Here's my newest hypothesis. Still a work in process so I'm presenting it here mostly just as more food for thought.
I forget where I read it but there was a comment by FF where he discussed stashing fishing gear in a secret location and when he went back a year later it was undisturbed and still there. It is my belief this is the location of the treasure. Why?
• It is a place that has meaning to him.
• It ties in with his love of fly-fishing
• It is a location previously tested and proven to be remote and secure.
• And if it is where I think it is – then it also ties in with his poem, his book and his childhood
Here’s my supposition:
“Begin where the warm waters halt”
Fly-fishermen refer to rivers and streams as “warm water”. Lakes are considered “cold water”. Because rivers and streams are shallow they are warmer than lakes. Fly-fishermen know this because it affects when and where they fish. The point in which a river or streams enters a lake is where “the warm waters halt”.
My conclusion?
Begin where the river meets the lake and move inland.
Which lake?
The only lake FF mentions in his book: Hedgen Lake.
Which river?
One of the many rivers FF mentions in his book. My personal favorite? Greyling. Check Google Earth and you’ll see why. It empties into Hedgen.
“Put in below the home of Brown”
To “put in” is another fishing term. It means to go in the water. This would also explain the stanza “brave the cold”.
Home of Brown?
Now that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Or more accurately, 2 million. This is where my supposition will go off the rails for many of you. In old English the word “beaver” means “brown”. Go to any online dictionary and you’ll see it’s true. This would also help to explain the strange singular use of the word “wood” in the poem instead of “woods”. A beaver’s lodge, its home, is made of wood. If you go into the forest – you are going into the “woods”. Plural. A pile of wood on the floor, much in the same way as wood in a beaver dam or a lodge, would be referred to as “wood” and not “woods”. Singular.
Now before anyone goes out there and start messing with beaver dams and lodges, I am NOT saying that is where the treasure is. A place like that is not remote enough to hide a body if that is where FF intended to die. Rather, I am saying they are possible landmarks and line up with the clues in the poem.
I’ve done the research and there are indeed beaver colonies in the Greyling Creek area. And from my previous treasure hunts I have run across previous beaver dams and chewed up trees in places where beavers have been hunted to extinction in the early 1800s. I know beaver remnants do not last forever but they do last a long, long time if left undisturbed.
There is more to this supposition but I'll leave off with the weakest link from my hypothesis because if this part doesn’t hold up then the rest does not matter.
Sooo…. there ya go…
