In 2016, Jon Collins-Black went in search of treasure Hidden by Art dealer Forrest Fenn. He never found Fan’s fortune, a pirate’s treasure chest of gold coins and jewels buried for a decade. But Collins-Black fell in love with the thrill of the chase.
“I had an experience of what it was like to try to solve clues, to go out into nature and get away from cellphones and TVs and go out looking for something,” he explains. free. “I realized how alive it was.”
Fan’s treasure was finally found in 2020. Somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, around the time the world went into lockdown during the Covid pandemic. Trapped at home, Collins-Blake began to dream of creating his own treasure hunt, one that would pull people away from their screens and force them to explore the planet around them.
“We’re in a digital world and what I’ve put together is an analog adventure,” he says of his new book. There is treasure inside.. “All you need is a book, some water and some shoes.”
The treasure has accumulated far beyond the collection of goodies created by the Collins-Black fan. Collins-Black created five unique puzzle boxes, which are scattered across America, four of the same size and then a larger box with a larger fortune.
Collins-Blake was not only fascinated by treasure hunting, but had the means to amass a truly magnificent collection of valuables. He made his fortune selling a careers website that took a hit during the 2008 banking crisis, then wised up. Bitcoin Investment in 2013. “Due to the rise in the value of cryptocurrency and bitcoin, my financial situation changed dramatically,” he explains. “So, by 2020, when I started this project, I definitely had the means to do it right.”
He is inspired to create what he describes as “Dungeons and Dragons A dragon’s gang of gold and glitter,” Collins-Blake first began buying gold bars and jewelry, before expanding his search to more exotic treasures that he hopes treasure hunters will discover. will appeal across generations. There’s a rare physical Casascius Bitcoin, a gold locket designed by Picasso, a rare Pokemon card and a highly collectible Michael Jordan rookie basketball card. Of all the treasures she collects, Collins-Blake says there is an Olympic gold medal with a particularly powerful story that sprinter Wilma Rudolph won in 1960. “She had polio as a child, and the doctors “She wore a brace for years, and then became the fastest woman in the world. It’s a crazy story.”
While collecting his unique treasure, Collins-Blake was also planning where to hide the boxes and what clues he could find in his book to guide treasure hunters. “I was thinking about clues the whole time I was working on the book,” he says. “There are clues in the book that are years old, and some that came at the very end.”
Asked what advice he would give to those hoping to find the boxes, he says that a keen eye for detail will be necessary to uncover all of the book’s secrets.
“The chapters in my book really talk about that, and are thematically about how to be a better treasure hunter,” he explains. “The instructions on how to solve the clues and find the treasure are really in the chapter topics. So I just say: ‘Read the book,’ because everything you need is there. That’s all you need.” need.”
As for why he poured so much money and time into the treasure hunt, Collins-Blake says he hoped to spark the imagination.
“At the end of the day, excitement and the joy of the experience matter,” he says. “It sounds cliché but for me, when I was looking for Forrest Fenn’s treasure, it was his idea that was the most interesting. If I had found the treasure, it would have been a joy, but I didn’t. Granted, that would have outweighed the total happiness I gained during the entire process.
‘The Treasure Within’ by Jon Collins-Blake Available now