Fenn treasure hunter pleads guilty for damage caused in Yellowstone Park

Enlarge / Over 350,000 people tried and failed to find the Fenn treasure before someone finally solved the puzzle last June. (credit: iStock / Getty Images Plus)

A Utah man charged with causing more than $1,000 worth of damages in Yellowstone National Park has pleaded guilty to two felony charges, The New York Times reported last week. The man, 52-year-old Rodrick Dow Craythorn, had been hunting for a buried treasure chest hidden 10 years ago by an antiquities dealer named Forrest Fenn. Craythorn faces up to $270,000 in fines and 12 years in prison at his sentencing, slated for March 17.

Over 350,000 people tried and failed to find the treasure before Fenn announced that someone had finally solved his puzzle last June, although he declined at the time to name the winner or disclose the location where the chest had been found. Fenn himself died last September at the age of 90, and the finder has since come forward: 32-year-old Jack Stuef, a medical student originally from Michigan.

As we've reported previously, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Fenn buried a treasure chest filled with gold, rubies, emeralds, and diamonds somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. He hid the clues to its location in a poem that is part of his 2010 self-published memoir, The Thrill of the Chase. Fenn claimed he set up the hunt to inspire people to explore nature by giving them a "good old-fashioned adventure." It was also a way to offer hope to those deeply affected by the Great Recession that followed the collapse of the housing market in 2008.

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