A Utah man searching for Forrest Fenn's $1 million treasure dug up graves at Yellowstone. Now he's headed to prison.

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A Utah man searching for Forrest Fenn's $1 million treasure dug up graves at Yellowstone. Now he's headed to prison.
Highway 212 at the northeast entrance into Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, The northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park is on US Highway 212 a few miles west of Cooke City Montana as one crosses into Wyoming.Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
  • Rodrick Dow Craythorn, of Syracuse, Utah, was sentenced to six months in prison on Wednesday.
  • Craythorn dug up a Yellowstone cemetery while searching for Forrest Fenn's famed treasure.
  • He pleaded guilty to excavating and damaging archaeological resources in January.
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A would-be treasure hunter who dug up graves at Yellowstone National Park while searching for Forrest Fenn's hidden $1 million treasure will spend six months in prison for damaging the cemetery.

Rodrick Dow Craythorn, of Syracuse, Utah, was sentenced in the case on Wednesday, months after pleading guilty to excavating and damaging archaeological resources in the cemetery of the Fort Yellowstone National Historic Landmark in Yellowstone National Park, according to a press release from the US Attorney's Office for the District of Wyoming.

Craythorn dug up graves at Fort Yellowstone between October 1, 2019, and May 24, 2020, prosecutors said.

He was looking for Fenn's famed treasure, which was hidden in the Rocky Mountains more than a decade ago.

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Craythorn didn't find the treasure during his search - the fortune was actually found in June 2020, by Jack Stuef, a 32-year-old medical student from Michigan, who identified himself in an interview to Outside magazine.

Along with six months in prison, Craythorn will serve six months of home detention and two years of supervised release. A judge also ordered him to pay $31,566 in restitution.

"Yellowstone is one of the country's most popular national parks and we must do everything in our power to investigate and prosecute those who damage and destroy its natural and cultural resources," Acting United States Attorney Bob Murray said in a statement. "A national park is no place to stage an adult treasure hunt motivated by greed. The harmful actions of Mr. Craythorn, no matter the reason or intent, destroyed valuable archaeological resources that cannot be undone."

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