SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — For more than a decade, he packed and repacked his treasure chest, sprinkling in gold dust and adding hundreds of rare gold coins and gold nuggets. Pre-Columbian animal figures went in, along with prehistoric "mirrors" of hammered gold, ancient Chinese faces carved from jade and antique jewelry with rubies and emeralds.
Forrest Fenn was creating a bounty, and the art and antiquities dealer says his goal was to make sure it was "valuable enough to entice searchers and desirable enough visibly to strike awe."
Occasionally, he would test that premise, pulling out the chest and asking his friends to open the lid.
"Mostly, when they took the first look," he says, "they started laughing," hardly able the grasp his amazing plan.
Was Fenn really going to give this glistening treasure trove away?