Byars, Oklahoma. Byars is a town in McClain County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 255 at the 2010 census.
The man behind the treasure is Forrest Fenn, an 85-year-old millionaire, former Vietnam fighter pilot, self-taught archaeologist, and successful art dealer in Santa Fe, N.M. No one knows where that treasure chest is but me, Fenn says. If I die tomorrow, the knowledge of that location goes in the coffin with me..
Gene Forrester, the narrator of the story, returns to the Devon School in New Hampshire, fifteen years after being a student there. He walks around the campus and notices that everything seems well preserved, as if a coat of varnish had been applied to the buildings, keeping them just as they were during his time there.