Man Goes Missing In Search of Art Dealer's Hidden Treasure-Moral of the Story, if you want to find treasure with minimal risk, visit culturalpatina.com. February 3, 2016 09:02

Santa Fe art and antiques dealer Forrest Fenn, 85, wrote a memoir in 2010 with a mysterious poem containing clues about where he hid a $3 million treasure trove. An estimated 65,000 people have gone searching in the Rocky Mountains for Fenn's 12th-century bronze chest supposedly filled with gold nuggets, jewels, jade carvings and artifacts.

Randy Bilyeu, 54, is a recent adventurer who has gone missing along the frozen Rio Grande in northern New Mexico while in search of the "Fenn Treasure."

Bilyeu, who set off on January 5, was reported missing nine days later. His dog and raft were located, but authorities' search efforts have since been called off. Author Fenn, and other volunteers, are continuing private efforts to find the missing man.

“I’ve said many times not to look for the treasure any place where an 80-year-old man couldn’t put it,” Fenn said earlier this month.

Fenn's The Thrill of the Chase reads:

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 canyons 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 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.