Why Would People Push Themselves to Emotional Turmoil to Find Buried Treasure?

Frick-Wright at Yellowstone's Lamar Valley

Source: Credit: Darrell Seyler

When I first heard about Forrest Fenn’s hidden treasure, I thought that his clue-laden poem might offer a fun outing for some friends and me. We had no idea that this thing had led people to their deaths, launched lawsuits, triggered crimes, and caused untold agony. After some research, we took a different route. Still, I remained curious about those who’d followed Fenn’s clues.

On a recent Apple podcast, Missed Fortune, journalist Peter Frick-Wright explores what can happen to some people psychologically when they invest so much in pursuit of a treasure. “Gold fever,” it’s called, based on the crazy things people did during the 19th-century Gold Rush. Frick-Wright chose ex-cop Darrell Seyler’s tale to springboard into multiple themes around the art and science of treasure hunting. Seyler spent eight years trying to pinpoint where Fenn had placed his pot of gold. He lost nearly everything in the process. Is it possible, Frick-Wright asks, to want it too much?

Let’s get some background.

In 2010, art-and-artifacts dealer Forrest Fenn announced that he’d hidden a treasure worth over a million dollars somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. The bronze chest held a collection of gems, coins, gold nuggets, and other items. He self-published a book, The Thrill of the Chase, in which he offered clues for finding it. He’d been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and at age 80, he wanted to have some fun. He makes it clear that seekers should understand that it’s at a location an old man like him can reach.

The clues talk about water, canyons, a creek, and the home of someone (or something) named Brown. Simple enough. It requires no expensive equipment, like diving for a sunken ship. Nevertheless, some treasure hunters went to extraordinary lengths to try to claim the prize. The one who finally struck gold, Jack Stuef, said in an interview that it wasn’t much fun: “This treasure hunt was the most frustrating experience of my life. There were a few times when I, exhausted, covered in scratches and bites and sweat and pine pitch, and nearing the end of my day’s water supply, sat down on a downed tree and just cried alone in the woods in sheer frustration.”

It doesn’t matter that Stuef solved the riddles. Frick-Wright’s exploration is about motivation. Who are these people? Why do they pursue this to such extremes?

Fixation on a treasure hunt, coupled with the certainty of obtaining the prize, seems to float somewhere between narcissism, insecurity, the love of a challenge, and the sunk-cost fallacy (“I’ve sunk so much into this, it’s gotta pay off!”). For some, it’s about community: The Fenn treasure involves the same clues others have. The seekers all share common ground for discussing strategy and preparation. Frick-Wright thinks that Fenn’s personal encouragement through emails also fueled hope. Yet, when it came to Seyler, Frick-Wright observed something else: “It can fill a gap in your life,” he writes elsewhere, “that you didn’t even know was there.”

Such a gap, traced in Seyler’s life to a difficult childhood, can compel without rhyme or reason. And it can be agonizing. Once fully invested, giving up is not an option. In one episode, Frick-Wright accompanies Seyler on one of his treks, recording his state of mind as it evolves from the certainty that he’ll be rich that day to confusion and defeat when he wasn’t. His disintegration is tough to listen to. But that’s a central part of the story.

Frick-Wright did once interview Fenn himself and found his smugness frustrating. It’s clear that Fenn protects his game, as well as the proceeds from his book. He didn’t much like the journalist’s probing. If people put themselves in danger, he says, that’s on them. He’d made it clear they didn’t have to.

But some, it seems, just wanted to.

Psychology professor Allen King performed a peer-reviewed study about these treasure hunters. He identified over 400,000, although his research was based on a much smaller group. Around three-fourths are male, and many are natural risk-takers. It’s the challenge and the striving with a clear sense of purpose that attracts them. They like the feeling of mastery when they link a clue to something that moves them a step closer to the goal (“Hey, a guy named Brown lived in that house!”). The problem is that they could be wrong about their interpretations, which, like Seyler, moves them closer to missing the fortune.

Seyler’s story is sad. He had aspirations, but he seems to have lost more than he won. Yet he believes he’d tested well in a worthwhile pursuit. Maybe he did. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard urged us to focus on the benefits of striving because the journey might offer more to us spiritually than arriving at our destination.