I have solved the riddle of the poem using a secret code-word. I'm confident I now have 95% of the directions to the treasure chest.
Forrest stated in a radio interview that I (Andy Briggs) had figured out most of the puzzle. The link is here. The relevant comment starts at 6 mins 28 secs.
When I unlocked the riddle a secret set of directions were revealed. These say:
‘Go west. In a short hour you see a big lake, cross it, run
south --west.
--------------------. Mirror
this trail. Aim south and look heading west
for a Grey ‘F’ sign.’
It was apparent that Forrest had deliberately missed out part of the
directions, so Searchers had to look at a source referenced by the poem to obtain the
missing part.
So it seemed Forrest’s riddle comprised several different layers.
I have found the missing part of the directions, but I'm struggling to interpret this part to pinpoint the
exact location of the treasure chest. I believe I have navigated through nearly all of the layers of
‘security’ and deciphered 95% of the riddle but haven’t been able to crack the
final bit.
But I'm close. The deciphered directions reduce the size of the search area to a relatively small
section of one of the national forests in the Rocky Mountains of the USA. I am confident the exact location of the
treasure chest will be found when someone can add the correct last 5% of the
directions to the 95% I've revealed.
Can you solve the last part of the riddle?
I am sharing this solution with other Searchers
to see if they can solve the missing part of the directions. New people are required to provide a fresh interpretation to the last 5%
of the riddle.
I have written an e-book called ‘Title to
the Gold’ showing my solution . I would be delighted if this enabled another
Searcher to find the treasure chest and claim the items of treasure described
by Forrest reportedly worth ~ $1-4m. I
would be thrilled to have played a part in the find.
Within the e-book I have included
some of my own interpretations but other Searchers with fresh eyes may see
something that I’ve missed. New Searchers may have a different approach to the
last 5% of the directions and their interpretation may take them straight to
the treasure chest.
This e-book explains my decryption of the poem and
highlights the secret message revealed giving the set of directions to the location of the
treasure. Click the picture of the book cover below for the link:
The statements, answers, deductions, evidence and conclusions within this e-book and on this blog are based on my own opinions and my own work. There has been no input from Forrest Fenn or anyone else involved in the Thrill of the Chase treasure hunt.
The statements, answers, deductions, evidence and conclusions within this e-book and on this blog are based on my own opinions and my own work. There has been no input from Forrest Fenn or anyone else involved in the Thrill of the Chase treasure hunt.
Also, Carrol's white knight is an interesting character... Similar to a Lee character.
ReplyDeleteDid you find it? Thanks for reminding me there is a cipher involved. What is the key? Mind sharing that?
ReplyDeleteHi Holly,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. The Lewis & Clark cipher is involved to convert the text of the nine ANSWERS to the clues back into the geographical directions.
The keyword for this is based mainly on two repeating phrases 'FENN INFAMY BOUND' & 'FENN INVICTUS'.
No I haven't found the chest. I'm confident the starting point is correct, the nine clues are correct, the nine answers are correct, the bulk of the decrypted directions are correct but I've made a mistake somewhere - probably in my interpretation of the decrypted directions.
Regards
The White Knight (Andrew Briggs).
The whole keyword phrases going from the start of the first answer (then they repeat) are 'BYE FENN INFAMY BOUND' & 'BYE FENN INVICTUS'..
DeleteHi, there.
DeleteYou stated:
//The Lewis & Clark cipher is involved to convert the text of the nine ANSWERS to the clues back into the geographical directions.//
This sounds somewhat convoluted.
Are you saying the poem itself, is in fact the "the text of nine answers to the clues..."?
If so, How can this be if the text itself has the 9 clues to which we need the answers?
Which one precedes the other?
Do clues precede the answers or do answers precede the clues?
I'm sincerely trying to follow what your attempting to communicate.
Thanks!
P.s. Any progress in the last 2 years? Interested in knowing how you've done!
Hi Mark, Thanks for your comment.
DeleteThe poem contains nine clues. Each of these has a specific answer (generally a person or place to do with wild west history). These specific answers are converted into nine lines of geographical directions.
So, to build the riddle Forrest started with nine lines of directions to take a Searcher to the treasure, converted each line into text that spelled out a place or person of interest to him, then put a clue for each of these people or places within the poem.
To decipher the riddle a Searcher has to work backwards through these steps to get the original directions that he had written, leading to the treasure.
Regarding progress: I've taken it as far as I can - I ran out of ideas for the last part of the riddle so I've opened it out to other Searchers. Other folk are coming up with some good ideas for the last part of the directions.
Where is the starting point?
DeleteNear the Shoshone National Forest.
DeleteHi! I was hoping we could email about your starting point. I agree with the Grey F sign but I think you missed something with your WWWH. How can I email you?
Deletethewhiteknightgems@gmail.com
DeleteUsing your keywords and clue answers in a lewis and clark cipher do not yield the results "go west..." as stated above. Either you are excluding something from the blog or just full of it. Too bad, enjoyed reading your stuff
ReplyDeleteHi Nathan, Thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteThe first two answers do not produce the phrase you identified. When deciphered they produce cryptic phrases used to produce the starting co-ordinates.
The phrase you highlighted starts further down. The answers produce this phrase as 'text speak' and phonetics. I put it long hand on the blog so people would understand it straight away without confusion.
So the end of the second line answer ‘VALLEY’ and the third line answer 'IN THE CHICKEN PEN' are converted as follows
I - C - T - U - S - B - Y
E - V - A - L - L - E - Y
W - S - H - R - T
F - E - N - N - I - N - F - A - M - Y - B - O - U
N - T - H - E - C - H - I - C - K - E - N - P - E
H - O - U - R - - - U - C - B - Y - G - L - A - K
There are some letters that function as padding within the 'text speak' that I've left out but the phrase says ' W SHRT HOUR U C BYG LAK'. Due to the immense difficulty of encryption Forrest has made most lines of the geographical directions fairly imperfect in this form of phonetics and 'text speak' so that the (encrypted) text of the answers could appear as perfect English. This was to disguise the cipher
That said there are some cleaner lines of deciphered directions elsewhere amongst the decryption.
Pretty cool stuff, thanks for the explanation! I'm intrigued enough to buy your ebook, really interesting ideas, i live in Arizona if you need to pick something up for you...
Deletethanks White Knight!
ReplyDeleteAlso, what do you make of the phrase "infamy bound" ? And invictus?
ReplyDeletehi Holly,
DeleteForrest is stating what his legacy is by using these phrases as the keywords.
I got your book and it is fascinating. You were brilliant in what you did. I follow it generally, but haven't tried to follow every detail. My question is that I am unsure at what point, specifically, you go from being 100% accurate and move to the "still in question" steps/locations/points, however you describe it. I have read and reread the book to try and nail this down, but I am still not comfortable I know. Can you articulate in a sentence or two the point at which your solve becomes less than 100% accurate without giving away information that is only contained in the book so I can be more clear where I need to start working on the rest of the solve? Thanks, JCA
ReplyDeleteHi Jonathan. Thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteI’m happy that the nine clues are correct. The nine answers are correct. The method of decrypting the answers to reveal the directions is correct. The deciphered text giving the directions is correct. The starting co-ordinates are correct. There is no interpretation required in the directions from the starting point up to the point where the ‘big lake’ comes into view.
But, the word ‘spider’ after this point could be interpreted a couple of ways.
I believe I’ve identified the right video but the tree-carving message in the video is open to interpretation.
The word ‘mirror’ in the directions subsequent to this could be interpreted a couple of ways.
So I believe Searchers should concentrate on the following parts of the solution where I may have made a mistake:
·- the directions after seeing the lake and the path to follow using the words ‘spider’ and ‘mirror’.
- the tree carving in the video - what it actually says regarding the directions.
Andrew, can you contact me? You are pretty darn close with most, but not all of your answers. I believe I have narrowed it down for you.
ReplyDeleteHi Dustin, thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm happy with the bulk of the solution but I realise there's a mistake somewhere near the final 'edge'. What are your thoughts?
Would you mind providing an email? I tried the one at the end of the post but it came back undeliverable. Mine is: rizzero@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteDidn't fenn say there was no cipher involved? Or am I missing something here.
ReplyDeleteHi LL, thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteIn response to folk trying to do things like calculating co-ordinates from the postmark dates in TOTC Forrest listed a series of things that 'will not help find the location', But, the English he used was vague and open to interpretation. He stated that things in the list had been used in ‘positive solutions’ . So they could have helped but perhaps not for the final location?
This list was mainly directed at mathematical / numerical solutions. I believe Forrest was fed up with people going down the route of investigating complex numerical patterns.
Scrapbook 62:
‘Some searchers overrate the complexity of the search. Knowing about head pressures, foot pounds, acre feet, bible verses, Latin, cubic inches, icons, fonts, charts, graphs, formulas, curved lines, magnetic variation, codes, depth meters, riddles, drones or ciphers, will not assist anyone to the treasure location, although those things have been offered as positive solutions. Excellent research materials are TTOTC, Google Earth, and/or a good map.’f
He didn’t rule out anything specifically in the same way he did in a statement for example where he said the treasure chest wasn’t hidden in Utah. But he included the word ‘cipher’ within a list he submitted for Scrapbook 62. He also included the words ‘codes’ and ‘riddles’.
This conflicts with common sense. Saying a knowledge of ‘riddles’ won’t help anyone to find the treasure location.
The whole poem / treasure hunt is a riddle (look up the definition). If it wasn’t the chest would have been found straight away. So a knowledge of riddles must help Searchers to solve the poem / treasure hunt and find the location of the treasure.
He also lists that a knowledge of ‘codes’ won’t help anyone to find the treasure location.
The majority of Searchers believe that the poem is not a literal description that says ‘walk down a canyon and pick up a treasure chest’. If the poem is providing straight directions then these are worded cryptically in the form of a riddle. For example: the home of Brown - Most people think this is something other than a house with the name Brown stamped above the door.
In other words it’s a cryptic clue amongst other cryptic references in the poem also known as ‘codes’ (or riddles whichever you prefer). So a knowledge of these must help Searchers to find the treasure location.
So this list of words if taken literally is ruling out every possible solution for every possible Searcher. It really isn’t that useful.
This is great. I love this. Only got in to it over the last 2 months and I'm completely hooked. Great theories and can't wait to 1 day go for a search. Andy do you have an email as I want to pick your brains on my theories :)
ReplyDeleteLewis
How did you come up with this: 'BYE FENN INFAMY BOUND' & 'BYE FENN INVICTUS' ?
ReplyDeleteHi Mikeyy.
ReplyDeleteI'd figured out the answers to the clues to produce a block of text made up from all the answers put together. I was trying to work out how this block of text could yield a list of directions perhaps by decryting it using a cipher.
Fenn had put out some hints that suggested the Lewis & Clark cipher was worth a try e.g. a chapter in his book called 'Looking for Lewis & Clark'. I was looking for obvious keywords to use to unlock the text based on the L & C cipher.
The last line of the poem 'I give you title to the gold' hinted that his name might be worth a try as a keyword phrase.
Actually I got lucky as I used his daughters name: 'ZOE FENN' as a keyword.
This was lucky as it dropped the word Fenn into the right place in the block of text because 'ZOE' is the same length as 'BYE' - the actual word used in the encryption. That is, 'ZOE FENN' puts most of the letters in the right place in the same manner as 'BYE FENN'.
Once I'd got meaningful output from this phrase, I knew it was likely he'd used a L&C cipher so I could unlock the rest of the extended keyword phrases.
INVICTUS was another obvious possibility to try as a keyword as Fenn hinted at this many times e.g. quoting the poem 'Invictus' in one of his bookshop videos.
Thanks for responding!
ReplyDeleteso when you say starting point you don't mean a literal location to begin? or are these answers to the clues just more clues?
ReplyDeleteIt is a literal location. The letters in each of the first two answers yield a coordinate (this is why those answers are made up from a similar structure of words). So the two answers produce northerly and westerly coordinates to pinpoint the starting location for the list of directions. There are nine answers to clues. The first two answers provide the starting coordinates. The remaining seven provide the directions to lead a Searcher to the treasure. Some of these directions are vague.
Deletealso is the line "from there its no place for the meek" important? I'm very new to this but deeply interested
ReplyDelete'No place for the meek' is a key clue because the answer to this clue yields a geographic object within the hidden directions - a lake. If you look at the comments above it shows how the phrase 'in the chicken pen' (the answer to this clue) is used to reveal some of the hidden directions, in this example: 'shrt hour U C byg lak'.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHey Andrew. I just found out about the treasure yesterday and I've been doing some research. I'm fascinated with your theory but I have a couple of questions, what password did you use to start off with? For instance, is the first clue ("WWWH") the password? If so, then the answer (Rattlesnake Springs) is the real message? I'm just trying to figure out how to use the code since you need both the password and the real message to find the coded message. I hope you answer my question.
ReplyDeleteHi Sam,
DeleteThe first clue 'Where warm waters halt' is in the poem. The answer to this clue is 'Rattlesnake Springs'. One converts the letters of 'Rattlesnake Springs' and those of each of the other answers to the remaining clues, each time to obtain one line of the original directions (the real message).
The password is based on repeating phrases: 'Fenn infamy bound' and 'Fenn invictus'.