Man Searches “Beyond the Grave” for Buried Treasure in New Mexico
OutdoorHub Reporters 04.05.13
If you are going to search for buried treasure, make sure you know the rules. A man is facing charges after digging beneath a descanso in New Mexico while searching for Forrest Fenn’s buried treasure.
Spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Dan Williams told The Sante Fe New Mexican that the treasure hunter used hand tools to dig underneath the concrete base for the descanso, which is a homemade memorial for a place where someone has died or had their ashes spread.
Williams told The New Mexican that “He told our officer that he was looking for Forrest Fenn’s treasure,” and that he will be charged with a misdemeanor under a state law that makes it illegal to “excavate, injure, destroy or remove any cultural resource or artifact” on State Game Commission land.
This is not the first mishap to occur as a result of Forrest Fenn’s multimillion dollar treasure – on March 9 a woman from Texas had to be rescued when she went missing in New Mexico’s Sante Fe National Forest while searching for the treasure.
If you are planning on looking for the treasure Fenn offers some advice: “Don’t look any place where a 79- or 80-year-old man could not carry a 42-pound box.” Fenn also stated in his book that “I knew exactly where to hide the chest so it would be difficult to find but not impossible.”
If you don’t live in New Mexico, or would rather not risk searching for Fenn’s treasure, you can still go on a treasure hunt of your own–geocaching.
Geocaching is an activity in which you are given GPS coordinates to a little treasure hidden somewhere in nature and then set forth with a GPS enabled device to find it.
While the treasures may not be worth millions of dollars like Fenn’s, finding them is much easier and much safer. If you are interested in trying your hand at geocaching, Outdoor Hub has a guide to get you started.
