Over the past month I've been focusing much less on the number of potential matches in clusters, and more on interpretation of "where warm waters halt". Mr. Fenn instructs seekers to do this rather than wasting time on what the other clues might tell us. In doing so, I've found perhaps a couple of high probability locations that are of very strong interest to me.
E.C. Waters was a steamship in Yellowstone Lake which was abandoned and later burned at Stevenson Island. Several ideas in the book and the fact that it was a steamship suggested to me this is "where warm waters halt". Another clue from Mr. Fenn, "not associated with any structure", may have killed this idea before it grew popularity.
And then recently, this idea popped up using a foreign language translation kit of words and can also be supported by several ideas in the book. "Agua tibia" is Spanish for "warm water". What if Mr. Fenn used these Spanish words as his key? I started to follow this line of thinking.
Mr. Fenn was an amateur archaeologist, and is no stranger to bones. He suggested he changed his poem to remove a line referencing "leaving" his "bones" behind after taking the chest. Tibia is a bone in one's calf. There is a chapter in The Thrill of the Chase titled "Bessie and Me" where Mr. Fenn describes his relationship with his fawn-colored calf, Bessie. The calf is home to a tibia. This could refer to his clue of "below the home of Brown". If one begins where a tibia halts, one may be at a knee ("The Knees" at the Sleeping Ute Mountains in Colorado) or below the tibia, an ankle... Talus is Latin for the anklebone, the equivalent "bone term" of a tibia. Talus is also a geological term for referencing a large mass of rocks at the base of a cliff.
Nine Mile Hole is a significant location as Mr. Fenn writes about his time fly fishing near West Yellowstone, MT with his father. There are two photos in the book of his father posing at Nine Mile Hole after fishing. Many people have visited Nine Mile Hole, but perhaps have not known where to look because of an incorrect interpretation of the clues in the poem.
There is a sign posted in Yellowstone National Park with the title of "TALUS" near Nine Mile Hole at a pullout location. It describes an area across the Madison River, and gives an educational definition of talus. Having noticed this when I was driving through Yellowstone this past Easter, it clicked for me. I now have this "word association" interpretation of the poem:
- where warm waters halt: agua tibia, go to the end of the tibia bone where one finds the talus bone, ergo the Talus sign at Nine Mile Hole
- take it in the canyon down: walk past the sign to the Madison River
- too far to walk: Nine Mile Hole, 9 miles is too far to walk
- below the home of Brown: could be Brown trout, might allude to Bessie the fawn-colored calf, calf is home to the tibia bone, points again to ankle, talus
- no place for the meek: be brave
- no paddle up your creek: no need to walk up Madison River against the water flow
- water high: in the Madison
- find the blaze: I wonder if the Talus sign is the blaze. If not, one may have to walk downstream a bit and look for a blaze.
- look quickly down: I'm going to guess that if the Talus sign is the blaze, the chest is in the river close by. If the blaze is not the sign, then I would be looking at trees for the blaze, near large boulders and rocks in or near the river.
Is it such a stretch that an amateur archaeologist living in New Mexico and having grown up in Texas might see the humor in "agua tibia" being the key to linking to another word like "talus"?
