Originally published on hintofriches.com (Aug 2, 2021)
In Part One, I quoted Forrest talking about hiding something in or near a rivulet. I now want to quote Forrest talking about hiding himself under a tree. He hid the treasure chest, after all, where he wanted to hide his dead body. From hiding under a tree, I’ll move on to quotes about sitting, and indeed, dying under a tree.
Hiding Under a Tree
“That was many years before the streets were paved, so the deep potholes on Canyon Street often were filled with water that was fair game for every car that bounced by. I think they competed to see which could splash dirty water on the most people. I used to hide behind a tree and laugh.”
“One day, during the lull between breakfast and lunch, I apprehended one of her hot pies, tip-toed it out back behind a tree and ate the whole thing.”
“There are places up there when the mayfly hatches out, and it’s always in the evening, those flies come out of the water. They hatch in the water and start flying and you just have to hide behind a tree there’s so many fish.”
“I’m hiding behind a tree over there by the $100 bill and the first guy shoots and he blows half the stump away.”
“General had a wife, and I kind of looked at her sideways because I had heard about General’s wives before and I told the General, “I’d love to be your Ace but I’m not a bootblack.” I said, “I’ll do what you tell me to do but, I’m gonna hide behind a tree when your wife comes around.””
“The buffalo has no enemies and it was easy for me to slip up behind a tree and rope him”
“Being Forrest Fenn is getting harder all the time, but it will continue to be fun as long as I have a tree to hide behind, maybe a tree with an f carved in its trunk.”
“He must’ve been mad at something because…there was one big tree there that had big limbs on it and I climbed up that tree and the moose was under that tree. He had huge antlers. It must’ve been a world record moose. I’m sure it was. And he kept looking at me and I kept looking at him and I was scared. I knew he wasn’t gonna climb that tree so as long as I was in that tree it was okay.”
“I always walked home from school and when I was carrying my report cards, I used to stop on the east corner of Nugent and Main Street because behind the two story red brick house was a barn that had a big pecan tree growing beside it. It was just a block away from my house but when I climbed up the tree, jumped onto the tin roof of the barn, and hid under the limbs I was safe. It was my secret place where I would go when I knew I was in trouble. No one could get me when I was there.”
Sitting Under a Tree
“There are many things I want to do now that I didn’t do then. I want to fish every stream, catch every fish, sit under every tree, and hike the mountains I didn’t hike. And I would like to get lost in the Gallatins again. That was the best, but for me now, it’s too far to walk.”
“Fishing for me meant going out on the river catch two or three fish and then go sit under a tree — maybe cook a fish for myself.”
“I remember when I could hardly wait to get on the river, and catch a big old brown trout. I’d get out there, get out of my car and look around and walk over and sit under a tree for an hour and watch the Osprey catch fish, and watch the Eagles try to take it away from the Osprey.”
“When you’re sitting under a tree, way out in the wilderness someplace, look at the tree. You’ll find ants climbing up that tree. And you have to realize, that you could have been born an ant instead of a human being.”
“I can’t remember how many times that I could hardly wait in Yellowstone to go trout fishing on the Madison River, the Gallatin, the Firehole, the Gibbon, the Yellowstone and I’d rush out there and it was so beautiful. I’d just sit under a tree for an hour just watching the Osprey catch fish and it’s so wonderful to be out in the mountains”
“I can’t tell you how many times I could hardly wait to get out on the river to fish and when I get out there, I’d go sit under a tree and watch the Osprey catch fish — you know it’s not catching the fish that counted, it’s being there was what was important to me.”
“Sometimes, even later in my life I enjoyed walking out to the Madison and sit by a tree, just to keep the river company for a while.”
“When I would come to kind of a remote place, I would move over into a...under a tree by a bluff or something, and sit down and tell myself that I’m the first human being that was ever in this spot.”
Dying Under a Tree
“Dying is something I want to do by myself. I don’t need any help. I don’t want somebody holding my hand, everybody’s crying — Jesus…Because there was no point in hiding it (the treasure chest) if no one knew I hid it…I think they (screenwriters) didn’t like the idea of me dying out in the trees someplace.”
“I have no desire to be buried in a box. It’s too dark and cold for me, and too lasting. I would rather go into the silent mountains on a warm sunny day, sit under a tree where the air is fresh and the smell of nature is all around, and let my body slowly decay into the soil. What can be better than that?”
“If I had my way I would die under a tree somewhere deep in a pine forest and let my body go back to the earth.”
“Who wants to be in a coffin underground? It’s dark, it’s cold, you can’t see out. I’ve always said, lay me down under a big tall pine tree and go on back to town.”
Putting it All Together
Forrest hid the treasure where he wanted to sit and die alone, under a tall pine tree.
If the treasure/body is under a pine tree, what do you see when you look up at that tree?
The blaze, of course.
