A Michigan medical student inspired to search for Forrest Fenn's famous treasure amid a waning interest in his education has identified himself as finder of the cache of valuables, worth an estimated $1 million.
Jack Stuef revealed in a Medium blog post on Monday that after two years of hunting, he discovered Fenn's 42-pound bronze chest — packed with jewels, gold and other precious artifacts — back in June. He'd initially hoped to remain anonymous but decided to come forward upon realizing a recent lawsuit would make his name public, the 32-year-old said.
Fenn's family verified the claims with Outside magazine, which also interviewed Stuef.
"I do not see myself as being better than anyone else who searched for the treasure because I found it. I do not think more or less of anyone based on how close they were to its location, and I don't think anyone else should either," Stuef wrote in his post.
"This treasure hunt was not a referendum on anyone's intelligence or abilities. Rather, it was a fun challenge based on figuring out what the words of a poem meant to the elderly man who wrote them, and nothing more than that."
Fenn, an antiquities dealer and author who lived in Santa Fe, sparked a frenzy among treasure-seeking enthusiasts after he hinted at the locale of his secret stash in a poem found in his 2010 book, "The Thrill of the Chase."
Hundreds of thousands of people searched over the course of 10 years, a few of them losing their lives in the process. Fenn had ignored demands to call off the hunt, waving off claims that it was either a hoax or too dangerous to continue.
Fenn, who died in September, had advised against going on the treasure hunt during the winter and previously said that "no one should search in a place where an 80-year-old man could not hide it." Controversy and drama surrounding the hunt has resulted in several lawsuits filed against the Fenn family, including one that would also name the treasure's finder.
Stuef has not revealed where exactly he found the famed chest nor what brought him to the exact location.
"This is the most difficult question to answer, because I know there's so many people who just want to know," he told Outside. "They worked on this for a long time. And they just want to be handed the answer. I totally understand that. But doing that, I think, is a death sentence to this special place."
At the time of its discovery, Fenn on his website confirmed the treasure "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."
