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BOOKS | MEMOIR | PERSONAL GROWTH
A Fan of the Late Forrest Fenn Tells All About Her Treasure Hunt
And what she discovered about herself along the way
Former rocket scientist and prolific author and poet Petra Perkins understands what made the late art collector Forrest Fenn tick. In her new book, Blaze: How I Found Forrest Fenn’s Treasure Chest Hideout, Perkins shares her detailed conversations with Fenn alongside her personal journey to discover the treasure Fenn famously hid over a decade ago.
As Reuben Salsa wrote in “The $2 Million Treasure Hunt That Lasted Over 10 Years,” Fenn first came up with the idea to bury a hidden treasure in 1988, when he was diagnosed with cancer. Having come from humble beginnings, the former Air Force pilot and decorated Vietnam vet had built up considerable wealth over decades as a Santa Fe art gallery owner and wanted to share some of his wealth in a highly memorable way. When his cancer went into remission, Fenn put his buried treasure plan on hold — until he turned 80. In 2010, he published a memoir that included a now-famous poem that supposedly provided clues to where he’d hidden a chest filled with gold coins, jewels, artifacts, and other valuables worth over a million dollars.
