Man Indicted for Damages in YNP While Searching for Treasure
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a man has been indicted by a federal grand jury after he was found digging in the historic Fort Yellowstone Cemetery.
Rodrick Dow Craythorn claims to have been searching for the elusive Forrest Fenn treasure in the Fort Yellowstone Cemetery.
Craythorn was indicted on September 16,2020 on charges of excavating or trafficking in archeological resources and injury or depredation to United State property.
According to charging document, count one of the indictment alleges Craythorn did knowingly and unlawfully excavate, remove, damage, alter and deface, and attempt to excavate, remove, damage, alter, and deface archeological resources, in particular the Fort Yellowstone Cemetery in Yellowstone National Park between October 1, 2019 and May 24, 2020.
The second count alleges Craythorn, during the same period, did willfully damage, injure, and commit depredation against property belonging to the United States.
Craythorn was reported to have been searching for Forrest Fenn’s treasure in the Fort Yellowstone Cemetery when these acts allegedly occurred. Forrest Fenn, an art dealer and author from Santa Fe, hid a treasure chest containing gold, rare coins, jewelry, and gemstones somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. The Fenn treasure spurred a decade long search. Treasure hunters used clues from a book Fenn had written to scour the west hoping to find the fortune.
The chest was eventually located in Wyoming in June, 2020. Forrest Fenn passed away several months later.
Craythorn, 52, of Syracuse, Utah, made his initial appearance in Federal Court on October 22, 2020 before Chief Federal Magistrate Judge Kelly H. Rankin and entered a plea of not guilty to both counts. He is set for trial on December 14, 2020 in U.S. District Court in Casper, Wyoming. An indictment is an allegation and Craythorn is presumed innocent until convicted.
The information in this article was provided in a press release from the Department of Justice District of Wyoming.