Treasure hunters head to the nation’s first national park in search of treasure.

When most people talk about the treasures of Yellowstone National Park, their thoughts are on the natural world.

For some of the park’s millions of visitors that changed in 2010 when they read a poem promising treasure of an entirely different sort.

The poem was written by Santa Fe, New Mexico, art dealer and collector Forrest Fenn as part of his memoir. It’s supposed to contain nine clues to a chest with contents worth between $1 million and $3 million hidden somewhere in the Rocky Mountain West.

Theories abound as to the meaning of the clues, but hundreds of hunters believe they lead to somewhere in or near America’s first national park.

“That is where Forrest had his most memorable childhood memories with his family,” treasure hunter Marti Kreis said. “Fishing with his family, I think, was his all-time favorite boyhood memory, and after I read the book Yellowstone is the only place I will ever look.”

Kreis has traveled to the area five times from her home in Blue Ridge, Georgia, each time hoping to return with the treasure.

Since Fenn’s memoir, “The Thrill of the Chase,” was published, treasure hunters have formed online communities to swap stories and tips on the search.

One of three major groups of hunters agrees with Kreis that Yellowstone and the surrounding areas of Wyoming and Montana are the places to look, making for a variety of visitors who are hoping for something besides a peek at Old Faithful or a bison selfie. The park is the most commonly theorized area, with locales in northern New Mexico attracting a nearly equal following. Other searchers favor spots in Colorado.

On the hunt

Will Ortiz, 39, of Tampa, Florida, was laid up with a knee injury when he saw a TV special on Fenn’s treasure and was intrigued enough to Google “home of Brown,” one of the more enigmatic of the poem’s nine clues.

The search engine popped up the home of Titanic survivor Molly Brown in Denver, which sent Ortiz and his brother-in-law on a spontaneous trip west to see what might be there to find.

Since that trip Ortiz put more thought into the question. Now he favors an area a little outside Yellowstone as a likely spot to find the treasure.

On July 12 Ortiz made his sixth trip in two years to the Mountain West, this time with his wife, Tammy, 38, ready to find a little adventure and hopefully a life-changing treasure.

Ortiz answered questions about his treasure-hunting hobby as he strapped his pistol to his thigh to frighten any bears he might encounter and handed a can of bear spray to his wife.

“It’s just something fun, something exciting,” Ortiz said. “We don’t get away together a lot, and this a chance for us to do that and have an adventure.”

Certainly the treasure has an origin story that wouldn’t be out of place in Hollywood.

Fenn, a lifelong art collector and traveler, was diagnosed with cancer in 1987. While treatments ultimately were successful — in fact, Fenn is still living — he hatched a plan to leave some of the more valuable things he’d collected as a legacy somewhere in the wilderness.

The year he turned 80, Fenn decided it was time to revisit his plans. In his memoir he claimed to have hidden the treasure after all and included the “treasure map” poem for any who were interested in trying to find it.

“I think the treasure probably exists,” Tammy Ortiz said during this month’s search. “I know the possibility of us being the ones to find it is pretty small, but I support my husband, and it is a fun adventure we can have together.”

Working as an insurance adjustor/roofing contractor and an event planner with three kids and a granddaughter, the Ortizes get time alone together largely through travel.

Since meeting in seventh grade the couple have traveled to Belize, Mexico and the Bahamas. Treasure hunting in Yellowstone is only the latest adventure for them, though this one trades Florida alligators for Yellowstone grizzly and black bears.

Ortiz believes the poem’s first clue — to “begin it where warm waters halt” — refers to a location inside Yellowstone. He has reasoned his way through clues and locations to the point that he believes he could be just one lucky day away from success. At Ortiz’s request, the specifics of his reasoning process and the location of this month’s search will not appear in this article.

On his hunting trip this month he and his wife trekked through lodgepole pines and up rocky slopes swatting horseflies and pointing out likely crevices in the nearby hillside. Fenn has never actually said the treasure is buried, leading many, including Ortiz, to believe it is tucked out of sight somewhere, possibly under a rock or inside a cave.

After about two hours of searching Ortiz called it quits for the time being, though he hopes to make it back in August, he said.

Ortiz said he knows it’s not exactly the most normal-sounding reason to travel. In fact, his co-workers in Florida don’t know anything about his treasure hunting exploits, because he tells them he’s just heading out hiking rather than trying to explain why he’s doing it.

“I don’t want it to be an obsession,” he said. “It’s just exciting to think I might be close. Mostly it’s something fun to do, and it’s been a chance to get out in some really beautiful country.”

This article appeared in the Jackson Hole News & Guide on July 23, 2014.