SILVERTON, CO – MARCH 12: Silverton, nestled in the San Juan Mountains, is the host town for snowsport enthusiests that visit Silverton Mountain on March 12, 2010 in Silverton Colorado. Silverton Mountain offers guided back country skiing and snowboarding to a summit of more than 13,000′ serviced by one chairlift that accesses terrain that is entirely for the advanced and expert skiers. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Last year, a Colorado man died while searching for $2 million in buried gold coins, jewelry, and artifacts a New Mexico art dealer claims to have hidden in the Rocky Mountains.

And just last week, the body of another man was recovered, this time a Colorado pastor:

Pastor Paris Wallace, 52, traveled to New Mexico from his home in Clifton, Colorado, on Monday, June 12, to hunt for the rumored “Fenn treasure,” according to a press release issued by the New Mexico State Police. Wallace’s wife, Mitzi, was expecting him back two days later and reported him missing on Wednesday evening, after he didn’t return and she didn’t hear from him.

On Sunday, rafters found a male body in the Rio Grande River near Pilar, New Mexico. Officers believe the recovered body to be Paris Wallace, although a positive identification has not yet been made. NBC News has not confirmed the identity of the victim.

The art dealer in question, Forrest Fenn, showed no desire to call off the literal treasure hunt after the first death, but this most recent instance has him reconsidering his stance for the first time. That’s most likely due to statements like this one from New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas:

“I would implore that he stop this nonsense,” Kassetas told the paper, adding, ““I think he has an obligation to retrieve his treasure if it does exist.” 

It’s a fascinating concept, of course; wealthy man buries treasure and leaves nothing but the vaguest of clues as to where, with a state goal of getting people back out to the mountains. That’s because, in Fenn’s mind, kids today are playing too many video games:

“They spend too many hours sitting on the couch playing video games. I would like to see fathers load the family into the car and head for the Rocky Mountains and experience the rewards that come with spending the night in a tent and hearing the rustle of small animals just a few feet away. Our kids need to see a skunk or a porcupine in the wild. They need to turn over a rotten log and see what is under it.”

Ignoring the fact that plenty of young people move to cities like Denver specifically because of their access to the outdoors, young people that all grew up, at this point, in a world with plentiful video game options, and you still have the fact that from their phones kids can learn and discover things much more exotic than whatever is under a nearby log.

Should kids still explore and play outside? Sure! And most do! But the idea that burying millions in treasure, or at least announcing you have, would have zero downside? That’s just as out of touch as the rest of his mindset. And as the state police chief noted, there are plenty of people who think the whole thing is a hoax as it is:

As this last comment implies, plenty of people doubt whether the treasure is real, including Linda Bilyeu, Randy Bilyeu’s ex-wife, who last year declared it to be a hoax during a Westword interview. In her words, “Randy lost his life searching for ‘nothing.'”

It’s a fascinating story, and one that unfortunately has led to the deaths of two men who might not have otherwise been outdoors.

[Westword]

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.

1 thought on “Another person died trying to find $2 million Rocky Mountain treasure that might not exist

  1. #1: Forrest never said the treasure is buried

    #2: Forrest never said what the treasure is worth

    #3: More people die every day driving to the store for a loaf of bread than will ever die looking for the Fenn treasure

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