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In 2016, serial entrepreneur Jon Collins-Black set off for a five-week solo trip in the Rocky Mountains in search of a $3million fortune buried by the eccentric Vietnam veteran turned millionaire art dealer Forrest Fenn.
Fenn’s treasure hunt was sparked six years earlier when he published a cryptic poem in his autobiography, The Thrill of the Chase, which teased the location of a buried stash of gold in a secret location where Fenn had envisioned ‘laying down to die’.
Collins-Black was captivated, as were more than 350,000 other hunters, who ventured out in search of the riches, scouring rural lands from New Mexico to Montana, with at least five people losing their lives in the process.
Fenn’s hunt came to an end in 2020 when a 32-year-old medical student, Jack Steuf, discovered the trove somewhere in the Wyoming stretch of the Yellowstone National Park, months before Fenn’s death.
Collins-Black was devastated by the news of the discovery, but out of his disappointment came an idea.
‘Going out in nature and searching for treasure like this was really captivating to me. It was such a cool experience,’ he told .
‘When COVID happened… and we were in lockdown, we had a lot of time to sit around and think about our lives, and that’s when I started thinking about what I wanted to do next.
‘And when the Fenn treasure was found, I realized I could do something similar, but I could do it my way.
‘I thought if I’m going to do this, I’m going to make it as grand as possible. I want to make it like a true National Treasure hunt that would really capture people’s imaginations.’
Promised treasure
Collins-Black, a lifelong fantasy enthusiast, made his fortune selling a self-help website and investing in Bitcoin in the early 2010s, shortly before the cryptocurrency experienced a stratospheric boom.
Financing the treasure for his own hunt was not a problem, but he dreamed of creating an experience that was more personal and accessible than Fenn’s single chest quest, so he set to work to try and source a diverse collection of valuable relics that would appeal to hunters of all ages and interests.
To do so, over 12 months, Collins-Black collaborated with historians and experts and attended auctions until he created what he believes is a perfect, one-of-a-kind collection.
Collins-Black’s treasure trove includes everything from typical pirates’ booty, including ruby earrings, a golden chalice, shipwrecked antiques, and a huge Colombian emerald, to items of historical significance, such as a gold pendant crafted by Picasso, George Washington’s jelly glass, Olympic gold medals, the autograph of Amelia Earhart, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s diamond sapphire brooch.
To inspire younger adventure seekers to join the chase, a Michael Jordan rookie basketball card, a Casascius bitcoin (the first physical bitcoin ever made), and a series of rare Pokémon cards, including a near-mint shiny 2002 Charizard, are included among the assets.
And for those who tried and failed to find Fenn’s treasure, Collins-Black offers them a second chance.
He purchased some of Fenn’s treasure from Steuf, and there’s one item in particular that Collins-Black believes Fenn fanatics are already fiending to find.
‘One of the most interesting items is the olive jar that had Forrest Fenn’s autobiography in it, and I’m the only other person who’s opened it and read what’s inside,’ he said.
‘I’m not telling what it says, but there are people who searched for the Fenn treasure who are really excited to find that, because they want to know what’s inside.’
In total, Collins-Black’s bounty is estimated to be worth somewhere between $2million-$3million.
The longer the treasure stays hidden, the more it will appreciate in value.
Collins-Black believes his hunt is the largest in US history.
To ensure as many prospective hunters have a chance of striking gold, he has divided the treasure into five boxes - one containing the ‘lions share’, and four smaller ones - across five US states.
The clues to finding them are buried within the pages of his 243-page book, There’s Treasure Inside, which was published in November.
And the boxes that conceal the treasure are themselves puzzles and intricate works.
Collins-Black came across a box at the Smithsonian museum called The Coffer by blacksmith Seth Gould, who had studied puzzle boxes in Japan.
He commissioned Gould to build five boxes for his hunt, each one completely unique.
Art of the hunt
To protect the integrity of the hunt, Collins-Black worked with as few strategists and editors as possible to prevent hints being leaked to the public.
So secret in the drafting of his grand adventure, Collins-Black said the location each chest isn’t even known by his wife.
‘It’s just me,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want anyone else to carry the burden of knowing, because I learned from the Forest Fenn treasure that there would be a spectrum of people that get a little excited, and some that maybe get a little crazy, so I didn’t want my wife or any of my friends to be privy to anything.
‘She was disappointed… but it was better it was just me.’
When deciding where the hide the boxes, Collins-Black began by scouring Google Maps and learning about the histories of prospective burial spots and studied their topographies.
He then hiked around 100 miles on foot all around the country before deciding where to leave them.
Everything a hunter needs to find the boxes is buried within the pages of his book, he said.
Collins-Black shared that you don’t need to be a genius to crack his cyphers, adding that some are more difficult than others.
Crucially, one thing he wanted to improve upon on the Fenn search was safety.
Between 2015 and 2020, five people were killed hunting for Fenn’s fortune in the wilderness of the Rockies.
On numerous occasions, calls were made for Fenn to cancel his hunt to prevent any more lives from being taken but he refused.
In his preparation for his hunt, Collins-Black wanted to ensure that no dangerous stunts were required to reach his boxes, nor crossing any treacherous terrains or rivers.
All of the boxes can be found within three miles of a public road, none of the chests are buried and all are located on public land.
Explaining the decision, he shared: ‘When Forrest created his hunt, he did it in private and… I don’t think he realized how big it was going to get.
‘And to get to his treasure, you had to cross the Madison River… and I’ve been there, it’s a wide river and arguably very dangerous.
‘So in my hunt, you don’t need to go into water… they’re not in dangerous places, you don’t need to do anything dangerous to find them, you don’t need to search for them in the cold.
‘There might be some physical exercise involved, but safety is something that was very important to me when I was hiding these boxes.’
That being said, with the amount of money on the line, Collins-Black conceded there’s only so much he could do to protect the most excitable treasure hunters from themselves.
He said he’s already learned of one person, two weeks after the launch of his book, who jumped into a cold lake to swim to a nearby island and had to be rescued by another searcher.
‘At the end of the day, people get excited… so I knew in making this treasure hunt there was nothing I could do to protect everyone from their own excitement.
‘I can evangelize and write about safety and I hope and pray nobody gets injured or something worse, but I guess we are all human, and we’re having a human experience, and there are factors that we can’t control.
‘I try to do my part, but people are going to do what they’re going to do.’
Nearing a breakthrough
Almost six months into the hunt, Collins-Black said the reaction so far has been incredible.
Searchers have flocked in their thousands to Discord servers, Reddit pages, and Facebook groups to share clues, document their searches, and debate the meaning of Collins-Black’s coded messages.
He has been monitoring the chatter and said it’s incredible to watch the code cracking unfold in real time.
The first printing run of books sold out within days, and sales figures have now exceeded the six-figure mark.
As for how long he expects the search last, Collins-Black said he’s unsure, though he hopes all five boxes are found within his lifetime.
He declined to offer any explicit clues, though subtle hints may be found within his quotes in this story.
Promisingly, he believes that one of the boxes is already close to being discovered - and could even be found by the end of the year.
He shared: ‘After the book came out there was this initial surge of people trying to get out there and find the treasure before the snow came, and there were a couple areas people descended upon that now the snow is thawing, it will be interesting to see if people descend on those areas again, or if they think the horizons have expanded.
‘But I think at least one of the boxes might be found this year, just based on the sheer number of people involved and what I’ve seen.
‘The treasures are like wine; they age with time. They become more mysterious as the more lure builds around them.
‘I don’t want it to take an extensively long amount of time, if it took five to 10 years, then I don’t have a problem with that.
‘But I think there could be a breakthrough soon.’
Quest for fun
For Collins-Black, unlike Fenn, his treasure search is not a legacy project and he has no plans for the hunt to outlive him.
If the boxes aren’t found within the decade, he may consider dropping more clues.
But ultimately, his goal in all this, is to create an analogue adventure for those who seek to step away from their phones and laptops for a few hours or days at a time, and experience nature without the distractions of the modern world, while reveling in the shared experience of a quest for glory.
‘In my book there’s definitely a theme and a message of joy, and I’ve spoke about that, how every aspect of this has given me joy,’ Collins-Black said.
‘I love the fact that this is an analog adventure in an increasingly digital world… and it may be a cliché, but it’s true: this hunt is about the journey, not the destination.
‘This is about letting those childlike qualities of excitement and imagination percolate in the adult body and mind, and I would invite everyone to approach this with that in mind.
‘I love the emails I get, and the pictures people send out looking with their kids, or their girlfriend, or their spouse - they’re reconnecting.
‘That’s what this is about. If you find the treasures, great. But the experiences along the way are what you need to embrace.
‘This is all about finding the fun.’
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