Fenn’s in the wood

The 5th verse says if you are “in the wood.” The three references to the wood are: the three woods in the valley below Brown, the wood being the last set of trees before the canyon, and “in the wood” as the hollowed out tree that is the furthest down stream.  The triple references to “look down quickly” come when you look down at the tree, then down inside the tree that is down from the others.  And, then you are looking in the hollow where Fenn placed the treasure!

And so you may ask why am I giving away the treasure’s location?  To paraphrase what Fenn said, “been there, done that.”

Part 3 The blaze just down from the home of Brown

Stop at the first turn-out past Lamar Ranger Research Station.  The turn out  is on the left side of Highway 212 about a half mile west or down stream.  Remember only verses 2, 4 and 6 are leading the reader to the treasure.  Verses 1,3 and 5 are true but they are only meant to distract the reader.  Verse 2 tells where to start and where to put in.

The “wise” may find the blaze.  A little history, as before, leads to the three references to the treasure’s location.  The famous Blaze of 1988 started in Quartz Creek about a half mile north of Lamar Ranger Station and later the blaze that threatened Cooke City crossed the Lamar River just up from the Lamar River Canyon.  A picture of where it crossed can be found on the internet.  National Geographic refers to the 1988 fire as “The Blaze” in the headline. The matriarch wolf of the pack living in the Lamar Canyon has a name and her name is Blaze.  She was shot a few years ago and is no longer living.  Looking from the car into the valley from the turn out you can see the blaze especially in September when the treasure was hidden by lonesome Forrest Fenn.  It is then that the valley is ablaze with cottonwoods as they turn color.

Forrest is a active member of the Wild Bill Cody Museum in Cody, Wyoming  just outside the Northeast Gate of YNP.  This is the way he would come to spend his summers away from his dreaded school life in Lubbock, Texas.  The museum has a black bow tie  ball in September.  Oh, by the by, Gary Brown is the founder of the Forest Ranger’s Museum.  Lots of history for an antiques dealer’s poem.

Find the blaze and “quickly look down.”  There are three groups of cottonwoods one south of Lamar Station and two more as you look down from there.  After that “just heavy loads and water high.”  Boulders the size of cars says a brochure on places to stop and look in the YNP but that is in verse 5  to mislead the reader.  A blaze or mark on a tree won’t last long because the bears claw the trees until the bark is almost completely torn away.  Thus “no place for the meek.”

The next part  will divulge the last verse’s clue “in the wood.”

Part two of the poem’s meaning and treasure’s location

The place to “begin it” is not far from the northeast gate of YNP.  Capt. Kidd hung out on Gardener Island but if he were in Gardener he could go into YNP any day of the year.  Those who have read Fenn’s book will know about his “Captain Kidd” dream.  Silver Gate is near Warm Springs and close to Soda Butte.  The sign at Soda Butte describes how Soda Butte was once prolific but now has all but stopped– “Where warm waters halt.”  On the first page I pointed out that each clue has three references.  Here are the three for the starting point:  Mammoth Hot Springs, Warm Springs and Soda Butte.  Soda Butte is “far but too far to walk ” from the home of Brown (the Lamar Ranger Station.)  Next time I will reveal the “blaze.”

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