The hunt for a $2 million treasure buried at the foot of the mountain.

An American millionaire buried a treasure at the foot of a mountain and then wrote a book revealing clues to help people find it.

Millionaire Forrest Fenn. Photo: NPR.

Forrest Fenn, an 85-year-old millionaire, is a successful art dealer and archaeologist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. According to NPR, Fenn orchestrated one of the biggest treasure hunts of modern times when he claimed to have buried a chest of treasure worth over $2 million, filled with gold coins, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and other valuable artifacts, in the Rocky Mountains.

Fenn left clues to the treasure's burial place in the form of a poem in his book "The Thrill of the Chase" and some hints on a website dedicated to the treasure hunt. Six years after the book was published, an estimated 65,000 people have joined the search, but no one has yet discovered the treasure's location.

Clues to the treasure were scarce. The poem contained some cryptic hints such as "where the warm waters temporarily cease" and "placed beneath Brown's house." Fenn revealed the treasure was buried at an altitude of over 1,500 meters in the Rocky Mountains, between Santa Fe and the Canadian border. It was not in a mine, cemetery, or construction site. The treasure was a chest measuring 25.4 cm x 25.4 cm, weighing approximately 18 kg.

According to Mother Nature Network, Fenn claims his motivation is to help people feel happier after the Great Depression, encouraging them to get off their couches and enjoy the outdoors. Fenn has the means to bury treasure and is a comfortably living millionaire.

The treasure hoard was filled with gold coins, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and many other precious artifacts. (Illustration: NPR)

Many people believe the story of the treasure is a hoax, fabricated to help Fenn sell his memoir, but Fenn's friends disagree with these criticisms. Doug Preston, a longtime friend of Fenn's, claims to have seen the treasure chest before it was buried.

"I'm 100% confident Fenn would never pull a scam. I'm certain he buried the treasure chest," Preston said.

Treasure hunters searched everywhere, from Yellowstone National Park to the Rio Grande. Meanwhile, Fenn was busy answering nearly 100 emails daily from people asking for more clues.

"No one knows where the treasure is buried except me. If I die tomorrow, the information about the treasure's location will go into my coffin with me," Fenn said.

According to VNE