Mr. Forrest Fenn published a book around 2010 called The Thrill of the Chase (TTOTC). The book is a memoir with a variety of stories from Mr. Fenn's life. It also includes a poem that, if followed precisely, will lead the solver to a treasure chest hidden "somewhere in the Rockies". The first thing Mr. Fenn does in his memoir is present four lines of an old song (I'm Waiting for my Ship to Come In), wherein he has MODIFIED one of the lines:
Life is like a game or poker
Happiness is the pot
Fate deals you four cards and a Joker
And you play whether you like it or not.
The original third line was written: Fate deals you five cards in the cradle.
So if Mr. Fenn has changed the line in another song I don't think it would be beyond the realm of possibility (and it is even more likely) that in order to solve his puzzle you need to be prepared to do the same!
The First Clue has been repeated so often and yet the puzzle has not been solved. I kept looking at all the anagrams, codes etc., and could not seem to find anything. Nor could I find "Where Warm Water Halts" in any obvious place on a map...
One day I was listening to my music server and an old Credence Clearwater Revival song started playing:
"Take me on down to where COOL water FLOWS, yall..."
"Green River"is a nostalgic song about longing for a place that may have never existed other than in Mr. Fogerty's Imagination:
"What really happened is that I used a setting like New Orleans, but I would actually be talking about thing from my own life. Certainly a song like "Green River" – which you may think would fit seamlessly into the Bayou vibe, but it's actually about the Green River, as I named it – it was actually called Putah Creek by Winters, California. It wasn't called Green River, but in my mind I always sort of called it Green River. All those little anecdotes are part of my childhood, those are things that happened to me actually, I just wrote about them and the audience shifted at the time and place.
Fogerty added that the "actual specific reference, 'Green River,' I got from a soda pop-syrup label... My flavor was called Green River."
- Rolling Stone Magazine May 4, 2012
This song was released in August of 1969, just a few short months after Mr. Fenn returned from Viet Nam. It was on the radio a LOT back then. If the show "Your Hit Parade" (Page 40 - Surviving Myself- TTOTC) was on at that time it would have been one of the top three songs.
In the chapter Gold and More, Mr. Fenn starts by describing his history of collecting. He starts with soda bottle caps and includes a number of brands that were popular during his youth. The GREEN RIVER soft drink was only surpassed by Coca Cola in popularity and yet Mr. Fenn makes no mention of collecting Green River Bottle caps.
His failure to mention something is probably one of the techniques he has used to hide his treasure. He also will be using things in pairs (Double Omega ring a bell- BTW Omega is the 24th letter of the Greek alphabet, the 24th letter of our alphabet is X) He is also fond of making stuff up in order to point out a hint. For example when he talks about Robert Redfords book (later on this) Or when he tells us a bit about when he went to this location the first time (He doesn't want us to know- it was too miuch of a clue). In TToTC Fenn talks about Osbourne Russell and Lews & Clark. There is another explorer who Fenn does NOT mention who is John Wesley Powell- a Civil War veteran made an expedition along the Green and Colorado Rivers. His first expedition left in 1869. Fenn would have LOVED to be on that journey. Fenn must have not only read Powell's journals, but I am sure that he also participated in the Centennial Celebration in 1969 which left in May of that year. How did I get that? When Fenn quoted George Burns "my health is good it's my AGE that's killing me" he lied. That quote was made by Roy Acuff the country singer. However George Burns was born in 1896 and died 100 years later in 1996. If you "Spoonerize" (a butterfly becomes a flutterby) those years you get 1869 and 1969. A reach? Maybe, but this is a tricky puzzle.
There are two cities and one river called "Green River". One of the cities is in Utah and the Green flows south (down) away from the rockies so I can safely say that the answer to Begin it where Warm Waters Halt is
The city of Green River Wyoming
The Green River brewery building still exists and is currently a bar/restaurant,
They served a mean hamburger last time I was there....
