Chasing the Thrill: Obsession, Death, and Glory in America's Most Extraordinary Treasure Hunt

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars | 302 ratings

Price: 15.75

Last update: 02-24-2025


About this item

"Daniel Barbarisi plunges into an adventure from another era when he goes in search of buried treasure, guided only by a cryptic poem, a mischievous art collector, and the footsteps another pursuer who died on the quest.... Every page draws you deeper into this no-man’s-land where fortune - or tragedy - awaits." (Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run)

When Forrest Fenn was given a fatal cancer diagnosis, he came up with a bold plan: He would hide a chest full of jewels and gold in the wilderness, and publish a poem that would serve as a map leading to the treasure's secret location. But he didn't die, and after hiding the treasure in 2010, Fenn instead presided over a decade-long gold rush that saw many thousands of treasure hunters scrambling across the Rocky Mountains in pursuit of his fortune.

Daniel Barbarisi first learned of Fenn's hunt in 2017, when a friend became consumed with decoding the poem and convinced Barbarisi, a reporter, to document his search. What began as an attempt to capture the inner workings of Fenn's hunt quickly turned into a personal quest that led Barbarisi down a reckless and potentially dangerous path, one that found him embroiled in searcher conspiracies and matching wits with Fenn himself. Over the course of four chaotic years, several searchers would die, endless controversies would erupt, and one hunter would ultimately find the chest.

But the mystery didn't end there.

Full of intrigue, danger, and break-neck action, Chasing the Thrill is a riveting tale of desire, obsession, and unbridled adventure.


Top reviews from the United States

  • BILL NNJ
    5.0 out of 5 stars WORTH THE TIME
    Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2021
    I found this book more interesting than I origianlly thought it would be. The author is a very good writer, in my opinion, and the story is easy to follow and is one that kept my interest. I enjoyed the background information on all the main characters and it made the story all the more interesting, Not only was it a good mystery regarding the treasure everyone was looking for but it aptly described the outdoor settings as they related to each persons' ideas as to why they were looking where they were and their motivations and thought processes. This may make you think twice about people in general and perhaps make you a bit more weary of some people and save you from those with motivations that are less than pure.
  • Wayne A. Smith
    4.0 out of 5 stars Modern Day Treasure Hunt
    Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2021
    This is an interesting and quirky book about the hunt for Forrest Fenn's treasure.

    Just found within the last year, the Fenn Treasure was an antique chest filled with coins, gold, gems, and jewelry hidden "somewhere in the Rocky Mountains more than 10 miles north of Santa Fe." So said Forrest Fenn, an adventurer and egotist who created American's most famous contemporary treasure hunt - one that captivated thousands (the exact number unknown) over the last ten years.

    Foster Fenn lived a life of risk and adventure. A pilot shot down twice during the Vietnam War, he became an aggressive commercial archaeologist finding, collecting, and selling treasures and building himself a fortune (and massive ego) in the process. Given a prognosis of death, Fenn decided to immortalize himself with a treasure hunt. A poem connected to his life story was a challenge to any adventurer who wanted to try his luck at puzzle solving and outdoor immersion that would lead to a million-dollar plus treasure chest and Fenn's body. He initially planned to lie down and die next to his treasure. Fortunately for readers of this book, he got better and the death part of the hunt fell away. Fenn published his challenge and the poem and set off a hunt that lasted a decade. It resulted in several deaths by seekers and controversies, got thousands of people into the outdoors, and created a community of Fenn hunters who immersed themselves to various levels in hunting for the treasure.

    Author and journalist Daniel Barbarisi (Wall St. Journal among others) fell into the Fenn world through a friend he had chronicled in a book exploring the fantasy sports culture. He and Beep (his friend's moniker) fell hard for the Fenn puzzle and hunt. Realizing after a while that the odds meant he wasn't going to be the one to solve the puzzle, Barbarisi decided to chronicle Fenn, the hunters and the community that grew up around the Fenn Treasure.

    The result is this book that details the character and ego of Forrest Fenn, treasurer hunters sympathetic, tragic and just plain weird who gave their lives to the hunt; and the controversies and psychology that surrounded a decade long minor-mania. That mania ended in the last year with the solve. I enjoyed the book. The writing is crisp, and the story moves along. Fortunately, Fenn is captivating, open enough to provide insight into his motives and interaction with the world he created but not without controversy and mystery. The author details interesting hunters whom he got to know and hunt with in his pursuit of the inside story to Fenn World. There are also plenty of outdoor scenes that give glimpses of the natural wonders available for those who get off the beaten path in five or so states. I enjoyed the ride and this book.
  • David S
    5.0 out of 5 stars An inside look at modern treasure hunters
    Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2021
    If, in the back of your mind, you still hold out hope that you’ll find an ancient treasure map one day while cleaning out your parents’ attic, then “Chasing the Thrill” is for you!

    Barbarisi takes you on his own journey as he and a friend hunt for Forrest Fenn’s treasure, meeting many of the other quirky characters involved in the search along the way. By the end, you feel like you’ve really gotten a window into the mindset of some of the treasure hunters, with all the emotional ups and downs that entails. The book also takes you through the history of treasure hunting and some of its larger-than-life personalities.

    Barbarisi is able to step back at times and ask critical questions about Fenn, the chase, and some of its other participants, which is probably why you see negative reviews from some of them here. Don’t listen to them; this book is a great read!
  • 5584755211455
    3.0 out of 5 stars Light read
    Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2021
    I've been following the Forrest Fenn treasure hunt for a couple of years but I am not deep into it. The author Barbarisi has been closely involved with the alleged finder of the treasure so I was hoping to find out a lot I didn't know in this book. The book is a light read and probably interesting to those that aren't knowledgeable on the Chase. There were a few new things I learned, but the problem is that the new info is a sentence here and there interspersed between a lot of pages of things that are not directly about this chase. He talks a bit about other chases, or other happenings that I thought distracted from the book. It is like he was paid by the word. How he handles time is also confusing, there's flash forwards and flash backs and it is not good for chronology. He paints some of the chase community in an overly flattering like (like Cynthia Meachum) and some in a distinctly unflattering or unfair light (Stephanie Thirtyacre). Some of the people I hadn't heard of before, they must no longer be active in the community, and since they didn't find the treasure it was wasted reading when he spent excessive time on their stories. The handling of the people that died was okay, but again, he seemed to gloss over some of those stories while spending more time on other things that didn't have to do with the chase. The author is the only person besides the finder of the treasure that has seen the treasure chest besides Forrest Fenn, finder and attorneys since it was recovered but yet he didn't add a whole lot and there were zero pictures in the book. There are rumors that the author is part of the cover up or the fake findings and I can't tell from reading if there's any validity to that. The overall writing style is not bad but the chronology and the depth of what the author chooses to spend time on all distracted from the story. I think it is an okay introduction to the Forrest Fenn Treasure Hunt and will give you some background. For those at all involved deeper in this community, it will not tell you much that you don't know and it leaves out a lot of things. It also doesn't really address things since it was found, many in the community believe the whole "ending" to the hunt was a fraud and this doesn't touch on that. There's also various points that people say are not true that are mentioned so I don't know how much fact checking he did with people he writes about. It doesn't give much more info on where or how it was found, the Medium articles give more info on that. It also doesn't give much insight into Forrest Fenn. Overall, it was a decent read. I finished it in a couple days, but only have a few notes in it. I would pass it on to someone looking for a beach read but no big reveals in this book.

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