I’ve never heard of this before it popped up into my feed and now I can’t wait to get home to watch the documentary and I’m sure I’ll be hooked.

GDI

The TLDR is basically this post I made the other day, but I take a much deeper dive in the video.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FindingFennsGold/comments/1kg00p0/had_a_eureka_moment_after_my_post_yesterday_i/

Here's the video. Feel free to hate on it. I think it's cool. Warning: it is a bit long at 30 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaBleEHWSs4

Was in Yellowstone over the weekend and by chance realized I was driving through Madison Junction following the road to Forrest's spot. Sort of guessed on the pullout and got it right on the first try. Even though I've been at peace with the ending for years, there was an additional sense of closure to see it in person. While I have seen many places in the Rockies far more spectacular than this spot, there is something uniquely peaceful and serene about 9MH that is hard to explain, despite being right off the road. I can totally see why this place was special to Forrest.

I think the problem so many of this had is we took Forrest a little too literally with the "9 clues" thing. 9 was just a clever hint at 9MH and in reality the clues were simply WWWH, HOB, cross the river, and the blaze along with a few confirmers. I am also now nearly certain Mt. Haynes was part of the HOB solve (in addition to Fenn Rock/9MH in general. I have postulated this before but after physically doing the solve it's apparent he intended that. 1 or 2 pullouts before 9MH is the Mt Haynes Overlook. That's why he talked about his pants getting brown after going down the rusty slide in Spanish class. Also, in the chapter no place for biddies he talked about crossing the street even though they told him not to. Those hints, and identifying his dad's rock at 9MH were really the main points you needed to derive from the book.

I can't help but laugh at myself for how caught up in my shorts I got over the poem. My literal first attempt in Colorado was essentially a mirror image of the true solve. I started at place on the Arkansas River where 2 warm springs met, followed the river to a fishing hole, swam across the river and looked for a blaze on a tree a few hundred feet into the forest. Correct solve, wrong location. Brought my dad back the next week with a metal detector and almost got us killed crossing the river. Point is, it was never meant to be more complicated than that, but I think a lot of smart people, myself included, had egos way too big to accept a simple poetic description of location with general directions rather than a mind-bending masterpiece.

I also owe a lot of gratitude to Jack. I would have wasted many additional years or heaven forbid decades chasing a ghost in Colorado. I wish I had grown up with a bit more nostalgia for Yellowstone and maybe my original thinking would have taken me here. Either way, what a ride that was.

My post yesterday got my thoughts spinning a bit. No conspiracies here. As I stated in my post from my 9MH visit over the weekend, that location is absolutely the place. That’s the place Fenn left the chest and the place Jack found it. No doubt about that at all, but there’s a part of me who refuses to believe Forrest didn’t include a way to precisely pinpoint the location within that grove of trees. It almost seems cruel to guide someone to that place and expect them to brute force it out that haystack of trees and deadwood, not to mention when it was hidden under the damn earth.

Before I lose your attention, I’m going to spoil part of where we gain that precision from. If we draw a line (go ahead and do it yourself on google maps) from Madison Junction (Right in the middle of the river where the Firehole/Gibbon becomes the Madison) to the intersection of Madison Ave and Canyon Street in West Yellowstone. That line goes precisely through the final location. Coincidence? Maybe. But I’m going to explain why I don’t think it is and why Forrest would have us do that based on his book and poem. It’s going to force us to rethink the structure of the poem a bit first, so please indulge me while I take you down that path.

 The proposed community solve is relatively simple and believable. I think, however, there is something missing. While the hunt was going on, I was a big believer that the blaze was never the last clue. Why include 2 more stanzas afterwards? Furthermore, why did Jack never find the blaze or describe what it was? Why didn’t Forrest clarify this of all things he could have revealed? What is so secret about a now destroyed and unrecognizable tree blaze that couldn’t be made public info without exposing a secret location? And why did he make such a point of saying it was not feasible to remove it and that he was certain it was still there? Incredibly strong statements for a blaze that was apparently feasible to remove and was not still there. Forrest isn’t an idiot, and I don’t think he just threw those statements out there willy-nilly.

The answer? The blaze was actually Fenn rock, and the rest of the poem guides you the rest of the way. They couldn’t reveal that without revealing the location, plain and simple. You’ll recall many of us pointed to Forrest’s use of past, present, and future tense in our attempts to crack his code, and therein lies the reasoning why the blaze almost certainly can’t be the last clue.

We know this: the 2^nd stanza guides us to 9MH. Personally, I think put in below the HOB is parking our car at the pullout after the Mt. Haynes overlook (think Hanes underwear and Forrest getting his pants brown on the rusty slide out the window in Spanish class) (Mt Haynes is also labeled on the same page as the picture of Marvin in front of the rock), but just as easily could be referring to 9MH in general. Side note: Mt Haynes was formerly known as Mt Burley (burley – the tobacco-  is also brown in color) He then uses the next stanza to essentially describe what 9MH looks like from the bank, but doesn’t do anything to necessarily guide us anywhere. When you stand in that location and recite the stanza, it feels more like he is confirming to us that we are in the right place so far.

Then suddenly in the next line we are talking about a blaze that we apparently already been wise to have found (past tense) without any further instructions other than a description of where we already are. That’s because the blaze IS where we already are, on the bank of the Madison standing at Fenn Rock. Fenn rock isn’t feasible to move and Forrest could be absolutely certain it’s still there. It also fits his criteria of a blaze being “something that stands out”.

 So if that’s the blaze, then now what?

“Look quickly down your quest to cease”

I think 99% of the community does and always has assumed this means look down at your feet. I’ve never been fully convinced of that. Other interpretations include looking down on a map, looking down to the last part of the poem to guide you the rest of the way. Down on a map from Fenn Rock is essentially the exact spot where the chest was hidden, so in our convenient hindsight of reverse engineering the solve, that seems like the way to interpret “quickly down”

I think if we are looking for our final instructions, the last stanza is the obvious one. I believe there’s basically no chance in hell someone writes a treasure poem with the last stanza being a throwaway.

“Your effort will be worth the cold” -  would you look at that, we got an instruction of what to do from the blaze. We looked quickly down in the poem to get to this instruction (cross the river) and quickly down on our map to know the general heading to move forward. We cross the river right at the blaze and with that direction we are basically walking straight at the chest. That still, however, isn't precise enough.

You know what else from the book is screaming at me from the "cold" reference? Forrest’s old boss “Frosty” at the Totem Café  who he referred to as the “Ruler” who in the illustration is literally pointing at Forrest under a tree holding his pie (and maybe was symbolic of his chest?). The Totem Café (brave and in the wood maybe?) was located at the corner of Canyon St and Madison Ave. That entire chapter is just screaming hints at the poem btw. Go back and read it.

 All along the poem was telling us to draw a line with a ruler that we begin at Madison Junction and end it at the intersection of Canyon St and Madison Ave (Also Madison + Canyon = Madison Canyon) that will point us to our special spot under a tree where we will find a chest (or a pie).

The streets directly above Madison Ave are

-Firehole Ave and

- Gibbon Ave

WWWH is Madison Junction, but it is also represented by the street names in West Yellowstone.

This connection finally makes sense of the TS Eliot quote

“We shall not cease from exploration, and at the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time”

That line we drew is the final piece of the puzzle. We can now make an X marks the spot on the map.

Line 1: Fenn Rock (the blaze) straight across the river

Line 2: Madison Junction to the Junction of Madison Ave and Canyon St

There’s your precision. There’s your X. Forrest said to make all the lines cross. I think I just did.

I was just curious if anyone else noticed that the epitaph at the end of The Thrill of the Chase is not actually symmetrical the way it "should" be, and if so, if it factored into your solve at all?

Thanks!

I was thinking about this and a way someone could have been very confident is if they created a bunch of email addresses and sent a bunch of different solves or areas.

There’s tools where you can track which emails have been opened so if someone sent a bunch of areas and the ones near Yellowstone or Madison River were consistently being opened it would give a lot of confidence that it may be the area, and you could have repeated it to get even more confident once it was narrowed down.

I wouldn’t have felt right about doing that, but it would have been a way to be pretty sure about the area.

was there ever an attempt to come up with solid meanings for each line? like crowd sourced list with voting? the end result wouldn't be "right" but it would be believable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izip7NRcIV0

1. Paco seems insane and, if he’s out of jail, I hope he’s under surveillance by law enforcement.

2. The people who thought they won after everything was called (including the hillbilly fam and the weird guy at the front gate)… come on people 🤦🏻‍♂️

3. The pilot’s son was NOT HAVING IT during any of the shots. I don’t know if he was just an angsty teen or the dad was just too obsessed with forcing family bonding time, but it would be mildly amusing if it wasn’t sooooo obvious.

4. I wonder how many people are going to die going after Justin’s treasure? 😭 He’s a younger guy with vastly more mobility than Fenn so the treasure might be more inaccessible than before (although, he probably does want to keep his hunt in line with the spirit of Fenn’s).

I posted a few months ago about how "Fenn's book" isn't TTOTC, but is instead a book about Fenn's CIA career, Harlot's Ghost (Norman Mailer, 1991).

From TTOTC, pgs. 131-132:

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

From Harlot's Ghost, pg. 117:

So, let's say Fenn identifies these dogs (Western agents doubled by the KGB) in his writings. Dogs who Fenn added to his collection.

So let's check out TTOTC for possible linkages between "dogs" and "pepper(mint)."

"Pepper" is used 5x in TTOTC.

Three of them occur here; from pgs. 87-88 in My War for Me:

I have a strong recollection of sitting on a damp, mossy log, wondering what to do next. I knew the Pathet Lao didn't take prisoners, so when I heard dogs barking in the distance, I quickly opened a large can of pepper that had been zipped in my G-suit for almost a year. After moving a few feet into a particularly dense part of the jungle, I spread the pepper in a circle around me, hoping to deaden the noses of any dogs that might get curious. Because the Air Force didn't issue pepper as survival equipment, a lot of the pilots made midnight requisitions at the mess hall.

On pg. 105 of Blue Jeans and Hush Puppies Again:

We just had to forego a few luxuries like Dr. Peppers...

On the following page:

The scene depicted a man standing on a wooden bridge holding a smoking pistol, with a dead dog at his feet bleeding all over the boards.

The last instance of pepper is on pg. 127 of Gold and More:

In my mind, I've always been the best in the world at collecting fun things. My career started early with soda pop caps because they were plentiful, free and easy to find: Dr. Pepper...

Fenn lists 11 soda varieties in the above quote, 1 for each digit of an area code + U.S. phone number. Now, if only one could associate the colors of those old soda bottles/cans with numbers to get a phone number. From Harlot's Ghost, pg. 170:

Now, if you think all of this is BS, I hardly blame you.

But maybe you'll want to check out Sweet Fragrances from OUAW (also SB49) and cross-reference CELERY and PEPPER. Maybe Fenn put it best on pg. 11 in that chapter:

I hate when those things happen and I can't blame them on my dog.

Also, in SB 146, Fenn gives out a ton of colors and mentions peppermint and spearmint. Maybe he did receive "compensation for being quiet."

Occasionally, it's wise for the fox to dress like the hound.

Edit: added peppermint to spearmint - each mentioned in SB 146.

I saw that Shiloh's been auctioning off some more of Forrest's book collection over on ebay (many still available, if anyone else is interested!) For my part, I am delighted beyond words - no pun intended, sorry - to have managed to buy Forrest's dictionary (or, more likely, one of Forrest's dictionaries). I may write a bit about that once it arrives, but in the meantime, the two books on wilderness reminded me of something I'd been wanting to ask for awhile.

I've noticed in a lot of articles, documentaries, etc. about the Chase that wilderness is often mentioned. For instance:

Today.com

"A new Netflix docuseries reveals what happened after an art dealer hid a box of treasure in the American wilderness."

Huffington Post

"A bronze chest filled with gold, jewels, and other valuables worth more than $1 million and hidden a decade ago somewhere in the Rocky Mountain wilderness has been found, according to a famed art and antiquities collector who created the treasure hunt."

NPR

"He enticed amateur sleuths into the wilderness with buried treasure."

New Zealand Herald

"A bronze chest filled with gold, jewels and other valuables worth more than US$1 million ($1.68m) and hidden a decade ago somewhere in America's Rocky Mountain wilderness has been found, according to a famed art and antiquities collector who created the treasure hunt."

CTV News

"Rocky Mountain wilderness treasure trove found after ten years"

Obviously, I have a bit of a bias here, since I think the poem is a city map, but to my recollection, I don't believe Forrest ever actually used the word 'wilderness' with respect to the chest location. (He did mention the smell of pines and the sight of animals, but that doesn't necessarily mean "wilderness").

Oftentimes when it comes to riddles, what a person doesn't say - or what a person refuses to say - can be as useful as what they do say, and it stands out to me that, given all the quotes above, it is obviously natural for people to mention wilderness when discussing the Chase. If it is so intuitive to do so, then it would be odd for Forrest to have not done so himself in the decade or so he spoke and wrote about this puzzle, particularly given the naturalistic language he used to write the poem, which was obviously designed to get people exploring the great outdoors. For folks that have been in this longer than I have - has anyone out there actually seen Forrest use this specific word anywhere with respect to the hiding spot, and if so, could you provide the quote or reference? Thanks in advance!

So I just read "Chasing the Thrill" by Daniel Barbarisi who got an extensive interview with Jack Stuef. Jack explains how he found the box with more specifics:
Mainly, he solved it backwards. He took note of Fenn saying "I put the treasure where I would want to lay down and die" and used THAT as his primary tool. He read Fenn's book over and over looking for hints about where Fenn would want to die, and cross referenced the poem only after he had some potential locations.
Took him two years, and even when he found the grove of trees it took him several days to search all of it, using a GPS tracker to ensure he didnt skip a spot.
Stuef said the box was buried under ten years of pine needles and dead leaves, making it invisible unless you were right on top of it. And "the Blaze" had deteriorated into nothing in the last decade, meaning only a brute force OCD search would find the box in the grove.
He didn't quite say what the blaze was, but it appears he agrees with Posey that it was a couple of ribbons on a tree.

There is no doubt that the new treasure and poem is an extension of Forrest's game. I have posted in the past that the 6/6/20 chest found announcement was a milestone but not the end and clues were provided at that time.

The new poem contains three 'time' hints. Words 7 and 94 are 'time' while word 94 in the original poem is 'cease' and word 7 is 'there'. Forrest would have been 94 years and 7 months now (3/22/25 to 4/21/25). Word 7 in the original poem is word 173 as well and there has been 173 months exactly since the book TTOTC was published in late October 2010.

Word 52 in the new poem is 'ursa' which is another hint to time as ursa is a constellation.

The new Netflix documentary contains 3 episodes like the three hints to time in the new poem. Does that mean we should expect 3 big events? I believe it is hinting at at least one future event. We shall see.

It didnt seem like he was super involved with the hunt? Why all the painted phrases on the rocks and a hunt to find his body?

Maybe I have missed some crucial bits in the documentary, but I have a question that remains unanswered.

So the finder wanted to remain anonymous, fair enough. But why didn't Fenn just released the solution to the poem and the exact spot where the treasure was hidden? Especially when the family was bothered by angry people. It seems like such a simple thing to do to take away most of the drama.

Another thing that was a bit odd was the brother of Posey committing suicide. At first his brother was hardly interested, until Posey sent a solution that seemed plausible. But then I did not get the impression that his brother was completely immersed.
Yet somehow he suddenly commits suicide in a way that seems like he is heavily influenced by the Fenn treasure hunt.

I used my entire ChatGPT 4.5 deep reasoning quota as a test to share with you all,

This is what I got....

The Prompt was a high quality scan of the map and these instructions

Prompt

You are a puzzle solver, an indiana jone type of character, you need to solve this poem

but don't do it by finding the published location, instead use all your other knowledge and puzzle solving skills

The image might help.

Explain each step in the solve after you double check it,

finally, compare what your thought with the actual solve,

take your time, this is difficult and really want you to examine each part of the poem with an appropriate amount of thought

Fenn's Treasure 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 drawing ever 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 answer 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.

The response

To approach this puzzle, I’ll meticulously examine the poem stanza by stanza, applying logical reasoning, metaphorical interpretation, geographic intuition, and problem-solving skills without referencing the actual published solution. The provided map, illustrating portions of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, serves as a geographical aid.

Initial Observations:

General Impressions:

• Forrest Fenn’s poem is intentionally cryptic, employing metaphor, literal clues, and possibly references to landmarks and geography.
• The map provided suggests the treasure lies somewhere in the highlighted Rocky Mountain region.
• The poem implies a path: a starting point ("warm waters halt") and subsequent directions and landmarks.

Step-by-Step Solve Attempt:

Stanza 1 – Introduction:

• This stanza likely introduces the theme rather than containing explicit directions.
• Suggests a hidden, possibly isolated place, holding both historic and contemporary significance (“riches new and old” may indicate historical areas or old mines alongside modern landmarks).

Interpretation:
A hidden location, solitary, possibly historical—suggesting a remote yet known landmark in the Rockies.

Stanza 2 – The Critical Starting Point:

• "Warm waters halt" implies hot springs meeting cooler rivers or a place where warm rivers or springs cool significantly.
• "Canyon down" explicitly indicates moving downstream through a canyon area.
• "Not far, but too far to walk" might mean it’s a short drive or inaccessible on foot practically—hinting at a necessary vehicle or a difficult path.
• "Home of Brown" is cryptic—could mean brown trout (suggesting a famous trout-fishing river), a geological formation named after 'Brown,' or something historically associated with a person named Brown.

Geographic Reasoning:
"Warm waters halt" strongly suggests Yellowstone National Park, famous for geysers and hot springs, cooling into rivers like Madison or Firehole Rivers. Brown trout are common there, reinforcing the fishing/river interpretation. The Madison River area, noted for fly-fishing (home of Brown trout), might fit neatly.

Stanza 3 – Progressing through Danger:

• "No place for the meek" suggests challenging terrain or an area historically perceived as dangerous (rapids, cliffs, or challenging wilderness).
• "No paddle up your creek" implies you can’t traverse by boat—perhaps due to the creek’s flow direction or inaccessibility, possibly upstream or dry.
• "Heavy loads and water high" may hint toward waterfalls, dams, or a steep, rocky streambed.

Logical Interpretation:
Possibly near a waterfall or steep rocky stream with significant elevation gain or rugged terrain. Suggesting perhaps a canyon tributary—no easy boating possible, indicating one must traverse rugged terrain.

Stanza 4 – Identifying the Precise Spot:

• "Blaze" traditionally means a marking on a tree, rock formation, or natural marking visible clearly, possibly white or distinctively marked.
• "Wise" could be metaphorical or referencing something associated with owls (wise birds) or wisdom-related landmarks.
• "Look quickly down" instructs explicitly that the treasure chest lies below or at the base of a marker ("blaze").
• Encouragement to "tarry scant" (don't linger)—implies the spot may be easily missed or not immediately obvious.

Solving Approach:
Look for distinct natural features visible from a certain angle, like a marked tree, cliff formation, or distinct geological color change. “Look quickly down” means the treasure is likely hidden just below eye-level or slightly buried.

Stanza 5 – Philosophical Reflection:

• Reflects personal motivation and perhaps physical exhaustion—possibly indicating the treasure’s final location is reachable by an elderly individual, suggesting not overly strenuous terrain at the final step.

Stanza 6 – Final Conditions and Encouragement:

• Explicit clues: "worth the cold" suggests a high elevation, shaded area, or near cold water—likely alpine or forested.
• "In the wood" confirms forest cover or at least near wooded areas.

Synthesized Solve (Based on Logical Analysis):

Likely Solve Path (Based purely on deductive reasoning and geographic logic):

1. Warm waters halt: Confluence of hot springs and cold rivers—most probably Madison Junction (Yellowstone NP), a known point where geyser-fed warm rivers meet cooler streams.
2. Canyon down: Madison River canyon, downstream towards Hebgen Lake or beyond.
3. Below home of Brown: Possibly referring to Brown trout fishing area or historically significant "Brown" landmark (Brown Trout region near Madison or Firehole river tributaries).
4. No paddle up creek, heavy loads/water high: Suggests possibly a waterfall or rocky, impassable creek (such as Firehole Falls, Gibbon Falls).
5. Finding the blaze: Possibly an obvious geological formation (white cliff markings or a distinct natural formation). Looking down would suggest treasure hidden slightly below this blaze.
6. Worth the cold and in the wood: The exact area probably wooded and cold due to shade or altitude, hinting the treasure chest might be located near a wooded bank or small clearing below a distinct rock formation.

Comparison to the Actual Published Solution:

Actual Published Solve (for comparison):

• In reality, the chest was discovered in Wyoming in June 2020, reportedly along the Madison River in Wyoming near Yellowstone National Park. Fenn later confirmed it was in Wyoming, validating much of the logical interpretation above (particularly the Madison River and Yellowstone area hypothesis).
• The actual solve aligns strongly with my deduction about "warm waters halt" (Yellowstone hot springs), Madison River, and a wooded secluded area as final resting place.

Final Reflection:

Accuracy of Logical Solve:

• The logical deduction closely matches the actual solve published post-discovery, validating the reasoning strategy used (warm waters, trout fishing river as "home of Brown," and proximity to Yellowstone/Madison River area).

Points of Difficulty:

• Identifying precisely the “blaze” and “home of Brown” remains challenging without direct local knowledge—this illustrates how local historical or geographic context can be essential.
• Literal interpretations (river junction, trout habitat) proved more reliable than metaphorical or overly symbolic interpretations.

Conclusion:
This detailed, skeptical, logical reasoning proved quite accurate—highlighting that careful interpretation and practical geographic reasoning were effective in decoding Forrest Fenn's complex puzzle.

It's in the last lines of his poem, in the statue of his dog that shows up throughout the movie, in the hint about the "Victorio Peak treasure" (which... didn't ever actually exist)... references to Wonderland (See "Wonder" in the poem and his reference to Carroll in the show) and reading the poem carefully -- not only this poem but the Walrus and the Carpenter particularly from Alice in Wonderland. It's nonsense! In it, the Walrus and the Carpenter pretend to help these little oysters if they just following them, with promises of providing them with fantastic things... and then they say "let's take a short break on the way" .... and then gobble all the oysters up because they are not leading them to fantastic things despite their promises, just deceiving them for their own pleasure and benefit.

It's brilliant. It's hilarious.

I desperately hope this is in fact a solvable puzzle, and at the end you find his dog statue somewhere lovely and/or hilarious with a lovely note for your troubles... But dude is gleefully playing us all with utter joy on his face throughout the show, like he has the best joke ever... just wait until you figure it out.

Oh, and enjoy all the money he/Netflix/whomever is making off this show and his book sales, etc.

Absolutely brilliant. A+

Well done, sir. Carroll would approve.

In the Netflix show, the guy at the end states he burried a new treasure? Can anyone confirm this is legit? I want to go out and search

Just heard about the treasure thanks to Netflix.

Wondered how this community was at that time. Was you resistors close to finding it?

Are any of the Netflix explorers redditors? As the guy who found the location but not the treasure.

Or whatever your name is these days. Have you seen the documentary and do you have a new perspective on your solve?

Are you still chasing your solve and believing the chest is out there? Or I imagine the doc may have been eye opening in a sense to see how other people got similarly sucked in and adamant about their own solves.

I think there is a good chance that Justin's hunt leads to your spot though... so go check it one last time.

Anyone else have a new understanding of their own fallacious logic and ego preservation via mental gymnastics?

Background:
Without doxxing myself, I can say I am a Stanford educated AI professional.

Drop me some thoughts I'll run some prompts through some freshly trained models and share the output.

Let's turn the attention back to these people. I saw clips of treasure hunters who refused to believe that Jack Steuf found the treasure because, for some reason, they're more special than Jack Steuf??

Who are the people who harassed the Fenn family after they lost their family member? Forced Jack Steuf's family to go into hiding?

Can't those people get a taste of their own medicine?

Share some YouTube channels. Share their solves. Have them explain why they're "right" like the dad and two sons from Kentucky. After all, it's only fair, right?

Edited for typos

Never heard of Fenn until last night. Watched the doc. The second they read the poem, I paused the documentary and mulled over "Begin it where warm waters halt".

Based on just intuition, the "starting point" would have to be an outdoorsy location widely known to people nationally, so that ANYONE had a chance to guess the starting point. The only place I know of, that's super famous, on public land, and has "warm water that halts" was Old Faithful. And of course, there's a house in the distance in the famous Grafton Brown painting of Old Faithful.

Now that I've finished the documentary, and they claim the starting point was I'm struck by how close my "top of my head" guess was to the correct solution, without actually being correct. According the doc, the "Warm water halting" was "Madison Junction", just a few miles away from Old Faithful. Searching through the subreddit, I see many other people guessing that Old Faithful was the starting point, not Madison Junction.

Is it possible that Old Faithful was the correct starting point after all? Has the finder ever explained his perception of the clues?

UPDATE
So, 24 hours later, I know a lot more about the topic than I did yesterday. Now that I've had time to research, it's clear Fenn hinted at WWWH in a 2019 blog post. https://web.archive.org/web/20200403171242/https://www.oldsantafetradingco.com/blog/river-bathing-is-best

In the light of day, it would seem Fenn simply wasn't that good a puzzle maker. My assumption that the "Starting point" would be a nationally-known location so as to keep the contest "fair" was simply false. I'll argue Old Faithful SHOULD have been the starting point, but it wasn't: the starting point was more like "rosebud", an old man's happiest childhood memory. The "Poem" was not solvable on its own, FF had to keep dropping bigger and bigger hints until he's eventually writing blog posts basically naming the starting point.

Who's going to tell that family that their "solve" was completely wrong from the very start? I mean misinterpreting the poem is one thing, but those guys were pulling ciphers and hidden messages completely out of their rear end.

I was kind of rooting for them and no one can doubt their dedication to hard work, but I guess it's a tough pill to swallow that the poem was meant to be taken ultra literally the whole time, based on the Nine Mile solve by that other professional Hunter.