Treasure Hunter Indicted on Charges of Damaging Yellowstone National Park

Well, we just couldn't let the late summer/early fall end-of-season go without sharing one more goofy major indiscretion in Yellowstone National Park.

A correspondent from the Montana Outdoor Radio Show tells us that a man claiming to have been seeking the elusive Treasure of Forrest Fenn has been indicted by a federal grand jury after he was found digging in the historic Fort Yellowstone Cemetery. Rodrick Dow Craythorn was indicted on charges of excavating or trafficking in archeological resources and injury or depredation to United States property. The indictment alleges Craythorn did knowingly and unlawfully excavate, remove, damage, alter and deface, and attempt to excavate, remove, damage, alter and deface archeological resources, in particular the Fort Yellowstone Cemetery in Yellowstone National Park earlier this year.

Craythorn was reported to have been searching for Forrest Fenn’s treasure in the Fort Yellowstone Cemetery when these acts allegedly occurred. Forrest Fenn, an art dealer and author from Santa Fe, hid a treasure chest containing gold, rare coins, jewelry, and gemstones somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. The Fenn treasure spurred a decade long search. Treasure hunters used clues from a book Fenn had written to scour the west hoping to find the fortune. The chest was eventually located in Wyoming in June, 2020. Forrest Fenn passed away several months later. Craythorn, 52, of Syracuse, Utah, made his initial appearance in Federal Court on October 22 before Chief Federal Magistrate Judge Kelly H. Rankin and entered a plea of not guilty. He is set for trial on December 14, 2020 in U.S. District Court in Casper, Wyoming.

An indictment is an allegation and Craythorn is presumed innocent until convicted.