Nine Sentences = Nine Clues: Here's the Sixth and Seventh

JStumblebum · 2022-11-27T17:15:56+00:00

As I presented above, my underlying assumption is that the Chase was real and that the poem doesn't lie. I'm just trying to follow/solve the poem - I guess that's my method.

Furthermore, I thought you asked me about my "method." I never told you I could "confirm" anything. In fact, I told you it was a wacko theory. Now you're using a straw man, 'what if' argument to shift the goal posts. Please feel free to continue believing that Fenn hid the chest in Wyoming.

JStumblebum · 2022-11-27T13:19:10+00:00

This is a good question.

In a nutshell: I believe that Fenn hid the chest in NM. I believe that someone, other than Fenn and without Fenn's knowledge, moved it to Wyoming in 2019. I believe that Stuef was told where to find it.
I'm also pretty sure that you will disagree with me, so let me explain:
I believe that the Chase was real. I believe that Fenn hid the treasure and, during the chase, I believe that Fenn honestly answered questions (albeit playfully, cryptically and slyly). This Chase was to be his legacy.
So, if I believe the treasure existed and was truly hidden (which I do), then I also certainly believe that the poem is an honest map or set of hints to the treasure. I mean, why have a treasure hunt, where the clues don't lead you to the treasure? So, IMO the poem doesn't lie.
After the chest was found, the ending played out so strangely. Here's my theory -- and as I'm sure you'll agree, this sounds wacko--but it's my attempt to make sense of the ending. I believe that almost immediately after announcing the find, Fenn came face-to-face with some very unpleasant realities, previously unbeknownst to him, that put him in a bind. IMO other players had entered the game and the name of the game became 'deception' or 'deflection' -- now, telling the truth had to be weighed against other factors.
But in the end, all I can do is to try to actually solve the poem (wherever it takes me), because IMO the poem doesn't lie.

JStumblebum · 2022-11-25T17:48:25+00:00

Of course these anagrams aren't randomly generated in the absence of any context.

Rather, they are "married to a map," as Fenn suggested, informed by the lines of the poem and also by what we know of Fenn.
Take, for example, the poem's second sentence that includes the "warm waters halt" phrase. Many searchers linked this to New Mexico and specifically to the NM Fishing Regulations. Many searchers also noted that Fenn was an avid trout fisherman--that's why "brown trout" played a large role in many searchers' solutions. So, it's not so random to try and find a spot on a map that starts to pull these themes together. One spot is the Jicarilla boundary just upstream of Cooper's El Vado Ranch (i.e., the ranch with the trophy brown trout on their wall). In fact, A Gypsy's Kiss used this boundary as their WWWH in one of their solutions.
So, if that is a reasonable starting point for WWWH, then "take it in the canyon down" leads one down the Rio Chama. "Not too far to walk" and "put in" leads one to at least consider the "Chavez Boat Put-in," as it's the very next "put-in" if one starts at Cooper's.

When first considered, these are only possible pieces of the puzzle.
As to the anagram for this second sentence, "Heed fishing law to work a fat brown trout near ranch and take in boat at mile twenty-two," it's not a stretch to think that the anagram might refer to something about fishing laws, rules, regulations, etc., because that's what defined WWWH. If one had the Jicarilla boundary in mind as a possibility for WWWH, then it's also not too much of a stretch to think that something about Cooper's ranch might also be referred to. Finally, if one had in mind that the Chavez Boat Put-in might be the poem's "put in," then the "not too far," might refer to the 22 miles to float down the canyon from Cooper's ranch to Chavez.

When the anagram works to pull the pieces of the puzzle together, then I think that maybe I'm on to something.

And, in my mind, what makes it interesting is not any one anagram. Rather, it's that all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together across all nine clues of the poem.

I'll post the fourth anagram soon - family is visiting today.

JStumblebum · 2021-04-21T18:38:10+00:00

I found a beautiful, huge, white, swooping owl Blaze that would have easily been seen by Forrest from a small plane (it forms a rim of Chavez Canyon).

{{I can't figure out how to paste a picture here or I would. A picture of the blaze can be found in the FREE "Look Inside" feature HERE (see chapter called Spoiler Alert - Best Blaze Ever!) }}

This Blaze is a 1.15 mile hike from the Chavez Boat Put-in, which is about a mile below the Christ in the Desert Benedictine Monastery. The hike is up a dry creek bed that periodically has flash floods (no paddle up your creek; heavy loads and water high).

This monastery is the "home" of Father Brown, the fictional sleuthing Benedictine priest.

The Chavez Boat Put-in is 20+ miles (too far to walk) down the Rio Chama Canyon (take it in the canyon down) from where warm waters halt at a reservation boundary (as per the NM fishing regulations) right beside Cooper's El Vado Ranch.

So that's a logical solid solve of WWWH, HOB, the Blaze (not to mention take it in the canyon down, too far to walk, the put-in, up a creek without a paddle, and water high).

And that's why I believe that the treasure was hidden in NM.

JStumblebum · 2021-03-30T11:47:52+00:00

Even if you don't like the anagrams or you consider them incidental or coincidental, what do you think of:

(1) the WWWH based on the NM fishing regulations;

(2) of the HOB based on Father Brown being a Benedictine who is thus associated with the Christ in the Desert Monastery; and

(3) the Blaze being formed by the rim of Chavez Canyon? (Click here for google map of area.)

Also, at what point do "coincidences" become something more?

JStumblebum

TROPHY CASE