X marks the spot.
The Netflix documentary “Gold & Greed: The Hunt For Fenn’s Treasure” (now streaming) covers the wild story of a real-life lethal treasure hunt – and, it units up a shock second treasure hunt.
“Within the TV and film industry, this might have been the most pitched project of the last 20 years,” director Jared McGilliard completely instructed The Submit.
“You had this grand story of this amazing treasure hunt out there in the vast Rocky Mountains. But until it’s found, it’s kind of the story of a bunch of people walking around the woods, without an ending,” he continued. “So, I had known about it for a long time, but hadn’t pursued it in terms of a story until the day it was announced it was found.”
In 2010, Forrest Fenn – an eccentric Santa Fe, New Mexico millionaire artwork vendor who died at age 90 in 2020 – hid a cache of gold and jewels within the woods. It was a 42-pound chest loaded with pre-Columbian gold artifacts, historic Chinese language jade carvings and vintage cash, value over $1 million.
He left clues about its location in a poem (in his self-published memoir “The Thrill of the Chase”).
For a decade, a whole lot of hundreds of real-life “treasure hunters” swarmed the American West, mountaineering the woods to seek for the chest, till medical scholar Jack Stuef discovered it in Wyoming in 2020.
“Gold and Greed” follows the story, together with its darker elements.
5 treasure hunters died over the last decade that the search was taking part in out, resulting in public outcries that Fenn ought to name off the treasure hunt.
Fenn additionally stored Stuef’s identify nameless and didn’t launch particulars of how or the place Stuef discovered the treasure – resulting in many indignant treasure hunters forming conspiracy theories in YouTube movies and on-line message boards as they doubted the finder’s declare.
When Fenn died simply days after vaguely asserting that it had been discovered, hunters additionally harassed Fenn’s daughter and grandson about it after his dying.
“The other thing that I learned through this experience is how people invest in their own version of the truth. We see that across the world in many different forms today,” McGillard added. “But, a lot of these treasure hunters have these experiences looking for the treasure and [interpreting the clues] in different ways.”
At first, he thought this was a “weird wacky out of the ordinary adventure” and didn’t notice “how many people would define themselves by this treasure hunt and what it would mean to them.”
“Gold & Greed” doesn’t solely inform the story of the hunt for Fenn’s treasure, which resulted in 2020. It additionally serves because the launching pad for a brand new hunt.
Justin Posey, a hunter who didn’t discover Fenn’s Treasure however was a part of the seek for it, publicizes onscreen within the ultimate episode that he has additionally buried his personal treasure and left clues for individuals who search it.
“I assumed, ‘Oh boy, we have something pretty fun on our hands here!’” McGilliard said of when he learned of Posey’s plan. “He wanted to align [the announcement about his treasure hunt] with the launch of the series, which I thought was pretty cool.”
“Initially it was all about finding the treasure. But, after years and years and years of searching, I think people didn’t want it to end. And the value of the treasure hunt became more than just the box of gold and jewels.”
When requested if he would make a follow-up documentary if Posey’s treasure is present in an affordable time frame, McGillard quipped, “Oh, heck yeah.”
