Michigan man says he found Fenn’s treasure
Medical student claims he made discovery in Wyoming
A swashbuckling treasure hunter in the mold of Indiana Jones?
A grizzled mountain man determined to dig holes until striking gold, or at least gold coins?
A thrill-seeker with a degree in cartography and history?
None of the above. The finder of Forrest Fenn’s treasure is a 32-year-old man from Michigan who says he is a medical student and who came forward Monday because a court case eventually would have made his name public.
“My family and I have prepared for the potentiality of this day,” Jonathan “Jack” Stuef, wrote in a blog post Monday. “Since finding the treasure [in June], I moved to a more secure building with guards and multiple levels of security, and I have taken appropriate measures to protect myself.”
Fenn’s grandson, Shiloh Forrest Old, identified Stuef as the finder of the
treasure in a post on a website devoted to the hunt, which had inspired hundreds of thousands to look for it over the past decade — and in some cases, question the motives of other hunters.
Fenn, a combat pilot, art collector and gallery owner, died of natural causes after taking a fall at his Santa Fe home in September. He was 90. But just a few months before his death, he said someone had found a bronze chest that contained gold, jewelry and a number of other valuable artifacts.
According to a story on Outside magazine’s website, Stuef said he found the treasure June 6 in Wyoming and drove to Santa Fe that day to deliver it to Fenn.
“His thought was that, as soon as it’s out of place, we need to let people know,” Stuef told Outside. “People have died. There could be issues.”
But he said in his blog he chose to remain anonymous because “Forrest and his family endured stalkers, death threats, home invasions, frivolous lawsuits, and a potential kidnapping — all at the hands of people with delusions related to his treasure. I don’t want those things to happen to me and my family.”
In June, Barbara Andersen, a Chicago resident, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court, claiming she found Fenn’s treasure but said an “unknown defendant” had hacked her online information about its whereabouts and stalked her to get it before she did.
Among other requests, Andersen asked the court to stop the finder from spending any money earned from selling the treasure. Hers is just one of several court cases initiated by treasure hunters who say they solved the clues to the hunt and were duped out of the treasure.
Though he did not mention Andersen by name, Stuef said in his blog post that he never hacked or stalked her and said the claims are baseless. But he said her claim would have identified him sooner or later.
Stuef did not return an email seeking comment.
In his blog, he said he will never reveal the location where he found the treasure because it “will be destroyed by people seeking treasure they hope I dropped on my way out or Forrest on his way in.”
He called the hunt “a personal quest for me” and said he hopes the knowledge that he is “a real person is a solace to some searchers still grieving the conclusion of the chase.”
Some have died in the hunt, while others have quit jobs and spent thousands of dollars to try to find it — using clues Fenn gave in a 24-line poem published in his autobiography, The Thrill of the Chase, and online.
Albuquerque resident Cynthia Meachum, who spent years looking for the treasure, said in an email Monday that Stuef ’s decision to identify himself is “the best Christmas present I never would have expected” because it answers the question of who found the treasure.
But Meachum wrote she “will continue looking for Forrest’s ‘special place’ where he hid the treasure. It was never about the treasure itself … it was always about solving the poem, and finding Forrest’s special place.”
Stuef said in his blog the treasure remains locked in a vault somewhere in Santa Fe, where it will stay until he sells it.