Believe it or Not! Million dollar treasure chest found in mountains after decade long search
Believe it or Not! Million dollar treasure chest found in mountains after decade long search
A bronze chest filled up with jewels, gold and other precious items estimated worth greater than $US 1 million and concealed a decade ago someplace in the Rocky Mountain wilderness has been discovered, as maintained by an antiquites collector who launched the treasure hunt.
Forrest Fenn, who is 89-years-old, told the Santa Fe New Mexican on Sunday that a man who didn’t want his name disclosed- but came from ‘back east’ found the treasure box a few days ago and the finding was upheld by pictures the man sent.
"It was under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago," Fenn said on his website on Sunday.
"I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot."
The 89-year-old shared hints to where the treasure was online and in a poem that was published in his autobiography in 2010.
Several people have hunted in vain on all parts of western US for the chest made of bronze believed to be filled with gold, jewellery and other valuables.
A lot of them left their jobs to devote themselves to the hunt and others used up their life savings.
Not less than four people have lost their lives looking for it.
Forrest Fenn, who is a resident of Santa Fe, stated that he packed and repacked his treasure chest for more than a decade, sprinkling in gold dust and adding many rare gold coins and gold nuggets.
Pre-Columbian animal figures went in, along with prehistoric "mirrors" of hammered gold, ancient Chinese faces carved from jade and antique jewellery with rubies and emeralds.
He stated that he concealed the treasure as a way to woo people to go into the jungles and gave them an opportunity to embark on an obsolete adventure and expedition for riches.
In 2017, Forrest Finn told the New Mexican that the treasure chest measure the weight of 9 kg and its contents measures another 10 kg.
He stated that he took the chest to its hiding place on his own over two different journey.
Questioned how he felt at present now that the treasure has been discovered, Fenn said, "I don't know, I feel halfway kind of glad, halfway kind of sad because the chase is over."
"I congratulate the thousands of people who participated in the search and hope they will continue to be drawn by the promise of other discoveries," he said on his website.