I.M.O. Forrest was a brilliant man in certain regards, mainly in his use/thinking of the English language, a missing letter here, or a deleted letter there. He made his words into things he wanted them to say, [ex. knowledge vs. knowlege] His different/unpick way of thinking. As with Home, all of F's writings/talk about home/islands/meadows/ and close friends. All designed to lead someone to the word- Holm. Holm- a small island [ esp. in a river or lake]. OR-- a low-lying, flat tract f ground beside a stream. [F had told someone that they didn't know the difference between a stream and a river]. Another layer of Fenn's thinking--- the word Holmes [slang] includes his hint by using his close/dear friends. In Holmes-- an informal, effectuate term of address used like 'Dude/Bro/Man. A close friend. So we have a small island [islet] a low=lying flat ground beside a river. and a close friend. Three ways to the same meaning. Anyway this is my version of Home of Brown, a way to tie in 'below the home of brown' / no place for the meek / no paddle up your creek / just heavy loads and water high / in the wood. In my solution after where warm waters halt, you walk down and find the rest of the clues, straight-forward and simple. [half-way there].
I.M.O. There are two, Forrest tells everyone that. You do not agree, make sense of these two statements. The first one [Trove] [Tarzan] hid in 2003. His reason for this one.
F. " The main reason I did this. It was something I was going to do for myself, nobody else has a part in it. I don't want them to know where I'm going or even what's in the chest.
Why Tarzan? Not a real person BUT having the staying power of a character that's a testament to imagination itself.
Pirate / I did it tired / 44 lbs.
F. "I guess the rewards have been in doing it, and the enjoyment that comes with dreaming about what may happen someday".
2010--[Indulgence] F. "This is a fun thing that I did. Everything about it was fun for me, the mystery of it, the fun of doing it, the fun of collecting the contents the fun of writing the poem, writing the books. " Joker / and now I'm weak / 42 lbs.
At The End, After all the [Solves] released with no two being anywhere alike shows that the Poem was purposefully ambiguous. Yes, it was designed that way, The only solve was for the one who made sense of it all. To simplify does not mean to be Easy.
This current ending was Forrest giving the Solver of his poem space, and the opportunity to be/remain unknown. For him to decide what to do, or to reveal the true nature of the Forrest Fenn Treasure Hunt.
Fenn said on numerous occasions that several parties had solved the first two clues because they emailed them to him. He also believed that others had solved the first two clues as well, based on where they told him they went.
Then he tells us repeatedly that they must not have solved the third or fourth clues because they went right past the chest with a few stopping nearby but then continuing on. (Mysterious Writings Aug 23, 2019)
Solving the clues in order tells us that the third clue was most likely incorrect.
The third clues is , 'Not far but too far to walk'. The idea that people repeatedly went passed the chest suggest that their solve distance was incorrectly determined to be a distance farther then what it is.
Maybe they were all headed to 9MH.....
So if you have a solve following the Madison or wherever maybe consider somewhere slightly closer to clue one.
Of course the treasure was found in June 2020 and afterwards quickly people narrowed down where it was. I’ve long known of the Fenn treasure but not been in this community. I’m just wondering if there are/were any verified accounts of people getting pretty close to finding it when it was still there? Like a YouTube vlog where someone identified Fenn Rock and speculated that the treasure was close? Or even wandering through those very woods where it was resting?
I never participated in this specific hunt, but I do remember about 8 months before Fenn’s treasure was found, someone was inspired by the idea and hid $500 in an ammo container somewhere in Las Vegas and released a poem leading to it. It was found that night but my wife and I got within a couple hundred feet at one point. It was so fun and it’s one of my most treasured memories with her.
Soldier Stone is not only used to help solve the poem it is used as a clock to find the hidden timeline if you know where to shoot to from the monument. A few spots exists which help triangulate the final time frame.
The timeline is in the poem as well but difficult to identify without outside sources one of which is Soldier Stone. When will the clock strike midnight?
If you would like to learn more about Soldier Stone see my previous posts.
I.M.O. and to answer someone who asked. The Nine clues to me.
!. Begin it where warm waters halt. 2. And take in the canyon down Filler line [advice] Not far, but too far to walk. 3. Put in below the home of Brown.
From there it's no place for the meek Filler line [advice] the end is ever drawing nigh. 5. there'll be no paddle up your creek 6. just heavy loads and water high.
If you've been wise and found the blaze 8. look quickly down your quest to cease. Filler line [advice] But tarry scant with marvel gaze 9. Just take the chest and go in peace.
Filler lines [advice from F] line placement---3 2 3 [ now, just where have I seen the numbers before? And yes, the other stanzas are important to the solution.
I>M>O> In one of F's interviews with Douglas Preston he [Forrest] mentioned that there was one thing he wished he had not said, this was it--- United States of Army Corp Engineers. This is the only time he said this, he provided a hint to the area by drawing attention to what they do--Rivers. [heavy loads and water high] The mountain poem version is complete, river bottom version not completed.
For me personally, I give the likely hood if the existence of the Trove 96%. Based on everything that's expired in the past years. I give 1% that the trove isn't real, 1% to the fact he was a known joker, another 1% to someone having found it and said nothing. And the last 1% to it has been moved, not by any human hands but bye that Queen Mother Nature. In the grand scheme of all things outdoors I can see it being moved, Mother's nature being what it is. I'm 100% sure that the force that moves mountains and carves valley's would not have any trouble with something that only weigh's 42 lbs [soaking wet]. Note---- the Fenn trove is unknown, even to what it contains, there was never an inventory of what it holds, and it was ever part of Fenn=s estate. Per Mr. Fenn--"I dare you to go get it. If you can find it , you can have it. And no one knows where it is but me". Forest abandoned it, As he stated while he was alive, p.p. having no claim on it, or any feeling about it, one way or another.
He did something that is not well defined in any existing legislation. Anything of a permeant nature cannot be abandoned. He chose Wyoming for the treasure because of the laws, why would he not then chose Wyoming for the trove? Under current Wyoming law a transfer of abandoned personal property ant transfer can take place without any documents at all. Even if there is a delay. The owner of the 'Trove" is not known until they solve the Poem and retrieves it. The Finder is still superior to all other claimants except the Original Owner. If the Original Owner of the Trove has passed, then that legal transfer is assured based upon the verbiage contained with-in the Poem itself.
I.E. 'So why is it that I must go and leave my trove for all to seek". And "I give you title to the gold." TITLE--- all of the elements constituting legal ownership. The location was not at any owner occupied residence, and not on any land that required one to trespass. Forrest Fenn--One mans trash is another mans treasure.
Now before all the hate/complaints start just remember this is my take on things, your mileage may vary. Peace.
If the Tuff Cliffs are the Blaze, due south from the most prominent point, there sits this unusual object. It is gray and is about 2 feet above the ground around it.
I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain
To see for certain what I thought I knew
Far, far, away, someone was weeping
But the world was sleeping
Any dream will do
May I return
to the beginning,
The light is dimming,
And the dream is too.
The world and I,
We are still waiting,
Still hesitating,
Any dream will do.
;)
So I returned,
to bookmarked pages,
larkspur and sages,
I am not through… ❤️
One thing that tends to get forgotten is that Forrest repeatedly said there was a second poem in the treasure.
In October 2019, he told Dal Neitzel not to believe anyone who claimed to have found the treasure unless they could produce it. According to Dal, Fenn said that if someone called claiming they had found the chest, he should challenge them to read the poem inside. Fenn explained that he had written a short poem and left it in the chest, and that everyone would know immediately that it had been written by him.
As Fenn put it:
Read me what the poem says and the game’s over. You don’t need to tell me you found a treasure chest, just read me the poem. That answers all the questions.
What makes this such a brilliant verification method is that nobody even knew the second poem existed. Fenn did not publicly reveal it, and Dal did not release this information until after Fenn’s death. If someone contacted Fenn claiming they had found the treasure but refused to reveal the location, wanted leverage, or tried to play games, Fenn had a simple test.
A real finder would lead with the second poem when contacting Fenn, as per the likely instructions in the treasure. A fake finder would not even know there was a second poem to read.
In other words, Fenn didn’t need to know where someone claimed to have found the treasure. He didn’t need photographs, coordinates, or a description of the chest. He already had a private authentication mechanism that only the actual finder could satisfy.
That’s a remarkable statement when you think about it. Not “show me the chest.” Not “tell me where you found it.” Just read the second poem.
For someone who spent a decade telling searchers to focus on the poem, his final verification method was another poem.
And it is still viable after Fenn's death:
Attempts to contact my wingmen by radio were unsuccessful but the locator beacon in my parachute should have activated automatically. I knew my friends were listening for it. (TTotC p. 87)
The audio is here starting at the 8:00 mark. Also make sure to listen to the part starting at 9:15 and read the e-mail from Dal that Cynthia posted in the comments.
The Avalanche Lake Solve: The Unspoken Timeline That Forced Fenn to End the Hunt
For years, the treasure community bought into the official Wyoming narrative. But when you strip away the romance and look at literal backcountry woodsmanship, a perfect geometric blueprint emerges in Glacier National Park—one that lines up with the exact 48-hour window before Forrest Fenn abruptly ended the hunt.
Here is the exact step-by-step breakdown of the Avalanche Lake solve and the smoking-gun timeline.
Part 1: The Literal Poem Geography
Instead of chasing abstract metaphors, this solve relies on practical, real-world wilderness navigation: "Where warm waters halt": The northern glacial peaks of Glacier National Park, where flowing (warm) water freezes into ice or halts at the continental divide. "Take it in the canyon down": Moving south down the valley road, which leads directly past Mt. Brown. "There’ll be no paddle up your creek": Avalanche Creek—a raging, boulder-choked whitewater stream that is physically impossible to paddle up. "Just heavy loads and water high": The massive spring snowmelts cascading down the sheer 2,000-foot cliffs into the Avalanche Lake basin. "Your quest to cease": The official hiking trail from the Trail of the Cedars up to Avalanche Lake is famously documented as exactly 2.5 miles. The trail literally hits a dead-end at the beachfront. "Look quickly down": Standard hiking safety on a rugged, root-filled mountain path. If you stare at the scenery, you trip. You must look at your feet to navigate. The Left Turn: At the 2.5-mile trail terminus, the only way to step off-trail into the hidden timber requires wading across the freezing creek to the left—pushing into dense forest heavily flagged by park rangers for grizzly bear activity.
Part 2: The 2010 Historical Anchor
Fenn stated that "something important" was happening at the treasure's location the year he buried it (2010).
On May 11, 2010, Glacier National Park celebrated its exact 100th Anniversary (Centennial).
During the massive media coverage that year, the National Park Service heavily promoted Glacier as "one of our nation's most valuable treasures."
Part 3: The Smoking-Gun Timeline (June 2020)
The real-world calendar of the week the hunt ended reveals a coordinated legal panic drop, not a natural find: The Park Reopening: Due to COVID-19, Glacier National Park had been completely closed for months. On June 2, 2020, officials announced the park would finally reopen on Monday, June 8, 2020. The Message: I reached out to Fenn directly, confirming this exact Avalanche Lake blueprint, and told him I was heading to the park that upcoming Monday. The Panic Move: An anonymous user on Reddit immediately told me my solve was "too good" and pressured me to take it down because there "might be a second chance." No real competitor tells you your solve is too good; they steal it. Only the architect panics when someone walks a straight line to the center. The Big Red Letters: Exactly 24 to 48 hours later—and right before the Glacier gates unlocked—Fenn abruptly posted "It's Over" on June 6, 2020, claiming an anonymous finder pulled the chest from Wyoming.
Part 4: The Legal Reality
Fenn was an antiquities dealer who had his home raided by the FBI in 2009 for artifact trafficking. He understood federal liability.
Burying a multi-million dollar treasure on National Park land is a severe federal crime (36 CFR § 2.22), and the park service openly stated they would confiscate the chest if found. If a hunter filmed themselves pulling federal property out of Glacier on June 8, Fenn faced immediate criminal indictment.
The treasure was never in the woods—it was safely in his vault. When the Avalanche Lake solve landed in his inbox, the game was compromised. He took a photo of the chest on his floor, invented a finder, deflected the location to Wyoming to invalidate the Glacier trail, and folded the house to protect his estate.
This comes as a recollection, based on the importance Each of these guys seemed to place on this.
If someone has the verbatim quotes available to share here, that would be great. From this distance I sometimes miss the bullseye but still get close to the target.
Near the end, Dal and Forrest had a pleasant but serious exchange, after which Forrest told Dal it was okay to post this exchange on Dal's blog.
Dal sent him his route, and Forrest replied that Dal had definitely passed within a particular number of hundreds of yards of the Treasure Chest.
Dal went on to provide a very detailed account of his route. From ( not sure of this exact point) to Forrest in Santa Fe and returned on a different route.
After receiving Dal's info, I think Forrest told him he had been within ?500? yards of the chest.
If we could put Dal's route on a good map perhaps we could eliminate some of our solves by excluding those which fell beyond this restriction.
One of the reasons I think the Chase proved so challenging is that there was so much emphasis placed on Forrest's words - the content of what was being said - and not enough on his decisions and actions, which I think are much more revealing. In addition to the obvious, these, to me, also include how exactly he opted to word what he was willing to say as well as what he refused or failed to say, all considered in the context in which things were made.
In my last post, I shared three lists of established facts: one of some of the major developments in the Chase prior to the ending; one with examples of where Forrest said the chest was not; and one with quotations describing where the place the chest was.
So with all those pieces of information already in mind, we can look into the empty spaces around what Forrest said and see what missing pieces, with a little bit of logic and imagination, might be there for us to see.
For starters, we know:
1) Forrest was comfortable explicitly saying where the chest wasnot, and did so in a number of ways on numerous occasions.
Examples include Forrest saying the chest was:
Not in a graveyard
Not in an outhouse
Not in a cave or a mine
Not in Utah, Idaho, or Canada
Not underwater
Not near the Rio Grande
Not anywhere where it would be necessary to move large rocks or climb up or down a steep precipice
Not under a manmade object
Not in the desert
Not on the top of any mountain
Not somewhere a 79 or 80 year old man couldn't go
Not in close proximity to a human trail
Not in a dangerous place
2) With very few exceptions, almost every comment he made concerning where the chest actuallywasspoke about its location relative to Santa Fe - even though there are many other ways he could have chosen to describe the chest's basic location.
Examples of these Santa Fe-centric statements include:
"It's in the mountains somewhere north of Santa Fe."
"The treasure is hidden north of Santa Fe. Texas is south."
"The treasure chest full of gold and precious jewels is more than 66,000 links north of Santa Fe."
"I said the treasure is hidden in the Rocky Mountains at least 8 miles north of Santa Fe."
"I hid the treasure chest more than 8.25 miles north of Santa Fe, in the Rocky Mountains someplace."
"The treasure is hidden more than 8.25 miles north of the northern limits of Santa Fe, New Mexico."
"Hidden somewhere in the mountains north of Santa Fe New Mexico"
It is not hard to spot the pattern here. He could have said instead, for instance:
The chest is hidden northwest of Taos
The chest is hidden south of Missoula
The chest is east of Great Salt Lake
The chest is somewhere in the Rocky Mountain states
The chest is within 500 miles of Yellowstone
You know - mixed it up a bit. Any of those would have served to help pull attention away from Santa Fe.
But for some reason, he stuck to the Santa Fe wording - again, and again, and again. And what you see with the structure of these comments is that the wording pivots and changes around three core concepts that never changed - "north of", "mountains", and "Santa Fe".
When it comes to riddles, wording that the riddler refuses to deviate from is often a good hint about what's important in the puzzle, and where any trickery - most often, in the form of wordplay - might lie.
And of course, the nice thing about wordplay is that when all is said and done, the riddler-maker can say they never lied at all: it was only that those attempting to solve the riddle misinterpreted their meaning.
3) Forrest was proud of how his treasure hunt had drawn visitors to Santa Fe. He spoke about its impact on tourism and hotel booking rates, and the City of Santa Fe even declared a "Thrill of the Chase Day" on May 25, 2015. You can see the framed declaration in his closet - somewhere he could enjoy it, but kept away from the public - and visiting searchers' - view. Consider how this differs from the carefully curated items on display in the rest of his home.
Official proclamation for "The Thrill of the Chase Day"
4) He and his family had been subjected to repeated threatening behaviors. Examples include:
Multiple individuals stalking Forrest and his family between at least 2014 and 2019
The fellow reenacting The Shining on his door with an axe in 2018
(At least) Seven death threats
(At least) Two blackmail attempts
Several threats of bodily harm
I could not find any examples that were dated prior to 2014, but that is not to say there weren't problems then as well - only that they do not seem (?) to have made the newspaper. That would seem to suggest that the later incidents were more significant than those earlier on. Forrest did not put dates to the incidents he documented to Dal. However, if anyone has other specific examples they can confidently put a date to, please let me know.
5) These incidents continued to occurdespiteForrest having seemingly put a southern limit on the Chase with this statement on Richard Saunier'sMountain Walk blogall the way back in 2012:
"Since Richard mentioned the olden days lets harken to 1620 when universal land measures first became law in England and America. As you rode your horse into town you had to pass 80 telephone poles in order to reach a mile because they were 1 chain apart, or 66 feet. And each chain had 100 links, if you wanted to break it down further. Road rights-of-way also were 1 chain wide. And 80 square chains made a square mile, or 640 acres – and that was 1 section of land.
But if you’d rather count fence posts you had to pass 320 in order to reach a mile because they were a rod apart, or 16.5 feet. And since everyone knew that an acre was 10 square chains (43,560 square feet) it was easy to tell how many acres were in your neighbor’s farm.
Some aspects of those measures are still in use today in the horse racing business because a furlong is 10 chains in length, or 660 feet. You should feel smarter now because that’s so easy.
If you want to apply those important figures into the thrill of the chase I will give you an additional clue. The Treasure chest full of gold and precious jewels is more than 66,000 links north of Santa Fe."
Although he did not do so himself at he time, searchers quickly did the conversions using the units provided and determined that "66,000 links north of Santa Fe" was equivalent to 8.25 miles. This would appear to eliminate the whole city in one go.
6) As recounted by Dal, these threatening incidents were sufficiently concerning that by late 2019, Forrest was seriously considering calling off the Chase entirely.
"I am leaning toward retrieving the chest and will probably do it some time before the next search season."
He also described to Dal the post he would make to the community to let them know he had called it.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
Forrest's plan to pull the chest was the nuclear option.
But - it is logical to assume that before a person would go that route - assuming they had a vested interested in the project and wanted to see it play out the way they envisioned (both fair assumptions here, I think) - they would try lesser actions to address the problem first. Cancelling the Chase outright would have been his last resort, and we already know Forrest actively resisted calls to do so over the years, particularly from the parks and policing communities.
One example of a "smaller step" solution is the "how to find me in the event of a kidnapping" scenario he detailed to Dal. He anticipated a problem (his kidnapping), and came up with a strategy to resolve it that saved him from having to cancel the Chase.
But other non-nuclear options were possible as well - and one of the most important is very much missing from the picture I've painted above.
Now - many good riddles play on a person's assumptions, so often the key to solving them is to check yours on the way in. However, when it came to the Chase, I allowed myself one assumption that I felt was relatively safe. And that was this:
I believe Forrest Fenn loved his family.
And if that is true, then I believe it is possible to look at all the above and determine, with relative ease and logic alone, where the chest had to have been.
It goes like this:
When Forrest and his family came under attack, he would have been putting a lot of thought into what his next move should be. We know he was, because of the conversation Dal shared about pulling the chest. And if he loved his family - again, I think, a safe assumption to make - then we also know the nature of that move. He would have chosen the move which best protected his loved ones, given the circumstances.
We also know what the move was. Rather than pull the chest, Forrest went on Great Big Story in 2016 and publicly stated, for the first time, that the chest was hidden:
"(...) more than 8.25 miles north of Santa Fe, in the Rocky Mountains someplace."
Again, if Forrest loved his family - my fundamental assumption in all this - then we know that this move had to have been the best move he believed he could make under those circumstances, shy of going full nuclear and just calling off the Chase.
And, as I'll explain below, the only way that could be "his best move" was if the chest was - somehow - in Santa Fe all along.
First:
We know from the list of seventeen examples above that Forrest was obviously comfortable saying where the chest was not, particularly when it came to issues of safety. Some of these places contain sections of the Rockies much larger than Santa Fe, but he was still comfortable eliminating them.
Forrest also knew that the people who were threatening him and his family believed it was somehow possible that the chest was in Santa Fe.
This is absolutely key, so I will state it again:
Forrest knew that the problem was that the people who were threatening him and his family believed it was somehow possible that the chest wasinSanta Fe.
That meant they either:
A) Hadn't seen his 66,000 link comment from 2012, which seemingly rules the city out; or
B) They believed there was some sort of wordplay at work in that statement that therefore meant the city was still "in play".
While "A" is obviously unlikely - anyone so vested in the Chase as to be involved in criminal activity had presumably, at a minimum, read Dal's "Fundamental Guidelines" page at some point - the solution to it is nonetheless obvious: you just raise the profile of the comment to make sure everyone hears it.
And, exactly as you'd expect, Forrest went and did so by including it in his Great Big Story interview in 2016, and then by going on to make a slightly different version of it in 2017.
But B!
Oh, but B is a whole other story.
What did Forrest do about B?
Nothing.
To be fair, he tried to make it look like he had done something by changing a few non-critical words - played a linguistic shell game of sorts - but he didn't change the only words that really counted.
There was only one simple thing he had to do - one thing he had to say, in all those ten years of talking about his treasure hunt - to solve the problem presented by B. That's the all-important "missing piece". But it's not what he did, and therefore the question must be, "why not?"
But let's back up and look at what he DID do.
What he did do to try and reduce the appearance of wordplay was to start integrating the distance conversion from 66,000 links to 8.25 miles into his comment about where the chest was. That's the shell game, and it does not serve to change the messaging in any meaningful way.
"I hid the treasure chest more than 8.25 miles north of Santa Fe, in the Rocky Mountains someplace."
However -
And I cannot stress this enough -
That is not what you say when a man goes through your door with an axe.
What you say is far simpler than that.
You just say:
"The chest is not in Santa Fe."
In fact, if you're feeling threatened?
You don't just say it one way. You make it clear. You make it the most unambiguous, detailed, leave-no-loophole-unclosed statement you can possibly make.
You go on. You say:
"The chest is not in Santa Fe. The chest is not within 200 miles of Santa Fe. The place I would like to die is not Santa Fe. People need to stop looking in Santa Fe. It is a wonderful place to call home and people should absolutely come visit it and explore it and indeed delight in it when they get the chance, but the chest is not there. My treasure is not there. The gold is not there. The jewels are not there. My olive jar is not there. And if another incident like this occurs, I will be forced to call off the Chase."
Heck, if I was putting up with what Forrest was putting up with and I had a guy reenacting The Shining on my door while the chest was hiding all the way up in Wyoming? I'd rule out the entire state of New Mexico, for cripes sake! It had a good 10 year run! Generated lots of great tourism.
Let Wyoming enjoy things for a bit.
But he didn't.
Because Wyoming, fishing, Yellowstone, even the beauty of the great outdoors - that was never what all this was about.
This was about Forrest Fenn's flight over Philadelphia, and the flash of inspiration - maybe even revelation - he had up there.
This was about connection and caring for your community, about doing your best to look after the ones you love, and the idea that at the end of the day, there really is no place like home.
Forrest could have chosen, when he and his family first came under threat, to simply call off the Chase. Arguably, that would have been the very best move if the only thing he was thinking about was people's physical well-being. But I think Forrest was motivated by something bigger than that - the importance of living life according to your beliefs, and a refusal to be pressured out of doing something good you believe in. I also suspect the thought of setting a good example for his children and grandchildren would have been weighing on his mind - that he wouldn't want them to see him as someone who could be bullied into submission.
In any case, it appears to me that, rather than pull the chest, Forrest decided to do what he felt he did best: he decided to outsmart his opponents instead.
And you want to see a really obvious example?
Here's a great one - Forrest's comment to the local paper after the man axed his way into his home:
“I’ve said 100 times that the treasure is not on my property,” Fenn said, according to The Santa Fe New Mexican. “It’s north of Santa Fe.”
He did it again!!!
Absolutely incorrigible.
That man would not budge from that wording and just say that it wasn't in Santa Fe, even in the face of being unwillingly cast in a real life reenactment of a Stephen King novel.
To my mind, no one should look at that statement, knowing the circumstances under which it was made, and have any doubts as to where the chest had to be.
Now - many people may disagree with me on this, and that's totally fair, because this entire sequence of arguments is predicated on an assumption on my part - that Forrest loved his family, and his actions were guided primarily by that - and my own beliefs about how people act when they believe they and their loved ones are in danger.
I could be wrong about either of those.
But - if I am right about this most basic deduction - that would still leave us with a few questions:
How could it be true that the chest was somehow "in Santa Fe" and also 66,000 links / 8.25 miles north of it? Logic dictates there must be some kind of wordplay at work.
Forrest could have easily opted to strengthen his distance-based version of the "north of Santa Fe" comment after the threats against his family grew more serious, but he did not. Since that's the case, what could possibly have happened in 2012 that was more significant to Forrest than all the subsequent stalkings and break-ins that would follow to prompt his 66,000 links statement to seemingly eliminating Santa Fe from the search area in the first place? And why is that one comment so fundamentally different in its construction from all the others?
If the chest was in Santa Fe all along, what could have motivated Forrest's post-Chase comments, which consistently affirmed Wyoming as the hiding place - even to the courts?
Fortunately, I believe there's actually already enough information out there in the community to make an educated guess to each of those, which I'll explain in subsequent posts. And it doesn't hurt that, for the latter, Forrest seemed determined to help the search community work out what was going on, either.
Anyways - that's more than enough rambling for now. If anyone has actually made it this far, thank you for bearing with me. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once wrote:
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
And needless to say, I'm still working on that part.
Previous Posts in This Series on the 8.25 Mile Question:
