• Forrest Fenn says his 10-year-old treasure has finally been found.
• At least five people have died in pursuit of the treasure. There have been many lawsuits.
• Fenn hasn’t said where the treasure was found or shared any proof.

Octogenarian art dealer and controversial raconteur Forrest Fenn says someone has finally found his infamous treasure. Maybe.

For 10 years, people have been searching for Fenn’s purported treasure of precious metals and jewels, estimated to be $1 million, hidden in the mountains somewhere in the southwestern United States. Because of the remote locations in which people hunt for the bounty, several searchers have ended up drowning, falling, or perishing after being snowed in.

After doctors told Fenn he’d likely die of cancer 10 years ago, the millionaire sold his art gallery and made preparations for both the treasure and the clues to find it. In his self-published 2010 book The Thrill of the Chase, Fenn included all the clues someone would need to find the treasure—especially in one specific, 20-line poem.

Now, the search appears to be over, although with previous coverage, the news of the discovery is self-supplied and not independently verifiable. Fenn told the Santa Fe New Mexican that he has photos, but chose not to share them, claiming the person who found the treasure doesn’t wish to be public.

“It was under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved since I hid it more than [10] years ago,” Fenn writes on his website. “Look for more information and photos in the coming days.”

But the plot thickens. The New Mexican reports that Chicago-area real estate attorney Barbara Andersen is filing an injunction in federal court “alleging she solved the puzzle but was hacked by someone she doesn’t know.” Meanwhile, another treasure hunter with a current court case against Fenn believes the timing of the discovery is too coincidental.

Andersen says she found the complete solution to Fenn’s puzzle, but was “followed and cheated” by the mysterious man who did find the chest. She hopes to file suit to stop him from selling any “booty,” but in court she’d likely have to prove in some way that they both had the exact same solution to Fenn’s cryptic poem-riddle.

Fenn’s poem is one clue that supposedly points to his treasure, buried somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.

FORREST FENN/THRILL OF THE CHASE

At least five people have died while seeking the $1 million treasure, which isn’t worth multiple lost human lives by any measure. Even Fenn’s announcement is still vague, when he could easily just say outright where the treasure was found. The New Mexican cites one of the multiple people suing in relation to the treasure, Brian Erskine, who says the treasure is along the Million Dollar Highway in Colorado. That would be very literal, to say the least.

In the decade since Fenn first published his poem, he’s been sued or aired publicly by people claiming they’ve solved the riddle, but somehow been cheated after that.

On the subreddit for Fenn’s treasure, over 400 people have commented on a post asking for people’s different “solves” to the 20-line poem to “prove you were close!” The poem is filled with relative references, and suggestions in the comments are hundreds of miles and entire states apart. Some people’s solutions involve literal interpretations, while others say the vague clues are suggestions or metaphors.

There’s some wild stuff in the subreddit, implying more about the reading comprehension of the treasure hunters than anything else. One commenter claims Fenn saying “in the wood” must mean lumber instead of the forest, bringing to mind the famous Robert Frost poem where two roads diverge in, I guess, a Home Depot.

This kind of language is why any solution could be right, any solution could be wrong, and Forrest Fenn still holds all the cards.