A theory on what is really going on

[CRM114]

No doubt this ending is a convoluted mess. We all seem to suspect something isn't right. Those of us who believe Forrest did not create such a simple-minded solution such as NMH hole which also goes against a lot of what Forrest told us are faced with evidence of "the log" and that Jack was searching NMH. But there is strong evidence against NMH. Many things don't add up. The shadows in the chest are impossible if it was in the location the evidence points to. If the log is accepted as proof it was there, these shadows must be explained too, but so must a mountain of thinge against NMH that don't make sense offered in this forum before and this thread:

https://www.hintofriches.com/forum/the-hint-of-riches/486572-legalese-and-other-things

The theory below neatly explains it all in a way I can live with if true. There may be flaws in it, but maybe it's a start. It seems to piece together conflicting information in a way that makes it fit when nothing else makes sense. Its a simplified version of what others have suspected, but a key ingredient makes it much easier to swallow.

Dec 7, 2019 - Forrest emails Dal, exasperated by the Chase, telling Dal he wants to tell everyone he's going to end it and retrieve it and lists numerous compelling reasons why in a rough draft statement. I trust Dal that this happened. Dal wisely talks Forrest back from the ledge with what-ifs (imagine the chaos if Forrest did what he was contemplating in that email - Forrest announcing he would retrieve it before he even retreived it).

Forrest chews on it, but is determined to make it end. (I can't see him stopping after writing that email to Dal, can you?) He concocts a plan. He gets trusted legal help - we will call him Mr. FixIt, but he (or she) is likely a lawyer. Forrest sets the plan in motion, Mr. Fix-it has the keys to the kingdom, the coordinates of the chest, and perhaps Fenns email account. He need not know the solve. The family needn't know anything. If anyone has high incentive to keep secrets, it's a lawyer. If anyone can legally keep secrets, it's a lawyer - attorney client privilege. Even Fenn can have some plausible deniability, depending on how much Mr Fixit handles. Fenn needn't know details.

Jack is selected for whatever reason from those searching a popular, believable spot, perhaps by MrFixit alone via Fenns email account. Who better to select than a searcher? We know Jack had a lot more contact with Forrest from the McCracken case than we were led to believe. Mr. Fix-it tells Jack about how Forrest wants to end it, but he still wants someone to have it. Jack is told he was the closest, and he can thus have it if he wants it, on one condition - he can't disclose that he didn't actually dig it up. Who among us would pass that up? It's sure a lot cleaner and way less risky than hiring someone to pretend to be a finder as some have speculated. Why not just pick a searcher, and offer it to them? It only involves one possible lie, Jack may or may not be closest mentally, but Mr Fixit has no idea who is close to solving the real location, maybe noone really is, so maybe it's not even a lie. It can't be anyone close to Forrest, a younger, smart person who worked hard on it seems like a good candidate. Contrary to what some believe, neither Fenn nor the family want the chest, they just want the nightmare over. It was already given away, Mr FixIt is just expediting things. Jack wins the lotto.

Jack's story becomes the finder's story. It was revealed in McCracken that Forrest received emails from Jack about Nine Mile Hole. Jack was convinced it was there, it appears. From McCracken I think I recall Jack may have even gone to Santa Fe in 2019? Jack is the perfect selection because of the illegalities of it all in YNP, and Jack as Condor2 on Reddit was well-aware of the "legal shitshow" as he put it. Nobody searching in YNP is going to be a candidate to blab the location due to the legal issues. Mr. FixIt assures Jack he will have the chest retreived for him so he won't have to retrieve it. It's explained that it's better that way because they could get sued if Jack injures himself or gets arrested digging things up. It's better if Mr. Fenn retrieves his own property for many reasons via Mr. Fixit. Jack is thus not even liable for not reporting it to the park ranger. Jack has one minor secret to keep - he didn't actually have to dig it up. No doubt a big relief.

Mr FixIt or someone FixIt trusts retrieves the chest, snapping a photo with the lid partway open in the real location, at a minimum. It's a real first look into the chest buried for ten years, spider webs and all, that becomes one of the McCracken photos. The problem is that it wasn't at Nine Mile Hole. Fixit or his associate goes to Nine Mile Hole and stages a shot there - either a shots with the real, perhaps now empty chest, or something to photoshop the chest into.
Photos are given to Jack to email to Fenn in anticipation of lawsuits that Jack was not the real finder or it was a hoax, etc. Jack is happy to see "the nook" at NMH. That spot he "just missed."

August 2020 arrives and YNP is perhaps asking questions, or Jack wants to legitimize the chest as much as possible to sell it. Either way, the teleconference with YNP happens. Mr Fixit levels with Sarah Davis that the Chase was ended early, but she is only relieved since searchers have been a PITA for years, in fact her only concern is she doesn't want the real location to be known. Jack is excused from the call since the rest doesn't involve him. The location is on "lands administered by the Department of Interior" but not on YNP lands. All that money Fenn spent on lawyers at the start paid off, since it was all legal at this location, and Sarah can't file any charges - she is relieved she doesn't have to, but she still doesn't want this location disclosed. She can report to her superiors that no laws were broken as far as NPS is concerned. Mr Fixit, Fenn and of course Jack agree to not disclose anything. It's in everyone's best interest. MrFixit though, does say there are photos at NMH in emails as he needs legal protection from people who say it was a hoax, and those may ultimately be disclosed in court if discovery gets that far. Sarah understands and agrees - she doesn't have much choice, or maybe she doesn't care if they emerge.

Months pass, but searchers just aren't giving up as expected. Jack tells his story, mostly truthfully as he knows it. MrFixit has protected him from knowing the real truth. As far as he knows, he was within steps. But searchers won't stop asking questions.

Some are working in the background. For some inexplicable reason, Jack had posted the first Remembrance story under Condor2 on Reddit, prompting Redditors to dig into his prior posts. I have not verified this but people I trust say it's true - a very dumb idea if true. In any event when Jack reveals himself, it's trivial to connect posts he made as Condor2 well before he entered the Chase to Jack Steuf. Mr Fixit becomes aware that Jack's search area is leaking, but he embraces the opportunity to get rid of more curious searchers. It's OK with Sarah Davis, as far as she's concerned "the nook" is just a bunch of logs in a former burn area next to a highway, not the real area she wants protected. They can monitor this NMH from the highway if searchers get out of hand. Its in her best interest for people to think it's NMH. Fixit leaks the location as "Nine Mile Hole" to our esteemed Chase Celebrities. Searchers will get a viable location, and more will go away.

Meanwhile, chase celebrities, fresh off the embarrassing fiasco of believing and pushing the GPS solve are quite eager to receive inside information on the "real location." But this time they turn out to be "right," about everything - "vindicaaaayshun!!" , as one Chase celebrity put it in a video. One Chase celebrity oddly posts a photo of a chest lid next to a log well before the McCracken photos emerge. This celebrity seems to have supernatural abilities when the photos do emerge. In fact, several Chase Celebrities seems privvy to uncannily accurate information before anyone else, all orchestrated by Mr. Fixit.

McCracken lawsuit sure enough discloses the photos. The National Park Service has intervened in the lawsuit but strangely doesn't care about this - they seem to be protecting something else. Searchers realize if you find the log in the McCracken photo, you find the spot and begin hunting.

Sure enough, the log is found, and quickly. There's only one problem - the shadows are not right, as detailed before. MrFixit staged the log photos on a north pointing log instead of an east-west pointing log like the picture he took at the real location. The shadows cannot be explained. Oops.

[CRM114]

I dunno, but this explains A LOT of the oddness for me. I can think of a few details that could be different, depending on what happened when, but it's the first thing I've thought of that explains the bulk of conflicting information. It solves a lot of bothersome problems:

1. Forrest protects his family instead of just ignoring the problem after sending Dal that exasperated email
2. Those of us that believe Forrest didn't write a deeply unsatisfactory solve about a fish that goes against everything he assured us about the Chase are satisfied. All the disturbing lack of any use of any subtle hints, aberrations from the book, or even half the poem in the solution that is NMH is explained, as is its peculiar rise out of nowhere despite its very unsatisfying solution. Also explained is why it is being pushed.
3. Jack is innocent and not a liar - he tells the truth as he knows it, albeit its a tainted truth. As far as he knows, he effectively solved it. The strange things he has said that conflict with things Forrest told us are explained. Consider that all words of public finder Jack were after the NPS meeting. Whatever he disclosed is already pre-approved by Sarah Davis, in effect (and FixIt, if my theory is correct). No matter what you believe about the ending, Jack's words must be taken with a spoonful of salt. They are filtered. Those words about the damaged blaze seemed to have been key in finding "the log." Sarah Davis didn't appear to care that this was divulged just days after their teleconference. In this theory, that makes sense.
4. The family is innocent, and not complicit in any conspiracy. As far as they know, Jack is the finder. Depending on how much Fixit handled, even Fenn had plausible deniability, and did nothing illegal.
5. MrFixit knows the real location, but perhaps not the solve. The solve probably died with Fenn, unless a rumored recording is unearthed. It's oddly comforting to me to think there is a satisfying solve out there to be found and maybe nobody truly knows it.
6. The strange behavior of the National Park Service in not charging Forrest or Jack with a crime, not caring if McCracken posts photos, not apparently caring if people find the log and then go on to steal the log at the "nook" is explained. It's in their best interest to centralize the hangers on where they cant do much damage. But they are not lying when they say the chest was "on lands administered by the Department of the Interior" and they want to keep it from being divulged. Only they and Mr Fixit know the true location, and neither will talk.
7. The unquestioning surety of Chase celebrities that NMH is right despite it being unsatisfying and the source of their seemingly uncanny predictions are explained.
8. Even Dal's disappearance is explained. As I understand it, Dal knows something isnt right and was opening his mouth, and probably received a letter from MrFixit to stop. Dal would understandably be put off by this after all he did for Fenn, but Fenn had no choice but to keep him in the dark about the new plan. Fenn was actually protecting Dal.
9. The log is explained, and the impossible shadows inside the chest are explained. At the real location, the chest was facing southish, not east, and the photos were taken in the morning, with the sun rising to the east. It probably was against a log, and MrFixit replicated that at the nook, but just forgot one minor detail - the direction of the chest makes a difference to the shadows. Oops.

Best of all, there needn't be some big conspiracy, just the small one, and a very clean and almost riskless one for Fenn. Fenn was exasperated, wanted to protect his family, probably knew he was dying and did what it took before he died. He solved the problem, with Mr Fixit. The conspiracy is limited to Mr. Fenn and Mr. Fixit, and one is now dead, so two can keep a secret. Most likely, everyone living is bound by the Feds no less not to disclose the truth as they know it - neat.

[Sarah Seedling]

No doubt this ending is a convoluted mess. We all seem to suspect something isn't right. Those of us who believe Forrest did not create such a simple-minded solution such as NMH hole which also goes against a lot of what Forrest told us are faced with evidence of "the log" and that Jack was searching NMH. But there is strong evidence against NMH. Many things don't add up. The shadows in the chest are impossible if it was in the location the evidence points to. If the log is accepted as proof it was there, these shadows must be explained too, but so must a mountain of thinge against NMH that don't make sense offered in this forum before and this thread:

https://www.hintofriches.com/forum/the-hint-of-riches/486572-legalese-and-other-things

The theory below neatly explains it all in a way I can live with if true. There may be flaws in it, but maybe it's a start. It seems to piece together conflicting information in a way that makes it fit when nothing else makes sense. Its a simplified version of what others have suspected, but a key ingredient makes it much easier to swallow.

Dec 7, 2019 - Forrest emails Dal, exasperated by the Chase, telling Dal he wants to tell everyone he's going to end it and retrieve it and lists numerous compelling reasons why in a rough draft statement. I trust Dal that this happened. Dal wisely talks Forrest back from the ledge with what-ifs (imagine the chaos if Forrest did what he was contemplating in that email - Forrest announcing he would retrieve it before he even retreived it).

Forrest chews on it, but is determined to make it end. (I can't see him stopping after writing that email to Dal, can you?) He concocts a plan. He gets trusted legal help - we will call him Mr. FixIt, but he (or she) is likely a lawyer. Forrest sets the plan in motion, Mr. Fix-it has the keys to the kingdom, the coordinates of the chest, and perhaps Fenns email account. He need not know the solve. The family needn't know anything. If anyone has high incentive to keep secrets, it's a lawyer. If anyone can legally keep secrets, it's a lawyer - attorney client privilege. Even Fenn can have some plausible deniability, depending on how much Mr Fixit handles. Fenn needn't know details.

Jack is selected for whatever reason from those searching a popular, believable spot, perhaps by MrFixit alone via Fenns email account. Who better to select than a searcher? We know Jack had a lot more contact with Forrest from the McCracken case than we were led to believe. Mr. Fix-it tells Jack about how Forrest wants to end it, but he still wants someone to have it. Jack is told he was the closest, and he can thus have it if he wants it, on one condition - he can't disclose that he didn't actually dig it up. Who among us would pass that up? It's sure a lot cleaner and way less risky than hiring someone to pretend to be a finder as some have speculated. Why not just pick a searcher, and offer it to them? It only involves one possible lie, Jack may or may not be closest mentally, but Mr Fixit has no idea who is close to solving the real location, maybe noone really is, so maybe it's not even a lie. It can't be anyone close to Forrest, a younger, smart person who worked hard on it seems like a good candidate. Contrary to what some believe, neither Fenn nor the family want the chest, they just want the nightmare over. It was already given away, Mr FixIt is just expediting things. Jack wins the lotto.

Jack's story becomes the finder's story. It was revealed in McCracken that Forrest received emails from Jack about Nine Mile Hole. Jack was convinced it was there, it appears. From McCracken I think I recall Jack may have even gone to Santa Fe in 2019? Jack is the perfect selection because of the illegalities of it all in YNP, and Jack as Condor2 on Reddit was well-aware of the "legal shitshow" as he put it. Nobody searching in YNP is going to be a candidate to blab the location due to the legal issues. Mr. FixIt assures Jack he will have the chest retreived for him so he won't have to retrieve it. It's explained that it's better that way because they could get sued if Jack injures himself or gets arrested digging things up. It's better if Mr. Fenn retrieves his own property for many reasons via Mr. Fixit. Jack is thus not even liable for not reporting it to the park ranger. Jack has one minor secret to keep - he didn't actually have to dig it up. No doubt a big relief.

Mr FixIt or someone FixIt trusts retrieves the chest, snapping a photo with the lid partway open in the real location, at a minimum. It's a real first look into the chest buried for ten years, spider webs and all, that becomes one of the McCracken photos. The problem is that it wasn't at Nine Mile Hole. Fixit or his associate goes to Nine Mile Hole and stages a shot there - either a shots with the real, perhaps now empty chest, or something to photoshop the chest into.
Photos are given to Jack to email to Fenn in anticipation of lawsuits that Jack was not the real finder or it was a hoax, etc. Jack is happy to see "the nook" at NMH. That spot he "just missed."

August 2020 arrives and YNP is perhaps asking questions, or Jack wants to legitimize the chest as much as possible to sell it. Either way, the teleconference with YNP happens. Mr Fixit levels with Sarah Davis that the Chase was ended early, but she is only relieved since searchers have been a PITA for years, in fact her only concern is she doesn't want the real location to be known. Jack is excused from the call since the rest doesn't involve him. The location is on "lands administered by the Department of Interior" but not on YNP lands. All that money Fenn spent on lawyers at the start paid off, since it was all legal at this location, and Sarah can't file any charges - she is relieved she doesn't have to, but she still doesn't want this location disclosed. She can report to her superiors that no laws were broken as far as NPS is concerned. Mr Fixit, Fenn and of course Jack agree to not disclose anything. It's in everyone's best interest. MrFixit though, does say there are photos at NMH in emails as he needs legal protection from people who say it was a hoax, and those may ultimately be disclosed in court if discovery gets that far. Sarah understands and agrees - she doesn't have much choice, or maybe she doesn't care if they emerge.

Months pass, but searchers just aren't giving up as expected. Jack tells his story, mostly truthfully as he knows it. MrFixit has protected him from knowing the real truth. As far as he knows, he was within steps. But searchers won't stop asking questions.

Some are working in the background. For some inexplicable reason, Jack had posted the first Remembrance story under Condor2 on Reddit, prompting Redditors to dig into his prior posts. I have not verified this but people I trust say it's true - a very dumb idea if true. In any event when Jack reveals himself, it's trivial to connect posts he made as Condor2 well before he entered the Chase to Jack Steuf. Mr Fixit becomes aware that Jack's search area is leaking, but he embraces the opportunity to get rid of more curious searchers. It's OK with Sarah Davis, as far as she's concerned "the nook" is just a bunch of logs in a former burn area next to a highway, not the real area she wants protected. They can monitor this NMH from the highway if searchers get out of hand. Its in her best interest for people to think it's NMH. Fixit leaks the location as "Nine Mile Hole" to our esteemed Chase Celebrities. Searchers will get a viable location, and more will go away.

Meanwhile, chase celebrities, fresh off the embarrassing fiasco of believing and pushing the GPS solve are quite eager to receive inside information on the "real location." But this time they turn out to be "right," about everything - "vindicaaaayshun!!" , as one Chase celebrity put it in a video. One Chase celebrity oddly posts a photo of a chest lid next to a log well before the McCracken photos emerge. This celebrity seems to have supernatural abilities when the photos do emerge. In fact, several Chase Celebrities seems privvy to uncannily accurate information before anyone else, all orchestrated by Mr. Fixit.

McCracken lawsuit sure enough discloses the photos. The National Park Service has intervened in the lawsuit but strangely doesn't care about this - they seem to be protecting something else. Searchers realize if you find the log in the McCracken photo, you find the spot and begin hunting.

Sure enough, the log is found, and quickly. There's only one problem - the shadows are not right, as detailed before. MrFixit staged the log photos on a north pointing log instead of an east-west pointing log like the picture he took at the real location. The shadows cannot be explained. Oops.

This makes a nice fictional story but noone is going to believe it. Is as full of holes as an old tin can in some dried up arroyo.

[Space Hopper]

It would be kinda nice to think that Jack found the treasure and the Fenn family get to live happily ever after.

I can live with that.

[CRM114]

This makes a nice fictional story but noone is going to believe it. Is as full of holes as an old tin can in some dried up arroyo.

Well, pardner, I reckon I don't give much more than than a jar o chaw-spit for opinions like that that ain't backed up. They way I figure it, I'll call ya to name yer best hole. Not all of em, just yer best. I reckon if you got a good one, yer holdin a good hand, if not, the rest ain't worth nothin neither.

[Sarah Seedling]

Well, pardner, I reckon I don't give much more than than a jar o chaw-spit for opinions like that that ain't backed up. They way I figure it, I'll call ya to name yer best hole. Not all of em, just yer best. I reckon if you got a good one, yer holdin a good hand, if not, the rest ain't worth nothin neither.

You, pardner can take that tin can and throw it in he air and I will shoot every hole out, that’s how accurate I am.

[CRM114]

I reckon yous jest flappin yer gums again, pardner, an ifn I threw up that tin can, yew'd claim you shot threw them holes without touchin nothin, when in reality yewda done missed by a country mile.

[MZ007]

I'm not a fan of NMH for a variety of reasons, as in: What's so special about the spot out in a field of downed logs from the '88 fires? Would a person go there to die just to be eaten up by scavengers? (the first to arrive are the ravens, but what they do- even if the animal/person is still alive a bit, I'll leave to the imagination) It would be difficult to trek into an area like that in a national park without being spotted or observed by onlookers or rangers wonder "What's that guy up to?"

OTOH, there is some credible evidence: the downed logs, the charred soil from forest fires, and the lodgepole pine needles. But there is one other thing that really stands out, and it appears to be a mountain reflection (upside down) on the near plastic bag in the TC. There is clearly blue sky overhead, and there is what appears to be a ridgeline with trees. (See photo). And some of those mountains aligning the Madison River Valley in NMH sure look similar.

Doesn't that look like a peak on the right against blue sky, and as you follow the ridgeline down to the left you see rock outcroppings and the tops of conifer trees, probably Englemann Spruce (in higher elevations)?

[CRM114]

I'm not a fan of NMH for a variety of reasons, as in: What's so special about the spot out in a field of downed logs from the '88 fires? Would a person go there to die just to be eaten up by scavengers? (the first to arrive are the ravens, but what they do- even if the animal/person is still alive a bit, I'll leave to the imagination) It would be difficult to trek into an area like that in a national park without being spotted or observed by onlookers or rangers wonder "What's that guy up to?"

OTOH, there is some credible evidence: the downed logs, the charred soil from forest fires, and the lodgepole pine needles. But there is one other thing that really stands out, and it appears to be a mountain reflection (upside down) on the near plastic bag in the TC. There is clearly blue sky overhead, and there is what appears to be a ridgeline with trees. (See photo). And some of those mountains aligning the Madison River Valley in NMH sure look similar.

Doesn't that look like a peak on the right against blue sky, and as you follow the ridgeline down to the left you see rock outcroppings and the tops of conifer trees, probably Englemann Spruce (in higher elevations)?

I'm not sure I've seen that before. It does sorta look like a peak and Ridgeline with conifers (I don't think I'd go so far as to identify species). Which pic is this from?

If true, I thinks it's a problem for NMH, as opposed to a confirmation. A screens hot of a video from "the nook" is below. If any mountains, are visible, they are mostly blocked by trees. There are trees all around. That's not the case with this apparent ridgeline

[Sarah Seedling]

I reckon yous jest flappin yer gums again, pardner, an ifn I threw up that tin can, yew'd claim you shot threw them holes without touchin nothin, when in reality yewda done missed by a country mile.

well pilgrim, it’s not what you know it’s what you can prove

[Suzy]

I dunno, but this explains A LOT of the oddness for me. I can think of a few details that could be different, depending on what happened when, but it's the first thing I've thought of that explains the bulk of conflicting information. It solves a lot of bothersome problems:

1. Forrest protects his family instead of just ignoring the problem after sending Dal that exasperated email
2. Those of us that believe Forrest didn't write a deeply unsatisfactory solve about a fish that goes against everything he assured us about the Chase are satisfied. All the disturbing lack of any use of any subtle hints, aberrations from the book, or even half the poem in the solution that is NMH is explained, as is its peculiar rise out of nowhere despite its very unsatisfying solution. Also explained is why it is being pushed.
3. Jack is innocent and not a liar - he tells the truth as he knows it, albeit its a tainted truth. As far as he knows, he effectively solved it. The strange things he has said that conflict with things Forrest told us are explained. Consider that all words of public finder Jack were after the NPS meeting. Whatever he disclosed is already pre-approved by Sarah Davis, in effect (and FixIt, if my theory is correct). No matter what you believe about the ending, Jack's words must be taken with a spoonful of salt. They are filtered. Those words about the damaged blaze seemed to have been key in finding "the log." Sarah Davis didn't appear to care that this was divulged just days after their teleconference. In this theory, that makes sense.
4. The family is innocent, and not complicit in any conspiracy. As far as they know, Jack is the finder. Depending on how much Fixit handled, even Fenn had plausible deniability, and did nothing illegal.
5. MrFixit knows the real location, but perhaps not the solve. The solve probably died with Fenn, unless a rumored recording is unearthed. It's oddly comforting to me to think there is a satisfying solve out there to be found and maybe nobody truly knows it.
6. The strange behavior of the National Park Service in not charging Forrest or Jack with a crime, not caring if McCracken posts photos, not apparently caring if people find the log and then go on to steal the log at the "nook" is explained. It's in their best interest to centralize the hangers on where they cant do much damage. But they are not lying when they say the chest was "on lands administered by the Department of the Interior" and they want to keep it from being divulged. Only they and Mr Fixit know the true location, and neither will talk.
7. The unquestioning surety of Chase celebrities that NMH is right despite it being unsatisfying and the source of their seemingly uncanny predictions are explained.
8. Even Dal's disappearance is explained. As I understand it, Dal knows something isnt right and was opening his mouth, and probably received a letter from MrFixit to stop. Dal would understandably be put off by this after all he did for Fenn, but Fenn had no choice but to keep him in the dark about the new plan. Fenn was actually protecting Dal.
9. The log is explained, and the impossible shadows inside the chest are explained. At the real location, the chest was facing southish, not east, and the photos were taken in the morning, with the sun rising to the east. It probably was against a log, and MrFixit replicated that at the nook, but just forgot one minor detail - the direction of the chest makes a difference to the shadows. Oops.

Best of all, there needn't be some big conspiracy, just the small one, and a very clean and almost riskless one for Fenn. Fenn was exasperated, wanted to protect his family, probably knew he was dying and did what it took before he died. He solved the problem, with Mr Fixit. The conspiracy is limited to Mr. Fenn and Mr. Fixit, and one is now dead, so two can keep a secret. Most likely, everyone living is bound by the Feds no less not to disclose the truth as they know it - neat.

CRM, maybe I missed something . . . but how in heck were you able to read through that original lengthy post, and then reply with a lengthy post, in the period of 4 minutes flat? Did I miss the bus for the time warp escapade?

[Old blue]

Or from dr strange glove

[Yellerstain]

I dunno, but this explains A LOT of the oddness for me. I can think of a few details that could be different, depending on what happened when, but it's the first thing I've thought of that explains the bulk of conflicting information. It solves a lot of bothersome problems:

1. Forrest protects his family instead of just ignoring the problem after sending Dal that exasperated email
2. Those of us that believe Forrest didn't write a deeply unsatisfactory solve about a fish that goes against everything he assured us about the Chase are satisfied. All the disturbing lack of any use of any subtle hints, aberrations from the book, or even half the poem in the solution that is NMH is explained, as is its peculiar rise out of nowhere despite its very unsatisfying solution. Also explained is why it is being pushed.
3. Jack is innocent and not a liar - he tells the truth as he knows it, albeit its a tainted truth. As far as he knows, he effectively solved it. The strange things he has said that conflict with things Forrest told us are explained. Consider that all words of public finder Jack were after the NPS meeting. Whatever he disclosed is already pre-approved by Sarah Davis, in effect (and FixIt, if my theory is correct). No matter what you believe about the ending, Jack's words must be taken with a spoonful of salt. They are filtered. Those words about the damaged blaze seemed to have been key in finding "the log." Sarah Davis didn't appear to care that this was divulged just days after their teleconference. In this theory, that makes sense.
4. The family is innocent, and not complicit in any conspiracy. As far as they know, Jack is the finder. Depending on how much Fixit handled, even Fenn had plausible deniability, and did nothing illegal.
5. MrFixit knows the real location, but perhaps not the solve. The solve probably died with Fenn, unless a rumored recording is unearthed. It's oddly comforting to me to think there is a satisfying solve out there to be found and maybe nobody truly knows it.
6. The strange behavior of the National Park Service in not charging Forrest or Jack with a crime, not caring if McCracken posts photos, not apparently caring if people find the log and then go on to steal the log at the "nook" is explained. It's in their best interest to centralize the hangers on where they cant do much damage. But they are not lying when they say the chest was "on lands administered by the Department of the Interior" and they want to keep it from being divulged. Only they and Mr Fixit know the true location, and neither will talk.
7. The unquestioning surety of Chase celebrities that NMH is right despite it being unsatisfying and the source of their seemingly uncanny predictions are explained.
8. Even Dal's disappearance is explained. As I understand it, Dal knows something isnt right and was opening his mouth, and probably received a letter from MrFixit to stop. Dal would understandably be put off by this after all he did for Fenn, but Fenn had no choice but to keep him in the dark about the new plan. Fenn was actually protecting Dal.
9. The log is explained, and the impossible shadows inside the chest are explained. At the real location, the chest was facing southish, not east, and the photos were taken in the morning, with the sun rising to the east. It probably was against a log, and MrFixit replicated that at the nook, but just forgot one minor detail - the direction of the chest makes a difference to the shadows. Oops.

Best of all, there needn't be some big conspiracy, just the small one, and a very clean and almost riskless one for Fenn. Fenn was exasperated, wanted to protect his family, probably knew he was dying and did what it took before he died. He solved the problem, with Mr Fixit. The conspiracy is limited to Mr. Fenn and Mr. Fixit, and one is now dead, so two can keep a secret. Most likely, everyone living is bound by the Feds no less not to disclose the truth as they know it - neat.

Judging from some of the responses, you have touched a nerve. Someone wants to distract from and discredit your post… now why would that be? Constructive criticism is one thing but trying to belittle you is completely uncalled for… and worth looking closer into, IMO.

[YNP Solve]

Well, pardner, I reckon I don't give much more than than a jar o chaw-spit for opinions like that that ain't backed up. They way I figure it, I'll call ya to name yer best hole. Not all of em, just yer best. I reckon if you got a good one, yer holdin a good hand, if not, the rest ain't worth nothin neither.

I like the ideas in your original post and in your follow-up post. You may well be right.

I would love to respond to your post in more detail, however many of the threads I comment on have a habit of disappearing. Even if I did comment, it's likely my comments would be blocked or deleted — that's just the way it is.

[MZ007]

Good point, CRM. I was thinking the same thing about the numerous trees that would block the view. Plus you might think that towering pine branches might even be evident in the reflection. That pic was from the very first find photo.