Synopses & Reviews
A full-throttle, first-person account of the treasure hunt created by eccentric millionaire art dealer — and, some would say, robber baron—Forrest Fenn that became the stuff of contemporary legend.
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.
Review
“Chasing the Thrill lives where all the best stories reside, on that thin edge between amazing and impossible. 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. Thanks to Barbarisi’s skill, every page draws you deeper into this no-man’s-land where fortune — or tragedy — awaits.” Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run
Review
“Chasing the Thrill swept me up from the start and pulled me into a treasure hunt of surprising strangeness and danger — all true! — written with an intoxicating mix of clear-eyed journalism and down-the-rabbit-hole obsession, a riptide of a book right to the unexpected event at the end. What more is there to want?” Michael Finkel, author of The Stranger in the Woods
Review
“Chasing the Thrill is a fantastic tale made of all the best ingredients: adventure, obsession, compulsion, extreme characters, high stakes, big wilderness, and at its center: the race to find an elusive hidden treasure. Dan Barbarisi tells this story from the inside, as a participant swept up in a zany mystery. I devoured this book in one sitting.“ Susan Casey, author of Voices in the Ocean
Review
“This tale of the most consuming treasure hunt in modern American history, and of the man who created it, is utterly captivating and thoroughly entertaining. Daniel Barbarisi gives the reader a satisfying sense of how deeply being part of a treasure hunt — beginning with believing that there is a treasure to hunt — summons the human spirit back to a faith most adults lost in childhood. At the same time, he reminds us just how close that faith is to madness.” Randall Sullivan, author of The Curse of Oak Island
Video
Watch the Powell’s virtual event with Daniel Barbarisi and Jason Gay!
About the Author
Daniel Barbarisi is the author of Dueling with Kings. He is currently a Senior Editor at The Athletic, after years as a reporter at The Wall Street Journal and The Providence Journal. He resides with his wife and two sons outside Boston, Massachusetts.