Hints Fenn Drops

Since I started trying to solve the poem, I've looked to identify patterns in what Fenn writes and says, and he frequently says the same things, again and again; as if making a point because he knows no one understood what he's been trying to say.

One of my favorite hints is his use of the word quarter - never underestimate the power of a quarter!  

Now ask yourself, why does he repeatedly bring a "quarter" into play?

A physical quarter, twenty-five cents, 25, 25%, a coin toss, 50/50, one quarter of something, 25/100, portion, or something else?

Quarter?  To quarter is to house, it can also mean an area (for example "the Latin quarter" in a city), and let's not forget it can also mean to cut into four pieces.

Fenn also brings up time a lot.  Is a quarter then 15 minutes after the hour?  Is it 25 years, a quarter century?  

Or is he bringing up the concept of forgiveness or grace?

Identifying which is correct isn't possible when you're starting the solve; what is possible is to look at the options, then keep them in mind as you're working on the solve - so that when something does "fit" you can then play with that concept within the framework of that piece of the poem.

Long Time No See

Life got in the way, so I haven't posted in quite a while!

After having to set aside the chase, I returned to the poem a few weeks ago to tease out any issues with my solve and still believe I have solved it correctly.  What I didn't know was that I was missing a critical piece of the puzzle and it is with that, that the poem literally is unlocked to reveal where you need to go and why!

It is very exciting!  But, there is the chance that I'm wrong - I'm not sure at this point how it is possible that what I have uncovered is wrong, but it does remain a possibility.

Between now and when we head to our area, I'm going to start to slowly reveal the poem and its hidden elements; if it turns out I'm wrong, then it's one more incorrect solve, but if it is correct, I'll have the treasure and you'll have the solve!

The 270° Triangle

Dear Forrest,

You tell us that we should find “where warm waters halt” before trying to solve any of the other clues. Imagining that we haven’t seen the rest of the poem, and all we have to go on is:

a. “begin it where warm waters halt” and
b. “somewhere in the mountains north of Santa Fe”

Do you think that we can confidently determine the starting place for your treasure trail? ~ Steve

No, if all you have to go on are those two clues you cannot proceed with confidence. Look at it this way. If you were making a cake and you left out a few ingredients, would you achieve your goal?

Your question reminds me of another:  You leave home and walk a straight line for a mile, turn 90 degrees left and walk a curved line for a mile and shoot a bear. Then you turn 90 degrees left again and walk a straight line back to your home. What color is the bear?f

↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝

Revisiting Nine Clues, Nine Sentences

In the spring of 2016, Fenn did an interview and it's contents are available online here:

Spring 2016 Interviews

The interview is broken up into shorter segments and the one I'm interested in for this post is San Lazaro - Part 1.  It is about writing and in it, Fenn says 

"...you can't end a sentence with a colon, so down there by the page number I put a period..."

What's interesting about this is that in the book, The Thrill of the Chase, before the poem is a sentence and it ends with a colon, then the poem.

So I wrote a poem containing nine clues that if followed precisely, will lead to the end of my rainbow and the treasure:

There aren't many people who are including that sentence as part of the poem, but I believe the colon connects the sentence to the poem and is part of what is necessary to solve the poem!

What normally follows a colon?  A list.

How is that list usually formatted?  Bullet points.

So I wrote a poem containing nine clues that if followed precisely, will lead to the end of my rainbow and the treasure:

• As I have gone alone in there And with my treasures bold, I can keep my secret where, And hint of riches new and old.
• Begin it where warm waters halt And take it in the canyon down, Not far, but too far to walk.
• Put in below the home of Brown.
• From there it’s no place for the meek, The end is ever drawing nigh; There’ll be no paddle up your creek, Just heavy loads and water high.
• If you’ve been wise and found the blaze, Look quickly down, your quest to cease, But tarry scant with marvel gaze, Just take the chest and go in peace.
• So why is it that I must go And leave my trove for all to seek?
• The answers I already know, I’ve done it tired, and now I’m weak.
• So hear me all and listen good, Your effort will be worth the cold.
• If you are brave and in the wood I give you title to the gold.

Imagination

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
-Albert Einstein

Imagination isn’t a technique, it’s a key. f
-Forrest Fenn

--------------------------------

Imagination
4.
a : a mental image, conception, or notion formed by the action of imagination
b : a creation of the mind; especially : an idealized or poetic creation

Imagination: reverie, daydream, conception, pie in the sky, speculation, fancy, cup of tea, rainbow, castle in the air, art, adroitness, idea, visualization, invention, warmth, fish story, yarn, pot boiler, Einstein, aptitude, charade, disguise, legend, lore, myth, twist, flash, contemplation, reflection

Adjusting to Solve the Poem

The blueprint is challenging so the treasure may be located by the one who can best adjust. To illustrate my point go to YouTube – Smarter Every Day. f

Adjust: 
 to put in order :  reduce to a system :  regulate

------------------

What does “warm” mean to you?
It means being comfortable.

http://dalneitzel.com/2017/02/08/forrest-gets-mail-13/

------------------

Comfortable:
:  enjoying or showing comfort and ease:
a :  at ease physically :  in a restful situation :  without urgent unsatisfied wants :  free from pain, irritation, stricture, or other unpleasant feelings :  relaxed

Relaxed:
:  easy of manner :  free from stiffness :  informal, easygoing

Synonyms: calm, unstressed, rested, resting, easy

-----------------

For each clue Fenn provides a wide variety of hints to help you adjust and see what he means.  He does that with specific things, and with things that he just implies.  All of the hints direct us to finding the right word, the word he wants us to use, to solve the poem.

So using warm waters halt....how does that work if warm = comfortable

If comfortable is warm, and comfortable is easy-going, and comfortable is calm, then warm waters are waters that are calm and easy going and they're going to halt being calm and easy-going.

Where do calm and easy-going waters halt?  If it's the waters we're thinking about, they halt being calm and easy-going when they change to rough and raging waters.

So where to easy-going and calm waters stop being calm and easy-going to become rough and raging waters?

That would be a place where the topography either becomes rough and rocky causing the water to become raging rapids, or when they go over a waterfall and land at the bottom with force before continuing along the creek, river or other water way.

The Big Picture

Forrest Fenn has told us that the poem is a "map".

MAP:  appearance, face, globe, layout, blueprint, plan, representation, drawing, approach, scheme, prototype, outline, plan, organization, road map, big picture.

Wait, what?  BIG PICTURE?

If you look at the poem, and start at the bottom line with "I", then go to each letter around the four corners of the poem, you'll spell the word "IDEA".  Is this the "big picture" that Fenn has said we need to look at?

Big picture: Idea, encircling, approach

Decipher

In the above video, there are a few quotes worth reviewing; they begin at 10:34.

"You're not going to find the treasure unless you decipher the nine clues in the poem."

"The poem is a map and it'll take you to the treasure if you can follow its directions."

"You have to read the poem and comprehend what the clues mean."

"If you don't have the first clue, you don't have anything."

Decipher:

• convert into normal language
• convert into intelligent form
• represent by oral description or pictorial art
• unscramble
• find the key
• straighten out
• spell out
• put in plain English
• set right
• get to the bottom of
• throw light upon

Comprehend:

• grasp mentally
• see daylight
• realize
• get the picture
• imagine
• understand
• tell apart
• recognize

Musical Connections

Call this one a rabbit hole.  It's interesting, but still just a rabbit hole.

There are 10 octaves in the range of human hearing, which is 20hz to 20khz It doesnt go back to zero, just goes higher than humans can hear. There are 24 lines in the poem, or 2 octaves.

Maqam

Arabic maqams are based on a musical scale of 7 notes that repeats at the octave. Some maqams have 2 or more alternative scales (e.g. Rast, Nahawand and Hijaz). Maqam scales in traditional Arabic music are microtonal, not based on a twelve-tone equal-tempered musical tuning system, as is the case in modern Western music. Most maqam scales include a perfect fifth or a perfect fourth (or both), and all octaves are perfect. The remaining notes in a maqam scale may or may not exactly land on semitones. For this reason maqam scales are mostly taught orally, and by extensive listening to the traditional Arabic music repertoire.

Since microtonal intervals are impractical to accurately notate, a simplified musical notation system was adopted in Arabic music at the turn of the 20th century. Starting with a chromatic scale, the Arabic scale is divided into 24 equal quarter tones, where a quarter tone equals half a semitone in a 12 tone equal-tempered scale. In this notation system all notes in a maqam scale are rounded to the nearest quarter tone.

The 24-tone system is entirely a notational convention and does not affect the actual precise intonation of the notes performed. Practicing Arab musicians, while using the nomenclature of the 24-tone system (half-flats and half-sharps), still perform the finer microtonal details which have been passed down through oral tradition.

Maqam scales that do not include quarter tones (e.g. Nahawand, ‘Ajam) can be performed on equal-tempered instruments such as the piano, however such instruments cannot faithfully reproduce the microtonal details of the maqam scale. Maqam scales can be faithfully performed either on fretless instruments (e.g. the oud or the violin), or on instruments that allow a sufficient degree of tunability and microtonal control (e.g. the nay or the qanun, or the Clarinet). On fretted instruments with steel strings, microtonal control can be achieved by string bending, as when playing blues.

The exact intonation of every maqam scale changes with the historical period, as well as the geographical region (as is the case with linguistic accents, for example). For this reason, and because it is not common to notate precisely and accurately microtonal variations from a twelve-tone equal tempered scale, maqam scales are, in practice, learned auditorally.

The central tones (nucleus) of a maqam are created from two different intervals. The eleven central tones of the maqam used in the phase sequence example above may be reduced to three which make up the "nucleus" of the maqam.

There are nine maqam families:

Ajam
Segah
Bayātī
C minor
Rast Panjgah (means right or direct)
Hijaz, aka Phrygian Dominant Scale (aka "Spanish gypsy scale")
Saba
Kurd
Nawa Athar (aka "Hungarian Gypsy Scale")

Indulgence

Indulgence anagrams to "ending clue".

The end is the beginning, the beginning is the end.

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. 
T. S. Eliot

The last clue is also the first clue, is also the ending, but also the beginning. 

How the Treasure May be Hidden

__________________________________________________________________

Adjusting the View of the Nine Clues

CLUE 1:
As I have gone alone in there and with my treasures bold, I can keep my secret where, and hint of riches new and old.

CLUE 2:
Begin it where warm waters halt and take it in the canyon down, 

CLUE 3:
Not far, but too far to walk.

CLUE 4:
Put in below the home of Brown.

CLUE 5:
From there it's [it is, it has] no place for the meek, the end is ever drawing nigh; There'll [there will, there shall] be no paddle up your creek, just heavy loads and water high.

CLUE 6:
If you've [you have] been wise and found the blaze, look quickly down, your quest to cease, but tarry scant with marvel gaze, just take the chest and go in peace.

CLUE 7:
So why is it that I must go and leave my trove for all to seek?  The answers I already know, I've [I have] done it tired, and now I'm [I am] weak.

CLUE 8:
So hear me all and listen good, your effort will be worth the cold.

CLUE 9:
If you are brave and in the wood I give you title to the gold.

Over time I may continue to adjust how the clues line up as I continue to solve the poem, but for now, that is the nine clues as I am seeing them.

A Word that is Key

In Jenny's six questions on Feb. 4, 2014:

"It is interesting to know that a great number of people are out there searching. Many are giving serious thought to the clues in my poem, but only a few are in tight focus with a word that is key. The treasure may be discovered sooner than I anticipated."

A word that is key.

Key.

It turns out there are nine (9) synonyms for "key" in the poem:

As I have gone alone in there
And with my treasures bold,
I can keep my secret where,
And hint of riches new and old.

Begin it where warm waters halt 
And take it in the canyon down,
Not far, but too far to walk. 
Put in below the home of Brown.

From there it’s no place for the meek,
The end is ever drawing nigh;
There’ll be no paddle up your creek, 
Just heavy loads and water high. 

If you’ve been wise and found the blaze,
Look quickly down, your quest to cease,
But tarry scant with marvel gaze,
Just take the chest and go in peace.

So why is it that I must go
And leave my trove for all to seek?
The answers I already know,
I’ve done it tired, and now I’m weak. 

So hear me all and listen good,
Your effort will be worth the cold. 
If you are brave and in the wood
I give you title to the gold.

NINE WORDS THAT ARE "KEY"

Secret + hint + put in + draw + heavy + load + answers + hear + cold

Secret hint put in drawing heavy load answers hear cold.

The drawing with no connection within the book, The Thrill of the Chase:

It

Clue 1 is what it is
Clue 2 is where it is
Clue 3 is where you begin it (where warm waters halt) and you take it in the canyon down

There are also five instances of it in the poem:

Begin it where warm waters halt
Take it in the canyon down
From there it's no place for the meek
So why is it that I must go
I've done it tired

Where is the Treasure?

“There isn't a human trail in very close proximity to where I hid the treasure.” f

Later, when asked for clarification, Fenn answered:

Dear Mr. Fenn,
You once wrote: “There isn’t a human trail in very close proximity to where I hid the treasure.”  You also once wrote: “And in close proximity were stone projectiles and crudely made hand axes that could have been 30,000 years old.”
Can you clarify for us your definitions of “close proximity” and “very close proximity?” (e.g. 10 feet, 50 feet, 100 feet, 500 feet, etc.?)
Thanks, Milan


It’s not that easy Milan. Are you asking me to carry a caliper in my pocket? Each “close proximity” is different, relative, and site-specific, as you pointed out. So I can’t answer your question. To an ant a mud puddle can be like an ocean. f

There isn't [is not] a human trail in very close proximity to where I hid the treasure.

The automatic assumption is that Fenn is telling us there is no trail near the hiding spot.  But if we use the method of the 'word that is key' to define what Fenn is saying, here is what we get:

Not = no
No = dissent, decline, negative, nothing, refusal, opposite, not by any means
Human = person, imperfect, errant, frail, faulty, gentle, natural, practical, uncertain, weak
Trail = course, stream, dangle, shadow, path, linger, shadow

So, while Fenn has misdirected us with words, what he did really say is that there IS a declining, weak path in close proximity to his hiding spot for the treasure.

Close = near, adjacent, adjoining, neighbor, warm, bordering on, joining, border, matching
Proximity = relation, area, territory, surroundings, vicinity, contiguity, contact, region

It's interesting that contiguity is a synonym of proximity - Fenn has said the clues are contiguous, so let's see what we get from that word:

Contiguity = touch, close, hit, nearness, adjacent, familiarity, locality, tract, region

So, taken together, we're looking for a faint/weakly defined trail, perhaps one that is used infrequently, but remains visible, even if difficult to see...it is declining, so either going down in elevation or getting narrow along the way, and it is bordering the area of where the chest is hidden, or joining that area in some way.

Unlocking the Clues

“Many have given serious thought to the clues in the poem but only a few are in tight focus with a word that is key.”

Serious = deliberate, thoughtful, significant, skillful, thorough, critical
Thought = attention, thinking, understanding, concentration, care
Clues = suggestion, hint, proof, solution, idea, cue, definition
Tight = narrow, solid, strong, close, compact, familiar, constant
Focus = target, heart, center, adjust, core, gist, compact, converge
Key = access, entry, answer, legend, base, central, primary, crucial, telling

Deliberate attention to definitions of familiar words you adjust to get the gist of where they converge for the answer.

Forrest Fenn is a wordsmith, he used words to hide the answers to the clues in the poem, and now you have to use words to unlock those clues to reveal the answers!

Fenn Quotes on Finding the Treasure

"If you're really serious about looking for the treasure, get TTOTC and read it, and then go back and read the poem over and over and over again, and then go back and read the book again but slowly, looking an..looking at every little abstract thing that might catch up in your brain, that might be a hint to help you with the clues. Any part of some is better than no part of any. f"



"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" 


“There are hints in my book that will help you with the clues, but a clue will point you toward the treasure chest and a hint will just help you with the clues, if you can understand that. f” 

The Nine Clues

CLUE 1:
As I have gone alone in there and with my treasures bold, I can keep my secret where, and hint of riches new and old.

CLUE 2:
Begin it where warm waters halt and take it in the canyon down, not far, but too far to walk.

CLUE 3:
Put in below the home of Brown.

CLUE 4:
From there it's [it is, it has] no place for the meek, the end is ever drawing nigh; 

CLUE 5:
There'll [there will, there shall] be no paddle up your creek, just heavy loads and water high.

CLUE 6:
If you've [you have] been wise and found the blaze, look quickly down, your quest to cease, but tarry scant with marvel gaze, just take the chest and go in peace.

CLUE 7:
So why is it that I must go and leave my trove for all to seek?  The answers I already know, I've [I have] done it tired, and now I'm [I am] weak.

CLUE 8:
So hear me all and listen good, your effort will be worth the cold.

CLUE 9:
If you are brave and in the wood I give you title to the gold.

Over time I may adjust how the clues line up as I continue to solve the poem, but for now, that is the nine clues as I am seeing them.