CHASING THE THRILL

The tale of an infamous and perilous modern-day hunt for buried treasure in the Rocky Mountains.

In 2010, Forrest Fenn, a wealthy New Mexico art dealer, filled a small chest with gold nuggets, gems, and other pricey artifacts and planted it somewhere north of his home in Santa Fe. He then published a book and poem that, if properly interpreted, would lead to the treasure. Until it was finally discovered in 2020, the treasure sparked a devoted, contentious, and often paranoid subculture of Fenn hunters. Barbarisi, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was good friends with one of them and soon got drawn into the search himself. In this lively book, the author provides a journalistic account of Fenn and the obsessives who attended an annual “Fennboree” and picked apart the poem on websites. What started as a fun hobby often sank into infighting over allegedly stolen “solves” and conspiracy-mongering; worse, the quest could be lethal: Multiple people died in the wilderness during futile searches. Because Barbarisi was an obsessive hunter for a time himself, the book is also an engaging adventure story. He chronicles how he and Beep, a friend, chased down leads and swallowed their frustration at coming up empty. The book is weakest when Barbarisi takes extended detours into stories of similar book-based treasure hunts and other lost treasures as well as during an account of his trip to Florida to meet other treasure hunters. Despite the meaningful context, the Fenn search is dramatic enough. However, the treasure’s discovery by Jack Stuef shortly before Fenn’s death in 2020 is a gift for a book like this, allowing the author to close the story with a tidy bow. In the process, he uncovers a lot of anxiety and greed, which even Fenn himself had to concede: "Knowing everything I know now, I wouldn't do it again."

A well-reported insider’s study on the engrossing and alarming fervor a search can inspire.