Where Warm Waters Halt - Warm Springs!
Consider this sample of Forrest Fenn quotes:
“All of this cyberspace verbiage is conspicuous by the absence of talk about where warm waters halt.”
“You need to start at the beginning. You need to figure out where warm waters halt.”
"You have to know where warm waters halt."
“You’ll never find it that way. You need to start at the beginning. You need to figure out where warm waters halt.”
“There are a few words in the poem that are not useful in finding the treasure Phil, but it is risky to discount any of them. You over simplify the clues. There are many places in the Rocky Mountains where warm waters halt, and nearly all of them are north of Santa Fe. Look at the big picture, there are no short cuts”.
“If you don’t know where warm water halts (sic), you don’t have anything.”
Ok, ok, Forrest I get it we have to figure out where warm waters halt first. You do not have to tell me ten times!
In my book, Finding Forrest Fenn, I put a lot of thought into each of my warm waters but as my son pointed out, I was using hot water mixed with cold water to make it warm. This technique makes it difficult to isolate the thousands of sources, but if one was to keep this clue as straight forward as possible and forget hot and stick to warm there are only a few choices.
A warm spring is straight forward and not many exist. Why a spring? Forrest hinted to us in his memoir:
"In the spring when the weather was warm” (More on the weather later) and
"The grass sees, and the trees and rushing waters of the spring creek also see.”
This last example shows how Forrest uses the plural waters as a spring creek and last fall he said, "if you know where the treasure is better keep it quiet until spring.”
Now the most important part that must be considered: “halt.” Why halt? It doesn’t rhyme with walk so that word has to be important. Most feel it is either water or warm that halts but is it possible that “halt” explains where the warm waters exist? One meaning is a train stop without a station, but the common interpretation is related to the military and Germany and it is used to tell someone who is "marching" to stop. From the Mysterious Writings blog Forrest remarked about the clues, “They’re contiguous, I knew where I wanted to hide the treasure chest so it was easy for me to put one foot down and then step on it to get to the next foot, thats what I did.” Step and foot down are very supportive of marching.
Marching relates to the month of March when spring occurs and “Spring is the time to think.” Think about how the poem just explained that spring and in fact a “warm spring” to be specific is the source of where warm waters halt.
So why does everyone ignore this when it is so obvious? Why does everyone continue to over complicate it even when Fenn says not to? There are some more examples that support “warm spring” that I will tie in later but the logical choice is “Warm Springs” Montana. Just far enough away from being blown to bits by the Yellowstone super volcano.
Warm Springs is adjacent to Anaconda which I explained its significance in the last two blog posts. It has a state hospital which may explain why he said people thought he was crazy for doing this or it may explain why he said he hinted he was beat up mentally. More importantly this huge mound created by the warm water drains into a fishing pond right beside a railroad track or halt. If that is not convincing enough Warm Springs Creek intersects the Silver Bow River and that confluence maybe considered the traditional method of halting. Finally there are two tailings ponds that supported the Anaconda Smelter and I explained in my book why a tailings pond is a very good warm water source and all of these sources support the plural use of “waters.”
In my book, I outlined Mr. Fenn’s hinting technique, he mentioned on Jenny Kile’s Mysterious Writings blog that “everyone had the same opportunity.” This comment has always stuck out in the minds of many searchers and nearby is a town called Opportunity. Beside Opportunity is the Fairmount Hot Springs Resort that has a spa called the Whispering Willows which is linked to the famous “it is what they whisper” quote. The spa also has a type of massage called “Indulgence” which Mr. Fenn has recently changed the name of the chest to. The Fairmont logo also is interesting and may explain all the hints of “F” and circles.
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