TheForrestFisherKing
Greenie
- Jun 18, 2020
- 12
- 3
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
This is my Theory of the Forrest Fenn treasure solve! Enjoy!
I will try to go through this simply even though the details of this are so beautiful, and the poem so richly complex, it shall be analyzed for years to come and go down as one of the most beautiful poems of all time. Not embellishing a bit. The poem evolves beautifully which I am not going to try to convey too much of at this time. But ok, I have stalled long enough.
It is necessary to DEFINE EVERY WORD IN THIS POEM in order to solve it. Every word, every definition, archaic definitions, and more as you will read... (most have already done that work) I can answer questions on here to clarify if needed. Let us Begin it! What is "it"?
"It" is a line-- we draw a tangent line from Old Faithful through Fossil Forrest which is our destination as will be explained again later. We will name it "the cold water line"
1.YELLOWSTONE--Old Faithful
Ok, begin it where warm waters halt. Quite simply this is 3 things: Old faithful, the Yellowstone Caldera, and the fishing line that separates warm water fishing from Salmonid fishing. The poem is filled with duality, metaphor and allegory. For my beginning purposes I used the Caldera (a french word for cauldron or warm bubbling pot) and this got me into the ballpark-- Yellowstone National Park. [And hint of treasures new and OLD--OLD here can be thought of as a small hint as the next line is: Begin it where warm waters halt] So OLD FAITHFUL is my true WWWH. So lets use this [Old Faithful] "WWWH" and find the best canyon to go down into.
2. The Grand canyon of Yellowstone is the canyon for me. Forrest is now giving treasure hunters a tour of his childhood park. I will explain more poem details later but please journey to the "Yellowstone Association Institute" which we will use as a Home of Brown.
3. LAMAR RANGER STATION
So the LAMAR RANGER STATION is my home of Brown. The treasure is not associated with any structure but the poem is. (The home of Brown also refers to a big brown trout as we will see.) but Gary Gene Brown was an airplane maintenance mechanic in the USAF from June 1950- July 1953, and was probably at the same radar mechanic school in Biloxi that Forrest went to. He [passed] around the same time that Forrest hid the chest (He passed on Tue. March 16, 2010)--two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead right?
Anyway, we go down in elevation from here, (the home of Brown), into the garden of Eden-- that is the Lamar valley. I say Garden of Eden because Osborne Russel described this valley that way in his book "Journal of a Trapper" a wonderful read. Contentment? This word is also in his writings, another clue from Forrest-- ["If you found that then everything would have fallen into place"] and you were in the right place. So now we 'put in' here: this means that you will be crossing a river. The Lamar river, my favorite part of this hunt. I loved crossing this river. So 'put-in' below the home of Brown means we go down in elevation and cross the river into [no place for the meek].
[Oh by the way, everything in this poem has double and treble meaning and more. Minds are like parachutes: They only work when they're open... or so I've read. [COINCIDENTIA-OPPOSITORUM] is a Latin phrase meaning coincidence of opposites. I think it best describes this kind of idea or a kind of way that you should be thinking. Home of Brown is not just Gary's home-- it is also the home of a Giant Brown trout we will meet later, and possibly referring to the dirt the chest was nestled in. The poem looks simple but it is a wonderfully complex poem that ages like a fine wine the more you think of it. Take for example something like: the poem as a metaphor for a geyser; or an allegory for dying, and more... It is quite an amazing piece of work. One for the Ages. It evolves into a thing of beauty from a simpleton-like poem]
4. NO PLACE FOR THE MEEK- Amethyst creek
No place for the meek? Ok, for clue 4 you may start to see the names of creeks-- all semi precious stones. Crystal, opal, chalcedony, quartz, jasper, agate... But the one we are interested in is Amethyst. We are also walking amongst the buffalo at this point-- So it is truly no place for the meek. (There are more meanings than just these two) It is not dangerous though. The buffalo are nice as long as they are not in the rut.
So Amethyst creek is our starting point-- it has a nice waterfall. But we are going nigh--Left. [The end is ever drawing nigh.]
5. The end--double Omega-- it is upside down in the pic.
If you look to the left in the Lamar river you will see the much saught after and coveted "double omega". It is made up of the bends in the river. Get up on the mountain for a better view. Or fly your plane in there. But this is not our end. This just sets out the whole arena of the chase. The river is ever drawing nigh, but so is death (within the poem), and there are more drawings to be seen here... Feast your eyes on the blaze.
[There'll be no paddle up your creek]
The blaze? Ok, are you ready for it? I found the blaze in early 2017 by reading the poem and I then looked up at Google earth and found it plain as day like a lighting strike. There'll be no paddle up your creek. Think: Up shits' creek without a paddle. I will explain more poem another time but... A blaze simply is the BEGINNING of a trail. I have an AMAZING STORY of how I solved this-- it was through the imagery of the poem. The imagery was absolutely key. But ok, let's take a look at physical imagery. Let's just call it a drawing in the mountains.
6."THE BLAZE IS THE 'PADDLE-SHAPED' CREEK IN FOSSIL FORREST"
That ought to send shockwaves through North America but it has only been met with confusion. Fossil Forrest is Forrest's bones. A fossil? A fossilized Forrest Fenn? Wow, A sentimental child who has a whole forrest named after him? He has got to be destined for greatness. Ironically this kid ends up owning the skies. Have you found the blaze in that photo?
The third stanza is a turbulent stanza-- think of being in a creek about to go over a waterfall without a paddle. We must find a creek but which one?
If you have been [impelled to go in a certain direction] (this is wise-- an alternative definition) you will find the creeks in Fossil Forrest. All of them have drinkable water up high in the creeks. There are raspberries in there too.
So the poem reads: "Just" heavy loads and water high.", "JUST" here means EQUAL--It is two equal, massive stone creeks together with a path going [in] that together form a Paddle. See Photo.
Now tarry scant with marvel gaze if you can... So we have found our creek we are looking for but the blaze is only the beginning of our search. Now the rest is more subtle-- hidden in pun, metaphor and allegory.
"Just" take the chest and go in peace
--there is that word again "JUST". So we'll first notice the repeated use of the word 'just'-- it's important. We now see, and are taking, a chest of riches-- Forrests treasures from when he was a kid which are now ours. And Forrest takes these with him as well. These beautiful artistic mountain features that can be seen best by a pilot-- The end is ever drawing nigh? Well how about these pictures that are "drawing" nigh over to the left... use your imagination now:
[We now have a chest of riches! We have "the paddle", and next to it, to the left is a "peace sign" (upside down), and then a giant "Y", and right next to that is something you cannot make out so clearly right now; but then further you can see a giant leaf or if you prefer a giant pine tree. Yes, there's treasure everywhere.]
7. Ok, so "Just take the chest and go in peace"--There is a "peace sign" next to the paddle. It is a 'peace sign-shaped' creek adjacent to the blaze on the left. [This is where I cracked the crux of the poem because of [my journeys] in here long before I knew of the "paddle"]-- it is an upside-down peace sign when we are viewing it. I figured out these were the right creeks in 2015 but didn't know why they were right because I had not viewed the drawings in my minds eye. Let's not forget who we are dealing with here-- an Art Gallery owner.
So we 'just take' the chest and go in peace.
8. So "WHY" is "it" that I must go?
Go in 'Y' and explore-- great fun, great waterfall at the end but not what we are looking for. Now right next to the "Y" is something you cannot make out. It is a giant eye. This eye happens to be a red herring. This was the most difficult part of the poem--the fifth stanza. I can come up with a hundred "solves" here, this was not an easy part to decipher. You can devote a whole book to this fifth stanza alone and most people shockingly thought this was the throw away stanza. Undeniably my favorite stanza along with the beautiful ending.
9. THE EYE
Ok, when you are down there looking at the mountains to the left of the "Y" the feature here looks like a giant eye. So after the peace sign we have a "Y", and after the "Y" we have an "EYE" And then after that we have a giant leaf/ or leave. So the poem goes:
So "Y" is it that "I" must go and "leave"? My trove for all to seek?
So this is the Stanza that took two years for me to figure out--lots of searching. We searched the "EYE" extensively. For all the searching and hunting and contemplation I did, the answer I knew in my heart all along from the first time I saw a rainbow in that valley. The rainbow, (every rainbow) was the key for me to unlock this along with the first stanza. But 9 clues that if followed precisely will lead to the end of Forrests rainbow and the treasure.
This was not the eye that we are supposed to be looking for. It's a decoy.
Bear with me here it will be clearer later on. Among other metaphors, the whole poem, in the end, is metaphor and allegory for life, and for a geyser, for dying, a boy and an old man, for leaving, [for taking treasure with you when you go]... AND for FISHING. Yes thats right. Fishing. The poem is, ultimately, a grand allegory for fishing! Let us only think of the fishing allegory for now--I say allegory because it is a hidden meaning which we will now have to expound. (A story, or poem, is allegorical if it can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning).
So let's explore the poem as a Fishing allegory for now. For 'fishing' we first need a rod. And by the way, let's hark back to the book, Flywater:
[“To be suddenly connected through a rainbow arc of rod and run of line to something as purely wild as God’s own trout produces astonishment at the cellular level and, at least for a moment, blurs the borders between man and nature.”] From "Flywater" by Grant McClintock and Mike Crockett
The Paddle is over by the "t" in Forrest, The peace sign is under the word Fossil, the "Y" is the next creek over to the left, And to the left of the "Y" is the decoy "EYE". Now it looks like an EYE close-up when you argon the ground. Notice the tall pine (or would you say a giant leaf or leave?) on the far, far left. You cant get any more straightforward than this. The double omega is on the bottom.
It is through this rainbow that Forrest, the trout, and God, come together and meet. Each going their separate ways at the appointed time. Forrest said how his church is in the mountains. God too is in the mountains--bring out that Old Testament. God is in the mountains.
Rainbow Arc? The whole of 'Fossil Forrest' has a beautiful ARC. Take a look-- Look at the arched beauty up there on the ridge. A beautiful rainbow of an arc. Now imagine a man fishing under that 'big huge pine tree' that is positioned to the left of Fossil Forrest.
Now think about casting a line CASTING A LINE. We need something to cast... A leader? [How about a "Cast bronze" leader?]. A CAST BRONZE CHEST. This will come together in a moment. We have cozy spot under a tall pine, a rod (the arc), a leader, so what's left to do but to cast a line and try our luck? We are now fly fishing in the Lamar Valley.
Begin "IT"
So we cast a line. We have drawn our "cold water line" from "Old Faithful" (...hint of riches new and OLD) (OLD Faithful) you get it... CAST A LINE from under a tall pine. The cold water line from Old Faithful is a straight tangent line touching the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone going straight through the paddle that we have talked about. [I grabbed a physical map of Ashton and drew such a tangent line from the Old Faithful touching the Grand Canyon and it perfectly went through where the paddle is in Fossil Forrest] This is "the cold line" that figuratively delineates salmonid fishing waters. We are fishing for trout.
[So what is "IT"?-- (In the beginning, everyone was wondering). "It" is a line. We are dropping a line in the North East corner of Yellowstone. And for those who don't fish-- 'dropping a line' means going fishing. So let's go fishing.]
And again, to repeat, we are back to the 'fishing version' of warm waters halt which denotes a point at which the Salmonid fishing begins (basically). I have not explained the evolution of the poem at all but maybe I will try another time or on my website. The poem has evolved at this point but I have only told you of (and we are only focusing on) the fishing idea right now to keep this simple. So we are fishing in the last stanza right now. And we have the idea of the poem as fishing allegory-- we will now drop in a line and catch a fish.
FINAL STANZA:
So hear me all and listen good,
your effort will be worth the cold.
If you are brave and in the wood
I give you title to the gold.
Hear me all? And listen? Redundant? No.
Listen good...
Homonyms.
Your effort --"WILL BE" worth the cold-- "will be" is a future action that we must take. [If you hang out and fish in those super cold water long enough and catch a fish--your effort 'will be' worth it.] It's worth it--even for a little kid.
10. If "YEW" are "BRAVE"-- This is another shockwave.
This homonym [YEW] is the key and needed along with it is the alternative definition of [Brave], you cannot not solve the poem without these two.
You= YEW
-- A yew tree is basically a type of conifer. Buried in Literature. A very mystical tree in literature often found in churchyards and graveyards.
[Any of several evergreen, coniferous trees and shrubs of the genera Taxus and Torreya, constituting the family Taxaceae, of: the Old World, North America, and Japan, having needlelike or scalelike foliage and seeds enclosed in a fleshy aril.]
Brave= making a fine appearance.
Yew are brave...
The yew trees collectively form something.
Please now view over to the right side of the "Paddle" we saw earlier and you will see a giant fish. This is what we have all been trying to catch all along...A giant Rainbow/ Brown Trout. His home is on a giant brown mound in Fossil Forrest.
pic of fish. He is to the right of the paddle.
He has now breathed his last now that we have earthed him... Poor fish, he has coughed up his guts on dry land! He is dead now, dead for a ducat (that's from Hamlet), with all the mystery of life gone out of him 'into the blaze' one might say. The rest is silence. Or as I prefer say-- the rest is peace.
But we are not through. We still must narrow down the EXACT spot and walk to the treasure chest. Some were in it for gold, not a beautiful poem. So let's get the exact spot. Now imagine Forrest (who is a giant) under that HUGE pine tree that we see-- he casts his 'bronze leader' in a beautiful arc over the mountains up by the Old Faithful geyser, down in the canyon, past our paddle and into the "home of Brown" which is to say, into a cold river--the home of a GIANT brown trout who lives in Fossil Forest in this instance. We all cast a line in past the "PADDLE" past the "cold water line" This line that we draw and take into the canyon down, we call the "COLD WATER LINE" We must now walk towards it.
[And now let me clarify: When we 'begin it where warm waters halt', We drew that line from a hot geyser through a cold canyon, it is cold now because Warm waters have halted but basically Just think that it is cold because we are in 'cold water' fishing in this part of the country-- Warm-water fishing halts down further south]
So we walk towards the fish. Where in the fish? We have a heading. A title. So our fishing line flies up into the air (much like a geyser) and plops down into the canyon; into the water, the cold water, and a giant Brown trout takes the bait. We are in for the fight of our lives-- eventually the fish tires and gives-up it's last and comes bursting into the sunshine (the blaze for him) and onto dry land. This is where we come walking up onto this fish. Onto his belly perhaps. And now, although we have more to unpack, (the guts and soul of the poem), I hope you are with me for this one last line.
I give you title to the gold.
"I" = "EYE", is the final homonym. It was hidden in the Fish's EYE.
We just walk, a simple walk into the eye of the giant fish-- probably an area of about 12 feet around only a mile from the road--I did not measure as I was going to go there myself and get it-- but a pandemic erupted there were quarantines and the park was closed...
And so that fish got away! How's that for a fish story? How's that for any kind of story? And it is just the tip of the iceberg. I caught a one in a one-in-million Rainbow/Brown Trout and it got away before I could get it on land! I solved Forrest Fenn's poem and all I got was this fish story...
If this theory turns out to be correct please remember me as the guy who told you first-- even if I couldn't be the one to get it first. At least I hope to gain recognition for declaring first. Forget that secret guy with the gold. May he get away without paying any taxes. I wouldn't wish those on anyone.
I may not have been first, but I hope I was the first to unpack the solve no matter how badly I chopped it up.
But let us rewind a little bit... There is way more to this poem. The subtle clues that are packed in there for all to follow. The clues in nature? We have not even discussed the first stanza.-- For me this was the KEY to the 'map that is the poem'.But alas for another post. There is so much more.
My Girlfriend has just mentioned that she wants to donate her hair to a cancer ward. The statement has leveled me. This is exactly the unexpected positivity I needed right now. We are all blessed in spite of our struggles.
A closer look-- the upside down peace sign is under the Fossil Forest-- the paddle is to the right and to the right of the paddle (the "Just heavy loads") is the giant brown Trout who is outlined in green yew trees pointed down towards us. His tail is up at the top of the ridge-line or it IS the ridge-line--maybe we can call it the tail-line. The eye is very distinct. That is where the treasure was for ten long years.
Enjoy the rest of the summer everyone. Lastly, please don't forget to drop me a line! I would love to hear your thoughts or comments on here. I will try to elaborate more of the solve soon.
This is it guys! Thank you for reading!
Cheers.
Michael D. Palma
[email protected]
From a comment:
Quote Originally Posted by BIGSCOTT View Post
(Interesting) but i kinda think your reading to much into it, yes many of the clues have double meaning's
but you have pretty obscure meanings in your theory.
My reply:
Ok fair enough- I actually think we are meant to use the poem as fishing metaphor -- so we would cut out all the junk and just use the fish as the blaze. Forest said that we would not be doubling back in the solve which is exactly what I did. So I actually think you are right.
So we can think of the third stanza as Forrest actually addressing the fish-- kind of like saying: "hey you're not getting away from me fish--there'll be no paddle up your creek, just heavy loads (fishing line tugging on him) and water high (he is being pulled up into the sunshine).
If you've been wise stanza has a double/triple meaning but we can just think of it as: "If you have found the fish--your quest to cease"
*Post script below was the beginning but I put it at the end to save readers time.
Hello All,
My name is Michael D Palma. I have been a searcher since about March 2015-- I have spent over 60K searching--my life savings. I am also from "back east"in Boston. I have only come on Mysterious Writings earlier in the chase and more recently Reddit and this is where I learned that the chest had been found. At that point I thought Forrest was talking about me. As I will explain the solve below. It is evident that I solved it. Maybe decide for yourself. Get ready to have your mind blown and be able to take a trip THIS SUMMER to view the Chest's resting place-- on Forrests bones. [Fossil Forrest]
I figured out the poem (finally after 5 years) during Christmas night of 2019, I figured out the last stanza-- I then had only to wait until May to get the treasure but [unbelievably] a pandemic arose prevented me from coming back and collecting the prize. I am posting the solve right here right now so there is little reason to doubt my veracity of solving this. I lay out the clues easily below and wrap it up with a bow at the end as you'll see. What reason would I have to lie about [WHEN] I solved it? I am not suing anybody, so there would be no point. I lost fair and square. But I do believe I have solved it. But it is a theory here for all to pick apart.
I don't get why Forrest never emailed me. I emailed him and he knew I had the ending. Didn't he know that I still knew the solve even if someone else has beat me to the chest? I don't get it. I am painfully moving on but for now the heartbreak seems to be moving on with me and for me right now, it is unfathomable. It hasn't even set in. I was planning my whole life around this because I had it solved. Just one more trip-- I thought I would have this in May and then in June as things progressed (as I'll explain below), but then came the dreaded announcement on June 6th. The feeling of loss I don't even understand right now. Rational people will cringe at reading this but I went for it. I went "all-in" only to come-in [second] due to a horribly bad flu season. Absolute Heartbreak. But I don't regret being in this. It's just hard to lose so close of a race. I strongly feel I would have been first without the Covid- flare-up. I would have been there in very early May as I said but I'm not sure about the other guy-- would he still have gone in earlier as well? I can't say. But I still can't believe it. 5 stages of loss/grief? Not sure which stage I'm in. Things can always be worse but sometimes it's hard to see the brighter side of things. I will feel better [writing] about the solve for sure though- I do not wish to be second this time and will try to post before the other guy has a chance to gather his happy thoughts and tickle his warm and fuzzy keyboard.
At least families will be able to go out and see this now...
Ok so this solve is a condensed deep dive? We'll see how this comes out. To begin with, the art value of this poem is the best I've ever seen. It is off the charts. I've read Shakespeare, Tennyson, Dickinson, Frost, Poe... This is the greatest poem I have ever read. But we must qualify it first though because it is quite unique-- no other like it, ever. So it is a different animal and should not be compared to those greats. This feels greater. A new genre. This is some kind of poetic feat of engineering. Fenn said he felt like an architect-- I believe it. This will stand the test of time. It is one for the ages and it only gets richer the more you mull it over. THIS POEM ACTUALLY EVOLVES ALONG WITH YOUR DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF IT. And to think that I actually thought this was moderately bad poetry upon first reading it, as many quite possibly have!
A full beautiful explanation will take [a book] at least, and I will write about my journey, as will the finder (if any care to read), but I must be hasty in posting the solution now and explaining the solve to everyone so I can, in the very least, gain some recognition. After all this hard work and money spent over the years, I have only "a solve" to show for it. I offer this now and post it for everyone to read. Who would believe me if I wrote about it after the finder has? Nobody. This is/will be mind blowing for most searchers, trust me.
I will try to go through this simply even though the details of this are so beautiful, and the poem so richly complex, it shall be analyzed for years to come and go down as one of the most beautiful poems of all time. Not embellishing a bit. The poem evolves beautifully which I am not going to try to convey too much of at this time. But ok, I have stalled long enough.
It is necessary to DEFINE EVERY WORD IN THIS POEM in order to solve it. Every word, every definition, archaic definitions, and more as you will read... (most have already done that work) I can answer questions on here to clarify if needed. Let us Begin it! What is "it"?
"It" is a line-- we draw a tangent line from Old Faithful through Fossil Forrest which is our destination as will be explained again later. We will name it "the cold water line"
1.YELLOWSTONE--Old Faithful
Ok, begin it where warm waters halt. Quite simply this is 3 things: Old faithful, the Yellowstone Caldera, and the fishing line that separates warm water fishing from Salmonid fishing. The poem is filled with duality, metaphor and allegory. For my beginning purposes I used the Caldera (a french word for cauldron or warm bubbling pot) and this got me into the ballpark-- Yellowstone National Park. [And hint of treasures new and OLD--OLD here can be thought of as a small hint as the next line is: Begin it where warm waters halt] So OLD FAITHFUL is my true WWWH. So lets use this [Old Faithful] "WWWH" and find the best canyon to go down into.
2. The Grand canyon of Yellowstone is the canyon for me. Forrest is now giving treasure hunters a tour of his childhood park. I will explain more poem details later but please journey to the "Yellowstone Association Institute" which we will use as a Home of Brown.
3. LAMAR RANGER STATION
So the LAMAR RANGER STATION is my home of Brown. The treasure is not associated with any structure but the poem is. (The home of Brown also refers to a big brown trout as we will see.) but Gary Gene Brown was an airplane maintenance mechanic in the USAF from June 1950- July 1953, and was probably at the same radar mechanic school in Biloxi that Forrest went to. He [passed] around the same time that Forrest hid the chest (He passed on Tue. March 16, 2010)--two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead right?
Anyway, we go down in elevation from here, (the home of Brown), into the garden of Eden-- that is the Lamar valley. I say Garden of Eden because Osborne Russel described this valley that way in his book "Journal of a Trapper" a wonderful read. Contentment? This word is also in his writings, another clue from Forrest-- ["If you found that then everything would have fallen into place"] and you were in the right place. So now we 'put in' here: this means that you will be crossing a river. The Lamar river, my favorite part of this hunt. I loved crossing this river. So 'put-in' below the home of Brown means we go down in elevation and cross the river into [no place for the meek].
[Oh by the way, everything in this poem has double and treble meaning and more. Minds are like parachutes: They only work when they're open... or so I've read. [COINCIDENTIA-OPPOSITORUM] is a Latin phrase meaning coincidence of opposites. I think it best describes this kind of idea or a kind of way that you should be thinking. Home of Brown is not just Gary's home-- it is also the home of a Giant Brown trout we will meet later, and possibly referring to the dirt the chest was nestled in. The poem looks simple but it is a wonderfully complex poem that ages like a fine wine the more you think of it. Take for example something like: the poem as a metaphor for a geyser; or an allegory for dying, and more... It is quite an amazing piece of work. One for the Ages. It evolves into a thing of beauty from a simpleton-like poem]
4. NO PLACE FOR THE MEEK- Amethyst creek
No place for the meek? Ok, for clue 4 you may start to see the names of creeks-- all semi precious stones. Crystal, opal, chalcedony, quartz, jasper, agate... But the one we are interested in is Amethyst. We are also walking amongst the buffalo at this point-- So it is truly no place for the meek. (There are more meanings than just these two) It is not dangerous though. The buffalo are nice as long as they are not in the rut.
So Amethyst creek is our starting point-- it has a nice waterfall. But we are going nigh--Left. [The end is ever drawing nigh.]
5. The end--double Omega-- it is upside down in the pic.
If you look to the left in the Lamar river you will see the much saught after and coveted "double omega". It is made up of the bends in the river. Get up on the mountain for a better view. Or fly your plane in there. But this is not our end. This just sets out the whole arena of the chase. The river is ever drawing nigh, but so is death (within the poem), and there are more drawings to be seen here... Feast your eyes on the blaze.
[There'll be no paddle up your creek]
The blaze? Ok, are you ready for it? I found the blaze in early 2017 by reading the poem and I then looked up at Google earth and found it plain as day like a lighting strike. There'll be no paddle up your creek. Think: Up shits' creek without a paddle. I will explain more poem another time but... A blaze simply is the BEGINNING of a trail. I have an AMAZING STORY of how I solved this-- it was through the imagery of the poem. The imagery was absolutely key. But ok, let's take a look at physical imagery. Let's just call it a drawing in the mountains.
6."THE BLAZE IS THE 'PADDLE-SHAPED' CREEK IN FOSSIL FORREST"
That ought to send shockwaves through North America but it has only been met with confusion. Fossil Forrest is Forrest's bones. A fossil? A fossilized Forrest Fenn? Wow, A sentimental child who has a whole forrest named after him? He has got to be destined for greatness. Ironically this kid ends up owning the skies. Have you found the blaze in that photo?
The third stanza is a turbulent stanza-- think of being in a creek about to go over a waterfall without a paddle. We must find a creek but which one?
If you have been [impelled to go in a certain direction] (this is wise-- an alternative definition) you will find the creeks in Fossil Forrest. All of them have drinkable water up high in the creeks. There are raspberries in there too.
So the poem reads: "Just" heavy loads and water high.", "JUST" here means EQUAL--It is two equal, massive stone creeks together with a path going [in] that together form a Paddle. See Photo.
Now tarry scant with marvel gaze if you can... So we have found our creek we are looking for but the blaze is only the beginning of our search. Now the rest is more subtle-- hidden in pun, metaphor and allegory.
"Just" take the chest and go in peace
--there is that word again "JUST". So we'll first notice the repeated use of the word 'just'-- it's important. We now see, and are taking, a chest of riches-- Forrests treasures from when he was a kid which are now ours. And Forrest takes these with him as well. These beautiful artistic mountain features that can be seen best by a pilot-- The end is ever drawing nigh? Well how about these pictures that are "drawing" nigh over to the left... use your imagination now:
[We now have a chest of riches! We have "the paddle", and next to it, to the left is a "peace sign" (upside down), and then a giant "Y", and right next to that is something you cannot make out so clearly right now; but then further you can see a giant leaf or if you prefer a giant pine tree. Yes, there's treasure everywhere.]
7. Ok, so "Just take the chest and go in peace"--There is a "peace sign" next to the paddle. It is a 'peace sign-shaped' creek adjacent to the blaze on the left. [This is where I cracked the crux of the poem because of [my journeys] in here long before I knew of the "paddle"]-- it is an upside-down peace sign when we are viewing it. I figured out these were the right creeks in 2015 but didn't know why they were right because I had not viewed the drawings in my minds eye. Let's not forget who we are dealing with here-- an Art Gallery owner.
So we 'just take' the chest and go in peace.
8. So "WHY" is "it" that I must go?
Go in 'Y' and explore-- great fun, great waterfall at the end but not what we are looking for. Now right next to the "Y" is something you cannot make out. It is a giant eye. This eye happens to be a red herring. This was the most difficult part of the poem--the fifth stanza. I can come up with a hundred "solves" here, this was not an easy part to decipher. You can devote a whole book to this fifth stanza alone and most people shockingly thought this was the throw away stanza. Undeniably my favorite stanza along with the beautiful ending.
9. THE EYE
Ok, when you are down there looking at the mountains to the left of the "Y" the feature here looks like a giant eye. So after the peace sign we have a "Y", and after the "Y" we have an "EYE" And then after that we have a giant leaf/ or leave. So the poem goes:
So "Y" is it that "I" must go and "leave"? My trove for all to seek?
So this is the Stanza that took two years for me to figure out--lots of searching. We searched the "EYE" extensively. For all the searching and hunting and contemplation I did, the answer I knew in my heart all along from the first time I saw a rainbow in that valley. The rainbow, (every rainbow) was the key for me to unlock this along with the first stanza. But 9 clues that if followed precisely will lead to the end of Forrests rainbow and the treasure.
This was not the eye that we are supposed to be looking for. It's a decoy.
Bear with me here it will be clearer later on. Among other metaphors, the whole poem, in the end, is metaphor and allegory for life, and for a geyser, for dying, a boy and an old man, for leaving, [for taking treasure with you when you go]... AND for FISHING. Yes thats right. Fishing. The poem is, ultimately, a grand allegory for fishing! Let us only think of the fishing allegory for now--I say allegory because it is a hidden meaning which we will now have to expound. (A story, or poem, is allegorical if it can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning).
So let's explore the poem as a Fishing allegory for now. For 'fishing' we first need a rod. And by the way, let's hark back to the book, Flywater:
[“To be suddenly connected through a rainbow arc of rod and run of line to something as purely wild as God’s own trout produces astonishment at the cellular level and, at least for a moment, blurs the borders between man and nature.”] From "Flywater" by Grant McClintock and Mike Crockett
The Paddle is over by the "t" in Forrest, The peace sign is under the word Fossil, the "Y" is the next creek over to the left, And to the left of the "Y" is the decoy "EYE". Now it looks like an EYE close-up when you argon the ground. Notice the tall pine (or would you say a giant leaf or leave?) on the far, far left. You cant get any more straightforward than this. The double omega is on the bottom.
It is through this rainbow that Forrest, the trout, and God, come together and meet. Each going their separate ways at the appointed time. Forrest said how his church is in the mountains. God too is in the mountains--bring out that Old Testament. God is in the mountains.
Rainbow Arc? The whole of 'Fossil Forrest' has a beautiful ARC. Take a look-- Look at the arched beauty up there on the ridge. A beautiful rainbow of an arc. Now imagine a man fishing under that 'big huge pine tree' that is positioned to the left of Fossil Forrest.
Now think about casting a line CASTING A LINE. We need something to cast... A leader? [How about a "Cast bronze" leader?]. A CAST BRONZE CHEST. This will come together in a moment. We have cozy spot under a tall pine, a rod (the arc), a leader, so what's left to do but to cast a line and try our luck? We are now fly fishing in the Lamar Valley.
Begin "IT"
So we cast a line. We have drawn our "cold water line" from "Old Faithful" (...hint of riches new and OLD) (OLD Faithful) you get it... CAST A LINE from under a tall pine. The cold water line from Old Faithful is a straight tangent line touching the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone going straight through the paddle that we have talked about. [I grabbed a physical map of Ashton and drew such a tangent line from the Old Faithful touching the Grand Canyon and it perfectly went through where the paddle is in Fossil Forrest] This is "the cold line" that figuratively delineates salmonid fishing waters. We are fishing for trout.
[So what is "IT"?-- (In the beginning, everyone was wondering). "It" is a line. We are dropping a line in the North East corner of Yellowstone. And for those who don't fish-- 'dropping a line' means going fishing. So let's go fishing.]
And again, to repeat, we are back to the 'fishing version' of warm waters halt which denotes a point at which the Salmonid fishing begins (basically). I have not explained the evolution of the poem at all but maybe I will try another time or on my website. The poem has evolved at this point but I have only told you of (and we are only focusing on) the fishing idea right now to keep this simple. So we are fishing in the last stanza right now. And we have the idea of the poem as fishing allegory-- we will now drop in a line and catch a fish.
FINAL STANZA:
So hear me all and listen good,
your effort will be worth the cold.
If you are brave and in the wood
I give you title to the gold.
Hear me all? And listen? Redundant? No.
Listen good...
Homonyms.
Your effort --"WILL BE" worth the cold-- "will be" is a future action that we must take. [If you hang out and fish in those super cold water long enough and catch a fish--your effort 'will be' worth it.] It's worth it--even for a little kid.
10. If "YEW" are "BRAVE"-- This is another shockwave.
This homonym [YEW] is the key and needed along with it is the alternative definition of [Brave], you cannot not solve the poem without these two.
You= YEW
-- A yew tree is basically a type of conifer. Buried in Literature. A very mystical tree in literature often found in churchyards and graveyards.
[Any of several evergreen, coniferous trees and shrubs of the genera Taxus and Torreya, constituting the family Taxaceae, of: the Old World, North America, and Japan, having needlelike or scalelike foliage and seeds enclosed in a fleshy aril.]
Brave= making a fine appearance.
Yew are brave...
The yew trees collectively form something.
Please now view over to the right side of the "Paddle" we saw earlier and you will see a giant fish. This is what we have all been trying to catch all along...A giant Rainbow/ Brown Trout. His home is on a giant brown mound in Fossil Forrest.
pic of fish. He is to the right of the paddle.
He has now breathed his last now that we have earthed him... Poor fish, he has coughed up his guts on dry land! He is dead now, dead for a ducat (that's from Hamlet), with all the mystery of life gone out of him 'into the blaze' one might say. The rest is silence. Or as I prefer say-- the rest is peace.
But we are not through. We still must narrow down the EXACT spot and walk to the treasure chest. Some were in it for gold, not a beautiful poem. So let's get the exact spot. Now imagine Forrest (who is a giant) under that HUGE pine tree that we see-- he casts his 'bronze leader' in a beautiful arc over the mountains up by the Old Faithful geyser, down in the canyon, past our paddle and into the "home of Brown" which is to say, into a cold river--the home of a GIANT brown trout who lives in Fossil Forest in this instance. We all cast a line in past the "PADDLE" past the "cold water line" This line that we draw and take into the canyon down, we call the "COLD WATER LINE" We must now walk towards it.
[And now let me clarify: When we 'begin it where warm waters halt', We drew that line from a hot geyser through a cold canyon, it is cold now because Warm waters have halted but basically Just think that it is cold because we are in 'cold water' fishing in this part of the country-- Warm-water fishing halts down further south]
So we walk towards the fish. Where in the fish? We have a heading. A title. So our fishing line flies up into the air (much like a geyser) and plops down into the canyon; into the water, the cold water, and a giant Brown trout takes the bait. We are in for the fight of our lives-- eventually the fish tires and gives-up it's last and comes bursting into the sunshine (the blaze for him) and onto dry land. This is where we come walking up onto this fish. Onto his belly perhaps. And now, although we have more to unpack, (the guts and soul of the poem), I hope you are with me for this one last line.
I give you title to the gold.
"I" = "EYE", is the final homonym. It was hidden in the Fish's EYE.
We just walk, a simple walk into the eye of the giant fish-- probably an area of about 12 feet around only a mile from the road--I did not measure as I was going to go there myself and get it-- but a pandemic erupted there were quarantines and the park was closed...
And so that fish got away! How's that for a fish story? How's that for any kind of story? And it is just the tip of the iceberg. I caught a one in a one-in-million Rainbow/Brown Trout and it got away before I could get it on land! I solved Forrest Fenn's poem and all I got was this fish story...
If this theory turns out to be correct please remember me as the guy who told you first-- even if I couldn't be the one to get it first. At least I hope to gain recognition for declaring first. Forget that secret guy with the gold. May he get away without paying any taxes. I wouldn't wish those on anyone.
I may not have been first, but I hope I was the first to unpack the solve no matter how badly I chopped it up.
But let us rewind a little bit... There is way more to this poem. The subtle clues that are packed in there for all to follow. The clues in nature? We have not even discussed the first stanza.-- For me this was the KEY to the 'map that is the poem'.But alas for another post. There is so much more.
My Girlfriend has just mentioned that she wants to donate her hair to a cancer ward. The statement has leveled me. This is exactly the unexpected positivity I needed right now. We are all blessed in spite of our struggles.
A closer look-- the upside down peace sign is under the Fossil Forest-- the paddle is to the right and to the right of the paddle (the "Just heavy loads") is the giant brown Trout who is outlined in green yew trees pointed down towards us. His tail is up at the top of the ridge-line or it IS the ridge-line--maybe we can call it the tail-line. The eye is very distinct. That is where the treasure was for ten long years.
Enjoy the rest of the summer everyone. Lastly, please don't forget to drop me a line! I would love to hear your thoughts or comments on here. I will try to elaborate more of the solve soon.
This is it guys! Thank you for reading!
Cheers.
Michael D. Palma
[email protected]
From a comment:
Quote Originally Posted by BIGSCOTT View Post
(Interesting) but i kinda think your reading to much into it, yes many of the clues have double meaning's
but you have pretty obscure meanings in your theory.
My reply:
Ok fair enough- I actually think we are meant to use the poem as fishing metaphor -- so we would cut out all the junk and just use the fish as the blaze. Forest said that we would not be doubling back in the solve which is exactly what I did. So I actually think you are right.
So we can think of the third stanza as Forrest actually addressing the fish-- kind of like saying: "hey you're not getting away from me fish--there'll be no paddle up your creek, just heavy loads (fishing line tugging on him) and water high (he is being pulled up into the sunshine).
If you've been wise stanza has a double/triple meaning but we can just think of it as: "If you have found the fish--your quest to cease"
*Post script below was the beginning but I put it at the end to save readers time.
Hello All,
My name is Michael D Palma. I have been a searcher since about March 2015-- I have spent over 60K searching--my life savings. I am also from "back east"in Boston. I have only come on Mysterious Writings earlier in the chase and more recently Reddit and this is where I learned that the chest had been found. At that point I thought Forrest was talking about me. As I will explain the solve below. It is evident that I solved it. Maybe decide for yourself. Get ready to have your mind blown and be able to take a trip THIS SUMMER to view the Chest's resting place-- on Forrests bones. [Fossil Forrest]
I figured out the poem (finally after 5 years) during Christmas night of 2019, I figured out the last stanza-- I then had only to wait until May to get the treasure but [unbelievably] a pandemic arose prevented me from coming back and collecting the prize. I am posting the solve right here right now so there is little reason to doubt my veracity of solving this. I lay out the clues easily below and wrap it up with a bow at the end as you'll see. What reason would I have to lie about [WHEN] I solved it? I am not suing anybody, so there would be no point. I lost fair and square. But I do believe I have solved it. But it is a theory here for all to pick apart.
I don't get why Forrest never emailed me. I emailed him and he knew I had the ending. Didn't he know that I still knew the solve even if someone else has beat me to the chest? I don't get it. I am painfully moving on but for now the heartbreak seems to be moving on with me and for me right now, it is unfathomable. It hasn't even set in. I was planning my whole life around this because I had it solved. Just one more trip-- I thought I would have this in May and then in June as things progressed (as I'll explain below), but then came the dreaded announcement on June 6th. The feeling of loss I don't even understand right now. Rational people will cringe at reading this but I went for it. I went "all-in" only to come-in [second] due to a horribly bad flu season. Absolute Heartbreak. But I don't regret being in this. It's just hard to lose so close of a race. I strongly feel I would have been first without the Covid- flare-up. I would have been there in very early May as I said but I'm not sure about the other guy-- would he still have gone in earlier as well? I can't say. But I still can't believe it. 5 stages of loss/grief? Not sure which stage I'm in. Things can always be worse but sometimes it's hard to see the brighter side of things. I will feel better [writing] about the solve for sure though- I do not wish to be second this time and will try to post before the other guy has a chance to gather his happy thoughts and tickle his warm and fuzzy keyboard.
At least families will be able to go out and see this now...
Ok so this solve is a condensed deep dive? We'll see how this comes out. To begin with, the art value of this poem is the best I've ever seen. It is off the charts. I've read Shakespeare, Tennyson, Dickinson, Frost, Poe... This is the greatest poem I have ever read. But we must qualify it first though because it is quite unique-- no other like it, ever. So it is a different animal and should not be compared to those greats. This feels greater. A new genre. This is some kind of poetic feat of engineering. Fenn said he felt like an architect-- I believe it. This will stand the test of time. It is one for the ages and it only gets richer the more you mull it over. THIS POEM ACTUALLY EVOLVES ALONG WITH YOUR DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF IT. And to think that I actually thought this was moderately bad poetry upon first reading it, as many quite possibly have!
A full beautiful explanation will take [a book] at least, and I will write about my journey, as will the finder (if any care to read), but I must be hasty in posting the solution now and explaining the solve to everyone so I can, in the very least, gain some recognition. After all this hard work and money spent over the years, I have only "a solve" to show for it. I offer this now and post it for everyone to read. Who would believe me if I wrote about it after the finder has? Nobody. This is/will be mind blowing for most searchers, trust me.
Amazon Forum Fav 👍
Last edited:
