(01-28) 16:10 PST LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Jerry Freeman became an instant celebrity this month by announcing the discovery of a 149-year-old trunk belonging to a band of Gold Rush settlers he's obsessively researched for more than a decade.

Newspapers and television programs across the country featured his find -- a wooden chest containing perfectly preserved shoes, pottery bowls and a letter bearing the name William Robinson, a pioneer who died after crossing Death Valley in the great California Gold Rush.

This week, a big problem arose. The National Park Service, after bringing in archaeologists and curators from the Smithsonian Institution, announced the letter was a fake and that some of the trunk's contents, most notably glue containing polymers, were from the 20th century. The service would not say which items contained the glue.

``I won't call it a hoax,'' Park Service spokesman Tim Stone said Thursday. ``At this point we know that the chest isn't from the 49ers era. And whoever wrote that letter, we know it's not real.

``At present, we have no idea whether (Freeman) put it there or not. We're continuing to follow up,'' Stone said.

The Park Service was not pleased to read a Jan. 1 news story about a man who said he'd removed an archaeological artifact from Death Valley National Park, an act that is illegal.

``We called Mr. Freeman and requested that he return it to the park,'' Stone said.

Freeman did.

``I always intended to give it to the Park Service,'' Freeman said Thursday. He never intended to sell any of the items, he said. He thought the trunk should be displayed at the Park Service's museum, he said.

Stone said Freeman presently faces no criminal charges. Because the trunk was determined not to contain any items protected under the federal Archaeological Protection Resources Act, Stone said, Freeman violated no law by removing it.

Before giving it back, Freeman held a press conference announcing his discovery. He says he first saw the chest Nov. 22 in a rock cave along a trail believed taken by a group of 27 pioneers. Leaving late in the year from Salt Lake City, they were seeking a southern route to avoid the Donner Party's mountain travesty two years before.

The group stumbled into the unforgiving desert now known as Death Valley, so named because one of them died there.

On Christmas Eve, Freeman said, he and his brother took the trunk home to Pearblossom, a desert community 40 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Freeman, a substitute teacher who majored in archaeology and has traced the party's route since 1985, insists he did not plant the chest.

``All I did was find the box,'' he said. ``I wish I'd never walked into that cave. My reputation is in ruin. All I can do is fade away here.''

He also says he doesn't dispute the Park Service's test results.

``They say they found glue, and some things that couldn't have been from that time period. I can't argue with them,'' Freeman said.

According to the Park Service, two photos in the trunk were tintypes, a process that was not patented until 1856. A stamp on one of two ceramic bowls was not used until after 1914. The letter, dated in January 1850, contained words not in use at the time.

The only authentic items were coins predating 1850 and worth at least ``thousands of dollars,'' Stone said.

``If it's a fake, I can't dispute it at this point,'' said Freeman. ``This leaves me devastated. But hey, I'm 56, I have grandkids, a loving wife and I can go on.''

How does he explain finding a chest containing a bogus letter from a member of a group he has obsessively tracked for 14 years?

``I don't know,'' Freeman said. ``I can't even fathom it.''