Wyoming Man Starts Treasure Hunt Similar To One Now Featured On Netflix

Forest Fenn’s treasure, an antique bronze chest that had millions of dollars in gold and gems, was found in Wyoming in 2020. 

But was all of it found? 

Wyoming treasure hunter Ronnie Gonzales, who is based in Douglas, thinks not. 

He believes the finder of Forest Fenn’s challenge, a 32-year-old medical student named Jack Streuf, dropped an emerald on his way out of the Wyoming wilderness, as well as a coin. 

He’s among treasure hunters still looking for missing pieces of Fenn’s treasure, which may be lying somewhere out in the Wyoming wilderness. 

But Gonzales has an unusual plan for the gemstone and coin if he finds them.

He’s not planning to cash them in, as most would do if they found them. That’s despite their very high net worth. An emerald by itself is typically worth between $5,000 to $30,000 per karat, depending on quality. Though some of the more exceptional quality gems can be worth six figures. 

Rather than cashing in or keeping the emerald in a bank vault for himself, what Gonzales wants to do is add the missing pieces of Fenn’s legendary stash to a new treasure hunt of his own. 

Gonzales hid a treasure he put together in Fremont Canyon a couple of years ago after Fenn’s treasure was found. 

“My treasure is not like Forest Fenn or Justin Posey big, those are like multi-millions,” Gonzales said. “But I’ve got several (baseball) cards in there that are worth a good amount of money. There’s one card that’s worth over $1,000.”

Posey was also among those looking for Fenn’s treasure, and has since created his own treasure hunt, said to be worth about $5 million.

Gonzales said his treasure box is valued in the thousands. Other items in it include special items like Damascus knives, a handmade hammer and a home-run baseball from a professional game. Every item has a story of some kind and comes from his own treasure-hunting adventures across Wyoming and the United States.  

Gonzales checks the treasure box in Fremont Canyon regularly. 

For one, it’s a beautiful place where he loves to go climbing, so the box is a great excuse to spend more time there. But he also wants to continue adding to the treasure box, as well as ensure it’sintact and weathering well.

“I try to add to it as I can, if I find something new, or find something that’s valuable,” he said. “It’s got to be a beautiful piece, it’s got to have value. I can’t just get something from a second-hand store to throw in there. It’s got to have a story and be special, with good aesthetics.”

More Clues Are Coming

This summer, Gonzales plans to release a clue a month about where his treasure is located on his Facebook page and other social media platforms.

He thinks of his treasure hunt as an unofficial tourism campaign, as well as a love letter to his favorite haunt.

“I’ve grown up backpacking and hiking and climbing around Fremont Canyon, so it’s a place that’s sentimental to me,” he said. “So, I’ve put (the treasure) in a place that’s … always beautiful. It’s always gratifying if you get to that place. It’s magic. It’s where the magic is, and that’s all I can say.”

People already come from all over the world to climb Fremont Canyon, he acknowledged. 

“It’s a climber’s heaven,” Gonzales said. “And I’ve been climbing in there for several years. I put my treasure there as a love letter to the area, to the magic that is that canyon. And there’s been a lot of tragedy happen in that canyon, so I’m trying to bring some love back to that area and shine a light on it in a positive way.”

The treasure, he added, is a choose-your-own adventure. 

“Like the value to me is getting to the spot, standing there and looking out on it, and knowing why I put it there,” he said. “And I’m going to give you some handwritten literature, right when you’re standing there. You’re going to put that puzzle together as you’re looking at it, if you do find it.”

That literature includes the idea of re-hiding the treasure in a place sentimental to the finder, Gonzales said. 

“I want it to be more of an interactive piece with the community, with the searchers, the ramblers, the adventurers,” he said. “Go out, have some fun, or let’s just keep growing this thing, or sell it — whatever you want to do.”

Being part of a campaign that brings people to Wyoming feels good, Gonzales added.

“If I can play my part in something way bigger than I am, I think that’s just super cool,” he said. “I’ve got climbers and hikers and adventure van lifers who are coming to Wyoming for our parks, our habitat, and some of our features … I want them to know that there’s a little bit of magic out here.”

Stalked By Mountain Lions, Frozen In Winter

Gonzales is still actively engaged in trying to find treasures across Wyoming and the nation.

“Right now, there’s two big treasure hunts going on,” he said. “One’s worth a couple million and one’s worth maybe upwards of around $5 million, depending on how they get appraised.”

Finding these treasures requires pretty extreme training, Gonzales said. It’s a dangerous world out there, and treasures are often purposely hidden in places difficult to reach. 

He’s been stalked by a mountain lion while hunting treasures, and he’s encountered bears. But there’s also danger all around, in the harsh, remote landscapes themselves. 

To train, Gonzales challenges himself in ways most ordinary people wouldn’t.

He dives into ice-cold freezing water in December just to see how long he can hold out, something he believes has already saved his life.

“One year, I was crossing a body of water in Colorado, and I fell through the ice with a bunch of gear on,” he said. “I had to ice climb up out of there, and my waders filled up with water, basically, and then they froze.”

There was Gonzales frozen inside of his suit in a remote canyon, with no help, no cavalry to come save him. All he had was his own will to survive. 

That endurance training diving into freezing water made the difference. 

Because of that, he knew he could make it. Not that it was easy.

“That was a tough one,” he said. “That was rough.”

Diving into freezing cold water isn’t the only crazy thing he’s done to train himself.

“I’ve run from like Glendo, Wyoming, to my town, which is 26 miles — a marathon,” he said. “I’ve picked days that are 100 degrees plus to run 30 miles or so with no water.”

He’s gone rock climbing with no rope, dove from trains, and jumped from planes, testing himself, pushing his capabilities, and building his skills for whatever lies ahead, just in case. 

Because, while Mother Nature is beautiful, she is also a harsh mistress.

As far as other people searching for treasure, though it’s gotten more popular of late and is attracting more people, Gonzales is less worried about that.

He feels most of the time, he can just play it cool and no one will realize what he’s about in remote Wyoming spaces and places.

More often than not, his conversations with strangers met along the way have been friendly, and helpful.

That said, though, he was a high school wrestler once upon a time, and said he does know how to fight if he had to.

A Higher Calling

Forest Fenn’s treasure hunt is the subject of a Netflix documentary, “Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn’s Treasure,” which chronicles the decade-long hunt sparked by Fenn’s memoir. In it, Posey releases some clues about the treasure he’s hidden.

Gonzales searched the better part of a decade for that treasure, and says he was close to finding it.

“I was within 6 miles of it,” Gonzales told Cowboy State Daily. “If you narrow that down from the Rocky Mountains, I’m right next to the needle in the haystack. I’m just not on it.”

Although Gonzales often goes out alone when he’s hunting for treasure and lost things, he’s not really alone in his efforts. 

He has a whole team of people who help him do the research and figure out where to go look, which turns to make, what coordinates to shoot for.

“I’m the guy who’s flipping over the rocks,” he said. “I’m climbing things and crossing the waters, the rivers and lakes or whatever, and actually just putting the boots on the ground looking.”

The treasures Gonzales seeks aren’t just hunts like those kicked off by Fenn, and now Posey. He also looks for other things, like lost, outlaw gold rumored to still be in Wyoming, and the bodies of missing people, if he can help law enforcement close a case.

“I have a lot of friends in the research community that help with my true crime cases, where we go look for the missing people,” he said. “They also double as researchers for treasure hunting, and they’re forward-thinking for anything that might happen. If we get a missing person in the Rocky Mountains and we’re out and about, hey maybe we can help them close the case. So, I do work really closely with the Colorado and Wyoming people groups. I think that’s just a higher calling.”

Big Nose George’s Gold

One treasure Gonzales believes he’s close to finding is something Big Nose George hid in Wyoming. Maybe gold, maybe something else. Gonzales isn’t sure.

“Big Nose” George Parrott was a highwayman, mostly robbing wagons and stagecoaches in the late 1870s. He dreamed of bigger paydays, though, like those that Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch pulled off. They made it look easy, and that led Big Nose George to try and rob a Union Pacific train.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as it seemed. The attempt was bungled, and that put lawmen hot on Big Nose George and his gang’s trail. There was a shootout, and two lawmen were killed. That prompted a huge reward of $20,000 for the capture of Big Nose George and his colleagues.

The gang escaped and later robbed a military convoy of between $3,600 to $14,000 in 1879. 

Parrott was caught a year later, after he and his pal, “Dutch Charley” Burris got drunk in a Miles City, Montana, tavern, where they boasted of killing two Wyoming lawmen. 

Did Big Nose George manage to spend all that money before then? Or is it hidden somewhere in Wyoming?

Gonzales has a copy of a treasure map he believes belonged to Big Nose George, given to him by some good friends, with a big “X” marks the spot on the map.

Gonzales was given the map by a good friend with a deceased relative, who, family legends say, knew Big Nose George. 

“Maybe he was in his crew, I don’t know,” Gonzales said. “But when he died, his family, before they buried him, they found that map … and they said, ‘This looks pretty important,’ so they kept it for all these years.”

They decided to give it to Gonzales, knowing they themselves would never go looking for this treasure and didn’t really have the means to find it.

Gonzales gets a lot of treasure tips that way.

“I get all kinds of beautiful hints or clues from people like that,” he said. “They are like, ‘Hey we’re in Boston, there’s no way we’re getting out there. But this is what we figured out from some of these solves.’”

Gonzales is absolutely happy to help find all of the lost things he possibly can. 

“I am going to be out here doing these things forever,” he said. “It’s kind of what I do. It’s just a higher calling. It’s fun, it’s adventurous. It’s as close to Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Caribbean as you can get.”

What he likes about it is how every moment is full of amazing sights and sounds from the great outdoors. So even when gold and gemstones aren’t found, there are still treasures in all the memories made.

“You might see something you never saw before,” Gonzales said. “A sunrise, a moonrise, a sunrise or sunset on a cliff you’ve never stood on before. 

“There’s treasure everywhere. And it only sweetens the pot if you actually find the pot.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.