now own the treasure chest.
Forrest died this September, and it was a tremendous loss to many thousands of people, including those like me who were enamored with his treasure hunt. I posted my feelings on his passing here.
For the past six months, I have remained anonymous, not because I have anything to hide, but because Forrest and his family endured stalkers, death threats, home invasions, frivolous lawsuits, and a potential kidnapping — all at the hands of people with delusions related to his treasure. I don’t want those things to happen to me and my family. …
My friend Forrest Burke Fenn passed away at the age of 90 earlier this month, and if I have anything to say about it, far too soon.
September 8 was certainly not the first time Forrest made me cry.
I am the person who found Forrest’s famed treasure. The moment it happened was not the triumphant Hollywood ending some surely envisioned; it just felt like I had just survived something and was fortunate to come out the other end. For so long, I thought I might be haunted for the rest of my days by knowing where the treasure was but being unable to find it. Would I still be out there in that section of forest 50 years from now looking for it? …
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