OGDEN, Utah – A Utah man has pleaded guilty to damaging federal property after being caught digging in a Yellowstone National Park cemetery in search of Forrest Fenn’s hidden treasure.
Rodrick Dow Craythorn, 52, of Syracuse, Utah, entered the plea Monday in US District Court in Casper to illegally excavating or trafficking in archaeological resources and to damaging federal property.
He could face up to 12 years in prison and $270,000 in fines when sentenced March 17.
Craythorn was searching for a treasure chest containing coins, gold and other valuables left in the backcountry a decade ago by Santa Fe, New Mexico, art and antiquities dealer Fenn.
In 2010, Fenn published a collection of short stories in which he wrote that he had hidden a chest with gold nuggets, rare coins, jewelry and gemstones ‘in the mountains somewhere north of Santa Fe’.