Fenn's Treasure Found - What To Do Next?
We All Dream of Finding Forrest Fenn's Treasure
What Do You Do If You Find The Chest?
Let's think and talk about this idea for a minute. What would you actually need to do if you found Forrest Fenn's treasure? How would you carry Fenn's treasure chest, the gold, and the rest of the diamonds, artifacts, and other valuable things out of the search area? Could you carry it all in one trip? Could you safely transport Fenn's treasure across state lines? What if Fenn's treasure was seized by local, state, federal, or tribal law enforcement? Where would you store the chest when you arrived back home? Would you need to file for insurance? What would selling Fenn's treasure look like? What about paying taxes on the total value of Fenn's treasure? Would it be earned income? These are just some of the ideas we will explore, so keep reading!
To Begin answering these questions, we need to know a few things about "the thrill of the chase" as Forrest Fenn calls it in his aptly named book. We need to know where the chest is located geographically, which states are included in the search area, how heavy is Fenn's chest and contents, and what is the approximate worth of Fenn's treasure. Luckily, Forrest Fenn has told us most of these things in interviews and question and answer (Q&A) sessions. In the case of the value, he has stated the weight which we can use to approximate total value and worth.
What Forrest Fenn Told Us About His Treasure
* Note about the Fenn treasure value:
Forrest Fenn said he overpaid $25,000 USD for the chest. 20.2 troy pounds of gold is worth over $363,000 USD in intrinsic value in 2020 at a spot price of $1,500 USD (20.2 troy pounds = 242.4 troy ounces * spot price of around $1,500 USD in 2020 = $363,000 USD). However, the premium or collector value of the nuggets and coins is most likely much higher. The chest contains pre-Columbian animal figures and similar figures have auctioned off between $2,000-5,000 USD. Other items like the Chinese jade human faces (unknown dynasty, quantity, size, and detail), Spanish 17th century gold emerald ring, Columbian Tairona and Sinu Indian necklace, ladies gold dragon coat bracelet, and other unnamed items cannot be priced without actually seeing and judging the items' conditions.
Low end estimated value of Fenn's treasure: $500,000 USD
High end estimated value of Fenn's treasure: Unknown without appraisal - possibly up to $1.5 million USD
Collector estimated value of Fenn's treasure with copies of signed books at auction: Unknown - possibly up to $2 million USD+
What Forrest Fenn Put In His Treasure Chest
"Then I started filling the chest with gold coins, mostly old American eagles and double eagles, along with lots of placer nuggets from Alaska. Two weigh more than a pound each and there are hundreds of smaller ones. Also included are pre-Columbian gold animal figures and ancient Chinese human faces carved from jade. The different objects in the cache are too numerous to mention one by one, but among them are a Spanish 17th century gold ring with a large emerald that was found with a metal detector, and an antique ladies gold dragon coat bracelet that contains 254 rubies, six emeralds, two Ceylon sapphires, and numerous small diamonds. And with some reluctance I included a small silver bracelet that has twenty-two turquoise disc beads set side-by-side in a row... One of the prizes in my collection, a Tairona and Sinu Indian necklace from Columbia, is also part of the treasure. It contains thirty-nine animal fetishes carved from quartz crystal, carnelian, jadeite and other exotic stones. But special to the necklace are two cast gold objects - one, a jaguar claw and the other, a frog with bulbous eyes and legs cocked as if ready to spring. I held the 2,000-year-old piece of jewelry one last time and could almost feel its ancient power, its supremacy, before I finally lowered it into the chest and closed the lid." - f, TTOTC
Reasonable Assumptions About Fenn's Treasure
Now, we can take this info and make some reasonable assumptions and create a logical path of steps to take if we find Fenn's treasure. After all, we are talking about potentially millions of dollars of treasure, and we need to be safe and cautious about the process of retrieving Fenn's treasure. The steps below are also guidelines. You can mix and match or switch and swap them as needed to fit your situation. They are simply meant to help you start thinking about what you would do if you find Fenn's treasure.
Step 1: Authenticating And Verifying You As The Finder of Fenn's Treasure
Step 2: Document The Fenn's Treasure Find Area
Step 3: Move Fenn's Treasure Back To Your Vehicle
Step 4: Document Fenn's Treasure
Step 5: Situational Awareness After The Chest Find
Step 6: Traveling With Fenn's Treasure
Step 7: Storing Fenn's Treasure When You Get Home
Step 8: Fenn's Treasure Taxes
Step 9: Selling or Re-hiding Fenn's Treasure
Step 1: Authenticating And Verifying You As The Finder of Fenn's Treasure
After finding Fenn's treasure, the first task at hand is authenticating and verifying yourself as the finder. There are a lot of searchers looking for this treasure after all. It is important to prove that you found it, when you found it, and having the claim as the rightful finder. This information is also a must in the unfortunate case of you losing it and trying to reclaim it.
This step can be as simple as you taking a picture with Fenn's treasure (just snap a selfie). It is important to get your face in the frame as well as the Fenn treasure chest as best you can. The picture should be in focus and clear with both yourself and Fenn's treasure discernible and identifiable.
You have a few options of what you can do with this picture. You can email it to yourself or upload it to cloud storage. This will keep the picture safe if your phone or camera is damaged, lost, or taken from you. You can also send the picture to someone. If you have a trusted confidant, you might be able to send the picture to them for safe keeping if you have cell phone service at your find location. Your trusted person should know about Fenn's treasure, the fact you are looking for it, and not to go telling the whole world you found the treasure (that comes later if you choose to disclose your find). A close friend, partner, or family member could make a great confidant.
Step 2: Document The Fenn's Treasure Find Area
Document the area around the spot where you found Fenn's treasure. People have been looking for this spot for decades, and you were the one to solve the clues in the Fenn treasure poem and find the chest. The area hasn't been disturbed since Forrest Fenn himself was hiding the chest there so take plenty of pictures and videos showing exactly how and where the treasure chest was hidden. You may not remember all of the details later since this is such an exciting moment. Videos are the best evidence. Pictures are second best.
Step 3: Move Fenn's Treasure Back To Your Vehicle
Have a plan to move Fenn's treasure back to your vehicle. The treasure chest and its contents are going to weigh around forty-two pounds so take this into account while planning on how to move the chest back to your vehicle. You have a few options on how to transport Fenn's treasure:
Move Both Chest and Contents In One Trip
Note: The one trip transport method assumes you are able to carry over forty pounds in your backpack all the way back to your vehicle. You must take into account your physical limitations, health conditions, other equipment you have with you, terrain, weather, and other factors before attempting this movement method. If you are unsure of your capabilities, you can try to simulate carrying that much weight with a weight vest or weights inside of a backpack.
- Remove the chest from its hidden location and conceal it in your backpack along with everything inside of it.
- Make the journey back to your vehicle.
- Store your backpack inside of your vehicle out of sight or inside of a locked trunk, container, or compartment.
Move Chest and Contents In Two Trips
Note: The two trip method assumes you must take two trips to retrieve Fenn's treasure. This method may be the preferred method since Forrest Fenn himself said he hid the chest in two trips - one trip for the chest and a second trip for the chest contents.
- Once you find Fenn's treasure, carefully remove the contents from the chest.
- Place the contents into your backpack first. You will want to move these items to your vehicle first since they are the most valuable.
- You can either leave the chest where you found it (if it is still a safe hidden place) or make a separate hidden cache in the nearby area to secure some of your hiking gear and the treasure chest at for the second trip.
- Make the first trip back to your vehicle, place the chest contents inside of another bag, and hide it out of sight in your vehicle (again the locked trunk is a good place). If you have a spare backpack, you can just bring that for the return trip and leave your first backpack in the vehicle.
- Then, retrieve the treasure chest and any other gear you left behind, and make the second trip back to your vehicle.
- You will probably carry around twenty-five pounds each trip.
Step 4: Document Fenn's Treasure
Now, you should be excited to take a look inside Forrest Fenn's treasure chest. It would be a good idea to find a safe place or a secure area so you can get a detailed look at the bronze chest, the treasure trove inside of it, and document your finding it. This safe place includes a hotel room or other area with a lockable door or inside your vehicle unless you are in an extremely crowded parking lot or similar area.
You could document it like a vlog by recording your face, voice (state the date and time), and the treasure with a cell phone camera. This can help prove you are the finder of Fenn's treasure if someone contested your find in the future, if you somehow lost the treasure, or if it was seized. You can securely store the pictures and video footage by uploading your media files to a private cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox in case your phone is lost, stolen, or destroyed. You can take this one step further by sharing the link to cloud folder with a person you trust for safekeeping.
Step 5: Situational Awareness After The Chest Find
Let's talk about situational awareness for a moment and what it is. If you made it to this point and found Fenn's treasure, there are several things you will want to think about and consider. You have solved and "won" one of the greatest treasure hunts and puzzles ever conceived - if not the greatest ever. Hundreds of thousands of people have looked for Forrest Fenn's box full of treasure over the years, and it is now in your possession. Congratulations are in order! Well done! Now the real work starts. Situational awareness is not about being paranoid. It is about being smart and keeping your head on a swivel.
Who Knows You Have Fenn's Treasure
The Fenn treasure hunt and thrill of the chase has brought together many people from many different walks of life. The majority are probably good honest people, but there are some who may not fall into that category. That being said, you don't who is who or their capabilities or mental capacity to see the search end. For example, if someone has spent years of the life, countless hours, and a lot of money searching for Fenn's treasure, they might just as well feel entitled to part of the find.
Finding Fenn's treasure is going to dash many hopes and dreams, break a lot of hearts, and cause some disappointment. It is best to keep things on the down-low until you can sort out what you want and need to do after finding Fenn's treasure. This includes:
- Not telling anyone you meet about Fenn's treasure after finding it.
- Not showing the chest, treasure, pictures of the treasure, or any part of the contents to anyone you do not trust and do not know.
- Not posting about the find on social media.
- Not getting yourself arrested.
- Not attracting attention.
Telling A Trusted Person About Fenn's Treasure
When you do tell someone about your treasure find, make sure it is someone you trust. This hits again on the point we've made several times so far. This person might be a friend, family member, search partner, legal counsel, or trusted confidant. It should be someone who knows you are looking for Fenn's treasure and someone who also knows not to tell the whole world if you find it. This could be a good person to also share the video documentation of your treasure find for safekeeping. Choose this person wisely since your safety and future could depend on it.
Step 6: Traveling With Fenn's Treasure
Here are a few things to consider while traveling with Fenn's treasure in your possession, obeying the laws of the road, and dealing with law enforcement. These points are even more important if you are driving hundreds or thousands of miles and crossing state lines.
- Make your way safely back home while avoiding high-risk areas.
- Be sure to obey all of the rules of the road and speed limits so you do not give local, state, or tribal law enforcement a reason to stop you.
- If you are stopped by law enforcement, be polite and cooperative.
- Only give them what is required and make sure you have a current driver's license, vehicle registration, and vehicle insurance in the vehicle.
- Do not consent to any search of your vehicle even if law enforcement asks you to or say they have a reason to search your vehicle. They cannot legally do so unless they meet a motor vehicle exemption rule like seeing "contraband" in plain sight or conducting a search incident to arrest (inventorying your vehicle after arresting you) or impounding your vehicle (if your license or insurance is expired).
- If the authorities do find and seize Fenn's treasure, it gets more complicated, and you will probably have to have Forrest Fenn and a legal team help prove that the treasure is your legal property in court proceedings which would most likely take place in court in the seizing jurisdiction which is probably a long way from home.
Step 7: Storing Fenn's Treasure When You Get Home
You will need to think about storage and notifying Forrest Fenn about your find when you get back home. Forrest says he will know when someone finds the treasure, so maybe there are clues to this fact inside the chest. Only you will know as the finder.
- Store the treasure chest in a safe place or safety deposit box. You will need to find a bank with a big one larger than 10'x10'.
- Don't tell anyone else about your treasure find yet and go about your normal life sticking to your regular routines and schedule for the next thirty days or so. Forrest Fenn recommended doing this to take a breather and do a reality check.
- After that, you will probably want to talk to Forrest and let him know about you finding his treasure. He will also want his turquoise bead bracelet back. It was made by a Navajo silversmith and contains twenty-two turquoise disc beads set side-by-side in a row. He won in a game of pool from Bryon Harvey in 1965, and it currently resides in the treasure chest.
- Consider filing for valuable personal property insurance to protect the value of Fenn's treasure and its valuable contents. This type of insurance can give you increased protection over typical homeowners insurance. Ask your insurance agent or representative about this type of coverage.
- Consider consulting legal counsel and a tax professional to help you manage your treasure find.
Step 8: Fenn's Treasure Taxes
You will most likely have to pay taxes on the treasure's value, so you finding Fenn's treasure falls under IRS code section 61 since it is considered a factor in gross income. Section 61(a) of the Internal Revenue Code defines gross income as income from whatever source derived, including (but not limited to) a treasure trove to the extent of its value in United States currency (USD), I.R.C.
Tax Note: The total value of Fenn's treasure would be based on its appraised value and taxed in the income bracket the value falls into. In 2019 as a single filer, any income exceeding $510,300 USD is incrementally taxed at up to 37%, so you would be paying out around $327,637 USD in taxes if Fenn's treasure was worth exactly $1 million USD. This estimate is based on the 2019 Turbotax tax calculator.
You could potentially defer or offset the taxable value of finding Fenn's treasure by setting up an artifact loan agreement with a museum or similar historical preservation venue, but you will need to consult a legal and tax professional to set this up and understand the basic legal issues set forth in the museum loan agreement.
Step 9: Selling or Rehiding Fenn's Treasure
Now that you are the owner of Fenn's treasure, what do you do next? What do you want you legacy to be? This is an interesting opportunity and the possibilities are endless.
- If you do decide to tell the world you found Fenn's treasure, you might want to keep details to a minimum, keep everything off of your personal social media accounts, and fly under the radar. This could be a good option unless you think you can handle the fallout from such a find being publicized.
- Think about keeping the original hiding spot a secret. If you choose this path, you will want to avoid sharing details and photos of the secret location.
- If you decide to sell Fenn's treasure since you may have to due to owing taxes, consider auctioning it off with a collection of signed books by Forrest Fenn as The Thrill of the Chase and the Fenn treasure chest are now pieces of history.
- If you can live without the monetary value of the treasure and potentially pay any associated taxes, consider setting up a special Fenn's Treasure exhibition tour with museums around the country. This will share the legend with many more people into the future and help keep the thrill of the chase alive! Granted, this could be hard if you cannot avoid or pay off the taxes.
- Another alternative idea is to create a GoFundMe or Kickstarter page to pay the treasure chest's taxes and setup a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to Fenn's treasure which will sponsor future treasure hunts and keep the thrill of the chase alive for future generations.
- You could also think about re-hiding some of the chest's contents or other motivating items of value for treasure hunters to find. If the original hiding place of Fenn's treasure is still a mystery, you could hide them in the original secret spot. Don't use the exact spot if you have already told people where you found it or publicized pictures of you in the spot.
- The next best idea would be to write your own poem and memoir book and develop a second hiding place for the next treasure trove which further deepens the story and legacy of the thrill of the chase. This would keep many of the Fenn treasure hunters happy to see the chase continuing.
Whatever you choose - keep the thrill of the chase alive and continue the legend.
