Eccentric's Treasure Chest Is Finally Found

A bronze chest filled with gold, jewels, and other valuables worth more than $1 million and hidden a decade ago somewhere in the Rocky Mountain wilderness has been found, according to a famed art and antiquities collector who created the treasure hunt. Forrest Fenn, 89, told the Santa Fe New Mexican on Sunday that a man who did not want his name released—but was from "back East"—located the chest a few days ago and the discovery was confirmed by a photograph the man sent him, the AP reports. Fenn had posted clues to the treasure’s whereabouts online and in a 24-line poem that was published in his 2010 autobiography The Thrill of the Chase.

"It 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," Fenn said in a statement on his website Sunday that still did not reveal the exact location. "I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot." Hundreds of thousands have hunted in vain across remote corners of the US West for the bronze chest believed to be filled with gold coins, jewelry, and other valuable items. Many quit their jobs to dedicate themselves to the search and others depleted their life savings. At least four people died searching for it. (Someone was getting close last summer.)