My Perspective From Here (Simplified)

[Gunrunner]

I'm a big fan of the triangle theory. And specific named geographical points. But the one problem is, people solved the first 2 clues and were within 500ft and went right past the next clue. The other problem is when they were there. They had the wrong theory to the solve. It was coincidence. That's another reason why NMH is not it. Would Forrest go across that stream to propose to Peggy? To spread his fathers ashes? To entomb himself in a nonstructural area? What ever the reason he picked the spot. It was so personal to him that he never talked about it. I think it could be where he contemplated suicide after the war.

I don't think Forrest ever said solving two clues would get you within 500 feet, but the photo of the Red Bus is at a pullout only a thousand feet or so from the treasure location. Going-to-the-Sun Road is the only road through the park, and if you start at Logan Pass for your wwwh and go down the canyon to Mount Brown, you will pass right by this spot -- Red Rock Point at the western base of Mount Cannon. If you happened to have Fenn's poem in mind here you might see the little waterfall coming down the cliff face and think that little creek had heavy loads (Cannon) and water high, and you might leave the road and try going up the creek to the bottom of the waterfall. Maybe you would get within 500 feet that way, but you wouldn't be in the wood, you'd be at the bottom of a cliff. As you said, they would have had the wrong theory -- if they had triangulated to get there they would have known they were going to have to go in the other way and get higher up the mountainside.

I think the reason he picked the spot had everything to do with his rescue from the Laotian jungle. While he was thinking about hiding a treasure and writing his poem, construction of the Air Force Memorial was being held up by bureaucratic wrangling in Washington. I think Forrest decided to single-handedly create a memorial in the first International Peace Park, sort of like Soldierstone in Colorado but with, instead of a monument, a reward for finding the spot. Eventually, they did get the memorial in Washington built and dedicated. It makes a triangle, too.

[Sunburnt1]

I could of put two separate quotes together? But he confirmed people have been within 500ft. And people have solved the first 2 clues and went right past the treasure. Maybe Forrest was a twin and his brother died at birth. The umbilical part of it?

[Gunrunner]

Once I had the poem solved down to a certain point, I knew there was nothing more I could do until I went out there. But that part of the park was closed for the winter, which meant it would be at least eight months before Going-to-the-Sun Road would be open to Avalanche Campground again. I didn't have TTOTC at the time and felt like I already had all the confirmations I needed for my spot, so I didn't pay a lot of attention to the ideas in the chatrooms other than to scour them all to make sure nobody was talking about my spot. It was late in 2017 that I first heard mention on chasechat about turning the book cover upside down and seeing the treasure in the Treasure State. I think it was deeepthnkr or someone like that and the idea didn't get much traction, and it was pretty general, anyway -- I mean, sure, back then Montana seemed like a pretty good place to be, lots of searchers but it's a big state, nothing to worry about.

But then in January 2018 cowlazars put out his "vlog #56." You can see why, for someone whose solve was in Glacier, right up there where that shiniest coin was beaconing everyone's attention, a video from cowlazars like this might cause a little apprehension. Beginning of the search season was still over five months away! Everybody'll have it figured out by then! I checked back at this video day after day for weeks, seeing how many views it got and what kind of comments were left, and I hated Mike Cowling in the depths of my heart, wasn't even a real searcher, the jackass, but what can you do?

Anyway, ya gotta admit, this could easily be mistaken for yet another one of those "aberrations of the edge" or "subtle hints" that Yellowstone solves seem to lack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wBmqCZ6xbU

[Gunrunner]

Dang! If any of y'all had been interested in offering constructive criticism, seems like somebody would've said, "Hey, Gunrunner, if you bend his legs a little you could put Binocular Guy's right foot on the town of Blackfoot, then you could put his other foot down on the Blackfeet Reservation... black feet, get it?"

OK, I've smoothed out Binocular Guy and fixed his feet, and added his head. Want to take a stab at where his head is? Blackfoot Mountain.



It's been almost a year since I first noticed those bubbles over Binocular Guy's head fit the configuration of my solve. All I had to do to orient my triangle was rotate my map 90 degrees right. Starboard, I mean. And lo and behold, there was his body, laid out along the lines of the roads on the east side of Glacier. At the time, it was the most significant confirmation of my solve I had found in years. Didn't get much reaction when I posted it but I figure y'all don't know the odds like I do.

And then, a couple of weeks ago, Zapster posted a photo of the cover of OUAW and there it was, my solve, written in the stars. Something's going on here, folks.

If you haven't read my poem on the first page of this thread, please give it a read.

[Gunrunner]

So in the other thread I suggested that since the star added to the cover of the revised edition might correspond with the added story, "Me and Dizzy Dean," these other stars might represent stories, as well, and I explained my rationale for assigning "The Bullet Comes Home" to the star for Gunsight Mountain -- the bullet comes back to the gun and Forrest gives Dr. Blake a gold star to hang by his mirror.


In the previous post I said that the binocular guy map was the most significant confirmation I had found in years, so that jibes with assigning "The Unfortunate Hiccup" to the nearest, most prominent star, which represents the Mount Brown lookout tower. But there's more to it than that. In the story, Forrest says the guy is "nattily dressed." But Binocular Guy is wearing a baseball cap, not a fedora, and besides, if you look close on the map, you'll see he has Browning on the seat of his pants! Not natty at all! So I'm suspecting the stickman is really Forrest. And listen: Ever since I first saw that doodle I've thought it looked more like a pitcher's windup than a drunk's teeter, and now it makes sense -- it connects to Dizzy Dean up there at the Swiftcurrent lookout. Forrest is delivering a big, fat, lazy one right up the middle that you can knock out of the park.



In a way, I guess I'm glad I never noticed this stuff before the treasure was found because it would have driven me nuts.

Trying to connect these stars with stories to justify the configuration of my lines is a pretty ambitious project and it may turn out there isn't anything there after all, but so far it's looking promising. Maybe "The Long Jump" will be that star on the back that seems to be in the middle of nowhere -- a leap of faith into the dark unseen, floating down into an uncertain environment. Nevertheless, as far as I'm concerned, all of a sudden the cover of OUAW is the smoking gun Forrest left for us to find. So here it is, going on six years since I solved the poem, nearly three years, supposedly, since the treasure was found, and I've just ordered the book yesterday. I have a feeling Forrest was trying to tell me something and I wasn't listening. Or maybe it just wasn't time.