Is there a clue to Forrest Fenn’s Treasure Chest in the Foreword he wrote for the book, Armchair Treasure Hunts: The Quests for Hidden Treasures?
Watch on Video or Read below:
As many of you know, Forrest Fenn wrote the Foreword to my book, and I’ve been asked if there is a hint from Forrest to his hidden treasure in there (besides the words on the last page). My book is entitled: Armchair Treasure Hunts: The Quests for Hidden Treasures. It’s available on Amazon now, and on my site.
But to answer the question.
I’m not sure. Maybe. I have been thinking about it, and I find his following comment in the foreword similar to other things he is known to have said. His comment is:
“Isn’t it amazing that contentment often comes once you realize the world is meant for continuous searching? When you are content with all the search has to offer, you know there is no end. And you can meet it with peace.”
This is interesting to me because it connects to many things he has said, and even to the poem. Could there be something important here to connect? Are there other hints in the foreword which can help with this, and to finding his treasure chest? It’s for each of us to decide.
But let me share the top five statements made by Forrest which are relatable to this one particular comment found in the book’s foreword:
They are:
1) “The Key word is contentment. If you can find it, everything else has already fallen in place”
This is from the first Six Questions I ever did with him in 2013. He mentions contentment like he does in the Foreword.
2)”The person who finds the treasure will have studied the poem over and over, and thought, and analyzed and moved with confidence. Nothing about it will be accidental. T. S. Eliot said:
We shall not cease from our exploration
And at the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time”
The first statement was right after him providing the above quote by T.S. Eliot. It’s in the same Six Questions. And like in the Foreword, the search never ends. But at the end you can meet it with peace, like you do when you find the chest.
3) If you’ve been wise and found the blaze,
Look quickly down, your quest to cease,
But tarry scant with marvel gaze,
Just take the chest and go in peace.
This is the 4th stanza in the poem. It talks about Quest and Peace, like the previous statements and foreword.
It seems there is a common thread to these statements.
4) Then of course, we have Forrest mentioning ‘A Word that is Key’. This was in the MW Six Questions More with Forrest in 2014.
The Question and Answer is as follows:
Q) My previous 6 questions were asked shortly before last year’s February 27th segment of the Today Show. Reporting on your extraordinary treasure hunt, it resulted in an explosion of new seekers from all across the world. What are some of your thoughts about the flurry of activity over the past year? Did the excitement towards the Chase surprise you in any way? Does it make you think the chest might be found earlier than first thought?
A) It is interesting to know that a great number of people are out there searching. Many are giving serious thought to the clues in my poem, but only a few are in tight focus with a word that is key. The treasure may be discovered sooner than I anticipated.
5)So what ‘Word’ was Forrest thinking about when he answered that? Another statement is very similar to the one about the word is key. It was in the Six Questions with Forrest in 2015, the following year:
Q) In your memoir, The Thrill of the Chase, after the poem, you mention there are subtle clues sprinkled throughout that book. You have said you hadn’t deliberately placed these subtle hints in your book; but have you done so in any of your other writings mentioned in Question two (scrapbooks, vignettes, etc)? Or, even if maybe not purposely sprinkled in those writings of Q2, would you consider some of those to contain subtle hints too, like in The Thrill of the Chase?
A)I don’t want to broaden the clues and hints I’ve written about by pointing them out. What surprises me a little is that nobody to my uncertain knowledge has analyzed one important possibility related to the winning solve.
And along with that question, is a Featured Question asked in 2016:
Q) Forrest, in the 2015 answers to six questions, you answered in part, “What surprises me a little is that nobody to my uncertain knowledge has analyzed one important possibility related to the winning solve.” Is this statement still accurate? ~ Thanks, sumbuddy
A) Yes sumbuddy, and that is why I recently suggested that searchers consider the what ifs. f
Forrest made a comment on site on this Q/A. It was the following:
“A hypothetical example of a “what if” might be, what if I was looking so far ahead that I neglected to notice what was beside me. f”
So we have Forrest’s Foreword in the book being very connective to many other statements he has made. We have quest, search, beginning and end, peace, and the use of the key word, contentment.
Is there something more here? Is there another clue to find from these and in the Foreword?
What do you think?
Best of luck with all that you seek! Always Treasure the Adventure!
.
I love this post, Ms. Kile. I’ve also been thinking about this a lot lately. It reminds me of meditation. I’m no good at it (lol). Which is probably my problem. I don’t know if there is any relevance between how one should read the poem and meditation, but perhaps there is an underlying behavior that prevents some of us from being able to grasp either one. Keeping it simple and trying to think “inside” of the box, when you’ve spent so much time looking for connections anywhere you can find them, is not an easy shift to make. And since that, in itself, isn’t easy, you find yourself looking for the logical way to go about it… and the next thing you know you’re overthinking it again. haha. Thanks for the post.
B, I think you hit the nail on the head. I, too, am no good at meditation, but I remember FF talking about spending the first hour of the day “thinking.” I believe that there is no practical difference between thinking and meditation in this context. The interesting thing about the Chase is that it requires “meditation;” it involves a very similar mental process. And, if you dig deep enough, the results are the same. What you find may be disturbing, so you need to view what you see with detachment – and learn contentment. YMMV!
Forrest’s first quote about contentment is absolutely beautiful and I am learning the secrets of walking in it more and more every waking moment.
Thank you for sharing this Jenny!
Love this post..Contentment..similar to what you wrote in your introduction,bottom of page 5 ..”Many hunts go on for years,decades,centuries even. There is no need to rush to treasure. There is an abundance of treasure in the world,and I believe one,even more,waits for each of us to find. Remember to always treasure the adventure while seeking and in all ways.” Spot on. 👌
Loving the puzzles as well. Where do I send my solves? 😉
Like the sands of time in an hour glass Forrest’s words pour out. Then suddenly a pile of driftwood blocks your path.
Contentment. Now that is a true treasure. If contentment is required to solve it then maybe that is one reason it might take 1000 years. We may never see it solved, but we can be certain of one thing. Anyone looking cannot miss the genius in Forrest’s work. It’s a masterpiece. All of it.
Contentment… a hero’s lone place… Do you think Forrest ever meet John McCain?
I’m not sure, but it would surprise me if he has not. McCain was a special hero to all of us. Here were just a couple quotes that struck me today.
“we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher — the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed.”
President Obama
“Some lives are so vivid, it is difficult to imagine them ended,”
President George W. Bush
A man in full
Well I got something from all this. An empty glass bottle with a metal cap. It’s old, but not that old. So I’m going to clean it up and measure it. Then I’m gonna print up a fancy label. “Failure, xxx once. Plus some humor, and I’ll figure my total expenses and put a price tag on it. lol, I’ll have something to show for my excursion. 🔎
Hi Forrest and all. It’s been a while since I’ve posted – Needed some time away from the chaos of the poem!
–“A hypothetical example of a “what if” might be, what if I was looking so far ahead that I neglected to notice what was beside me. f”
What if?
I think it’s a bit of a tragedy that Forrest didn’t become a children’s book writer. He has a unique way with words. Forrest, you can hem and haw but that’s it. It’s never too late. Just don’t let it sell from Walmart as they would discount it.
Best of 9,
-Passenger
The forward letters are:
“Seek high and low and you will find treasure”
In and of itself it isn’t a clue like how the poem structures clues, but there are recurring words from the poem that match. So in that sense, yes. But not the way the poem structures it. For example, “heavy loads and water high” is an actual place.
(imho).
isn’t it?