A Utah man who dug up parts of a historic Yellowstone cemetery in an unsuccessful search for buried treasure has pleaded guilty to two federal crimes.

During a Monday appearance in Wyoming’s U.S. District Court, 52-year-old Rodrick D. Craythorn entered guilty pleas to charges of excavating or trafficking in archeological resources, and injury or depredation to federal property. Both counts are felonies.

Prosecutors say Craythorn was caught digging in the Fort Yellowstone Cemetery between Oct. 1, 2019 and May 24, 2020; he was searching for the famed Fenn Treasure — a cache of valuable materials hidden by the late author and artifacts dealer Forrest Fenn.

Fenn, whose shop was based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, kicked off the search with the publication of a series of clues in 2010 and many people took up the chase in the decade that followed; some, like Craythorn, ran into trouble.

“The hunt for the Forrest Fenn treasure was often viewed as a harmless diversion, but in this case it led to substantial damage to important public resources,” Wyoming’s U.S. attorney, Mark Klaassen, said in a Tuesday statement. “The defendant [Craythorn] let his quest for discovery override respect for the law.”

Less than two weeks after Craythorn was nabbed in the graveyard outside of Mammoth Hot Springs, the hunt for the Fenn Treasure came to a close. On June 7, Fenn announced his treasure had been discovered at an undisclosed location in Wyoming, by a man later identified as 32-year-old Jack Stuef.

Federal prosecutors filed charges against Craythorn in September, after obtaining an indictment from a grand jury. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Scott W. Skavdahl is set to sentence Craythorn on March 17 in Casper.

It’s not the first time Yellowstone has needed to respond to treasure hunters seeking Fenn’s treasure inside the park. In 2018, park officials found the body of 53-year-old Jeff Murphy after he fell 500 feet to his death at Turkey Pen Peak.

The Illinois man was one of five people who died looking for the treasure. A year ago, an Indiana man who illegally rappelled into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone while searching for the hidden treasure had to be pulled to safety by rescuers amid a blizzard. Several other treasure hunters have required rescue or found themselves in trouble in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

After reports surfaced earlier this year that the treasure had been found, Fenn said he had hidden the treasure in Wyoming. Many thought Yellowstone was where the treasure was hidden due to Fenn’s love of the park and his experience in its backcountry areas.

Even if the treasure was located inside the park, whether it was legal to remove it was a matter of much debate among searchers. While some have said park officials would need to become involved, others said they would have taken the treasure without disclosing the location.

Yellowstone officials said the list of things that visitors can take from the park is very short. They include deadwood on the ground (which may be collected for use as fuel for campfires within designated areas) and edible berries and mushrooms, which may be gathered in quantities up to one  quart per species, per person, per day — and possession and consumption of berries and mushrooms is restricted to park areas.

Stuef, a medical student from Michigan, said he found the treasure in June. The Fenn family confirmed him as the lucky treasure hunter, but some familiar with the decade-long story still think the entire episode was a publicity stunt or hoax.

Stuef has not revealed where he found the treasure.