“I expected it to be full of riches or money or something, but this is so much better. Just brilliant.”īurfurdunk, too, was elated by his discovery. “It truly is a priceless collection,” Spurge-Burdock said. And finally, under the cracked plastic of a Neil Diamond 1970 live Gold CD was a signed copy of an unpublished manuscript by Forrest Fenn himself. He surveyed the inventory: Four copies, containing thousands of yellowed pages, of the 1970s issue Gold and Jewels children’s book the studio album Spirit by Jewell, 1998 a copy of the Joan Baez album Diamonds and Rust, minus the rust a single issue of the gold platinum 1942 single “Chattanooga Choo Choo” by the Glenn Miller Orchestra and a framed faded photo of Australian singer and songwriter Ruby Hunter, who died the year the treasure was hidden. Burfurdunk broke open the bolt and pried open the chest. Another crewmember handed him a small hatchet. “I remember running up and just shouting to Denny, ‘You know what this is, Denny? I’ll bet this is Fenn’s treasure!’ I am just blown away that it actually was,” said Bill Meelater, a CDOT supervisor, whose sharp eyes instantly caught the words “THIS IS FENN’S TREASURE,” spelled out on the trunk’s lid in faded neon colors.

His fellow crewmembers crowded around the discovery. It was a Romanesque chest, deeply worn from many harsh winters and sealed shut by a large rusty lock. Using his pick and shovel, he freed it from the snowbank. He put his plow in park and ran toward an oddly ornate tattered trunk sticking out of the snow. Photo illustration by Luna Anna Archey/High Country News Sources: WSDOT and Shutterstockįortunately, Denny Burfurdunk, a middle-aged snowplow operator with a red ZZ Top beard, noticed something unusual as he was pushing one of the great piles of snow and debris onto the shoulder.

The thrill of the chase