A Millionaire Has Hidden A Treasure In The Rocky Mountains 'Worth $2m'

If you're short of cash come the end of the month, there is an as yet unexplored option that might be available to you to fund that one last sesh before payday. You have Forrest Fenn to thank for the opportunity.

Mr Fenn is an 87-year-old millionaire, and, as is the way of millionaires - especially eccentric ones - he claims to have buried a treasure in the heights of the Rocky Mountains that is worth around $2 million (£1.4m).

He says that it might take a thousand years for someone to find it, however, and it is thought that four men have died searching for the treasure.

Fenn adds that around 350,000 people have attempted to find it, and that locating his buried treasure is as easy as looking at a map, reading a poem and then working it out.

"Begin it where warm waters halt / and take it in the canyon down. / Not far, but too far to walk. / Put in below the home of Brown," goes the poem, giving people an idea of where to start.

Prospective treasure hunters might hope for something a little bit more specific, as the region in which he says that the treasure is buried is spread across four American states - Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico - and a stretches to over a thousand miles in length, not to mention the highly challenging terrain.

He says that it is somewhere between Santa Fe, New Mexico in the south and the Canadian border in the north, as well as being hidden at a location above 5,000 feet.

"The treasure chest is not under water, nor is it near the Rio Grande River," wrote Fenn on his blog.

"It is not necessary to move large rocks or climb up or down a steep precipice, and it is not under a man-made object. Please remember that I was about 80 when I made two trips from my vehicle to where I hid the treasure. Please be cautious and don't take risks."

Fenn is 87 and has lived quite the life. He flew fighter jets in Vietnam, taught himself archaeology and eventually became an art dealer in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he made his fortune.