Theories spread over how 16,000 gold bars came to be stashed away in a random cave in New Mexico. Caballo Mountains - Also called Horse Mountains, the peaks are located 35 miles north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Leon Trabuco brought Mexico's gold to the US He buried 16 tons of gold bars in New Mexico CASE DETAILS Farmington, New Mexico, 1933. The Victorio Peak treasure (also seen in print as the Treasure of Victorio Peak or Treasure of San Andres) describes a cache of gold reportedly found inside Victorio Peak in 1937 in southern New Mexico. Babe then began a regular correspondence with the military requesting permission to work her claim, but she was always denied. Doc was trying to obey the law but they grabbed our gold, Mrs. Noss said, He blew up. They believe that sophisticated equipment like devices to take soundings showing whether there are underground caves will help this search succeed where other ventures failed. Four major groups of claimants accuse the oothers of trying to cheat them out of it. The Legendary Treasure White Sands Missile Range, https://www.nytimes.com/1973/10/13/archives/the-legendary-treasure-of-the-white-sands-missile-range-gold-bars.html. Doc Noss was extremely paranoid and buried everything he took out of the caves, not even trusting his wife, Babe. Porter subsequently brought the gold bar to the close friend, who was an Army major. The saga faded back into obscurity until the Watergate hearings, when John Dean, the dismissed White House counsel, testified before the Ervin Committee that F. Lee Bailey had approached John N. Mitchell, then Attorney General, for help in retrieving 292 bars containing 60 per cent gold and 40 per cent copper from the White Sands range. "We're treating the gold searchers just like any other client," said Jim Eckles, a spokesman for the White Sands range. Passing through the large cavern, he came to a series of smaller caves rooms, he called them. Our Mineral Museum Shriver estimated the total amount of gold removed from Victorio Peak at 25 million troy ounces, of which 10 million came out in 1976. Peak and look, accompanied by the missile range commander, Maj. Gen. John G. Shinkle, military pblicemen and Treasury agents. He also asserts that military security officers censored out of his report all references to military searches for the treasure. This has led to charges that military officers have stolen, are stealing, or are preparing to steal the treasure for themselves. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. A treaty was reached between the tribe and the Federal government in Washington that the Indians could stay upon the land in New Mexico. Ova convinced Doc to return to the big cave and bring one of the heavy bars back up. In a special act of Congress passed in 1989, the Hembrillo Basin was unlocked for Terry Delonas and the Noss heirs; however, nothing has been found. A four-pound gold bar found on a building site in downtown Mexico City last month is believed to be part of the treasure seized from the Aztec Emperor Montezuma II by the Spanish. In the meantime, Mrs. Noss said her spies, illegally visited the peak and found military men excavating it. However, disputing the military claim, New Mexico officials stated that they leased only the lands surface to the military. is also on Facebook, New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources, Notice of Right to Inspect Public Records, Stephen Wells Bright Star Scholar Program, National Uranium Resource Evaluation database (NURE), Stacy Timmons interviewed for "Searchlight New Mexico" article, New paper published on the timing of small-volume eruptions and related volcanic hazards at Valles caldera. He remained steadfast in his belief that the treasure remained, according to family members. That while visiting Foss, a man we both knew, E.M. Guthrie, drove in to the station in a late model Ford Thunderbird. Meanwhile, Babe Noss had filed a counter-claim on the entire area. And a fourth story, pieced together recently by Howard Bryan, a reporter for The Albuquerque Tribune, centers on another Apache war chief named Victorio. A Partner and a Gunfight. That he seemed very disturbed, nervous and agitated, and refused my invitation to dinner, saying, Im running for my life., That he also said, The Mob is after me.. Current environmental and permitting restrictions also have hampered recent production in the New Placers and Jicarilla districts. Doc thought that he had discovered an old abandoned mineshaft. From that moment onward, every attempt of Babes to clear the rubble from the plugged shaft met with a military escort out of the area. The gold, Porters friend stated breathlessly, ran in a tremendous stack along one side of the cavern stretching for approximately 200 yards. The gold was supposedly removed from the cave and sent to Fort Knox. Reportedly the military was able to penetrate one of the caves and inventory the contents. 2016, Trace Element Analysis of Placer Gold Samples (abstr. Before leaving, both men had observed an old wooden cross on one of the walls. After three years they were given permission to go back to Victoria. Many Noss family members and friends believe that the military exploited Babes claim and that the treasure is now gone. A new chemical analysis of a large gold bar found under a Mexico City street in 1981 has shed light on its centuries-old origins. In 1828, large placer deposits were found in the Ortiz Mountains in Santa Fe County (Old Placers district, DIS187), which began one of the earliest gold rushes in the western United States. This was one of Apache Chief Victorios hideouts and was the site of a battle in 1880 between Victorios warriors and the U.S. Army Ninth Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers.. After 35 years of localized dispute, the Great White Sands Missile Range Lost Gold Treasure Affair has blossomed into a national mystery. Two local ranch workers stumbled upon the search and notified Mrs. Noss. Many years later, a man named Milton Ernest Doc Noss spent some time exploring Victorio Peak while on a deer hunt. However, White Sands issued an edict expressly forbidding them to return to the base. They dug under it, and Berlett and Fiege moved past it for another 100 to 125 feet, coming eventually to what Berlett described as a small cavern, approximately eight feet wide by 10 or 12 feet long. American and foreign car makers have rented land at the installation to test new air bags. History [ edit] Doc Noss The treasure was allegedly found in 1937 by American businessman and gold prospector Milton Ernest "Doc" Noss. They were searching in the wrong place, Mrs. Noss said. Some believe that Doc Noss found the Casa del Cueva de Oro, Spanish for the House of the Golden Cave. By James P. Sterba Special to The New York Times. About $250,000 was spent, core holes were drilled, seismic tests were taken, and nothing was found. The gold concentrates by gravity in incised stream valleys and alluvial fans in deeply weathered highlands. After he got back to the surface, Doc told Ova what he had seen, and almost as an afterthought mentioned the long row of metal bars. Noss claimed that he noticed a strange rock while taking shelter in a cave within Victorio Peak, in New Mexico in 1937. Victorio Peak, a craggy outcropping of rock barely 500 feet tall, lies in the center of a desert lake known as the Hembrillo Basin in New Mexico. A retired U.S. Army officer said that while on duty at the provost marshals office on White Sands Missile Range during the period of LBJs presidency, he was visited by four men in a late model Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham who sought permission to drive to Victorio Peak. He supposedly told his wife: "We can make John D. Rockefeller look like a tramp. Testing the old wooden pole attached to one side of the passage, Doc rejected the idea of using it and dropped into the shaft with a rope instead. On the night of March 4, 1949, I went with Doc Noss and dug up 20 bars of gold at a windmill in the desert east of Hatch, New Mexico, and reburied them in the basin where Victorio Peak is. Anyone can read what you share. However, with the discovery of gold, the treaty was broken in 1878, and Victorio went on the warpath. By this time, Babes story had spread across the nation, profiled in several magazines and newspapers. The three men had been on a hunting party when McDonald, who reportedly had imbibed several cans of beer, began talking freely about a huge stash of gold. He said he often grew angry that his grandmother was ignored or ridiculed for her efforts. Meanwhile, Tony Jolley, now a 69-year-old rancher living outside Boise, Ida., never forgot those bars of gold he helped bury in 1949. Doc attempted illegally to sell his gold for nine years, but it wasnt easy finding buyers. Becoming desperate for cash, Doc and a man named Joseph Andregg transported gold bars, coins, jewels, and artifacts into Arizona, selling them on the black market. Just 12 years after discovering the treasure, Doc Noss died with just $2.16 in his pocket. (1.93 kilograms), while digging for the construction of a central bank in Mexico City. Only four districts have each yielded more than 100,000 oz of placer gold production: Elizabethtown-Baldy (DIS019), Hillsboro (DIS197), Old Placers (DIS187), and New Placers (DIS186). But while trying to blast his way to the gold in 1939, he accidentally closed the hole. Claimants charge the Army purposely boobytrapped the area with the shells, yet almost weekly a few fevered treasure hunters sneak through helicopter and horsemounted Army patrols to search. This was shortly before a much-publicized expedition, entitled Operation Goldfinder, took place at the site in March 1977. I was just a kid, about 13 or 14 years old, he told this writer. Possession of gold was against the law at the time, and the men reasoned that the bar would provide evidence to bring about an authorized, legal expedition to remove the vast quantity of gold. Acquitted on grounds of selfdefense, Mr. Ryan testified that Doc had promised him 51 bars of gold in return for his $27,000 investment. That three or four weeks later Frank Foss told me that E.M. had called him and said he was in Central America. We all dream of stumbling onto a map or riddle that will lead us on an adventure to find a treasure of glittering gold and jewels, but most of those tales only exist in bedtime stories and movies. The gold was then shipped to Switzerland and sold in a new form in Zurich. hell, I'll get Eleanor.. As the years passed, Babe Noss held onto her claim at Victorio Peak, occasionally hiring men to help her clear the shaft. He was shot to death in 1949, but his first wife, Mrs. Ova Noss, now 77years old, insists she was with him. In September 1961, Berlett and Fiege swore to the specifics of their discovery in detailed affidavits provided to federal officials. In a four-page confidential report entitled Field Examination of Noss Mining Claims, Hembrillo District, Herkenhoff recorded a description: Dr. A gold bar found in a Mexico City park in 1981 was part of the Aztec treasure looted by Hernan Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors 500 years ago, a new study says. The peak is riddled with a network of tunnels. Lucky Gold Miners hit it Big in Downieville. Leon Trabuco's Gold A Mexican businessman buries 16 tons of gold in the New Mexico desert and then dies before telling anyone where it is. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved ). A gold bar found in a Mexico City park in 1981 was part of the Aztec treasure looted by Hernan Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors 500 years ago, a new study says. The bars that Noss and his crew removed from Victorio Peak were, in general, crudely formed, indicating the use of primitive smelting processes. All attempts failed, leaving him an embittered and angry man, which caused problems in his marriage. He bolted from the Mescalero reservation in 1879 and camped near Victoria Peak while plundering the countryside and raiding Wells Fargo stagecoaches. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. He did, only to find that in the short, three-day interim the major had been whisked away, transferred to the Pentagon. While Babe looked on from above, Doc inched his way down the narrow passageway into the mountain nearly 60 feet. Following 1937 Story of Buried Gold, Family Searches New Mexico's Sands, https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/29/us/following-1937-story-of-buried-gold-family-searches-new-mexico-s-sands.html. One man, a Mr. Doc later brought one of the eerie things out.2. Did they even exist at all? The NMBGMR is conducting a research project examining the origin, occurrence, trace element composition, and resource potential of placer gold deposits in the state. Because of this natural concentration, some placers are richer in gold than the original lode deposits. Word of the Doc Noss treasure spread, and keeping people out of the area was no easy chore. In effect, no one could mine the treasure, and that included the Army and Babe Noss. Reportedly, he amassed a treasure of gold, silver, and jewels before being ordered back to Mexico City in 1607. . The slightest movement stirred up a cloud. After scraping a small section of the bar clean, she exclaimed, Doc, this is gold!. In a hunt that began last Thursday, Mr. Delonas's group has been given one year to search for the gold. Sam Scott, for example, a retired airline pilot, was warned in 1977 to keep clear of anything regarding Victorio Peak for at least five years under pain of having his home firebombed and his wife and daughter killed. In addition, Victorio Peak lay on land owned by the state of New Mexico, and removal of gold without permission of the state violated New Mexico law.4. and Montana Ave. in El Paso, Texas, to visit with a friend, Frank Foss, owner of the station. By completing a chemical analysis and determining the particle morphology of placer gold collected from these districts using an electron microprobe, patterns in the chemical signatures from each location can be used to examine chemical variability (1) within the individual placer gold particles, (2) within the same district and (3) among different districts. Several smaller rooms had been chiseled from the rock along one wall. Deferring to Docs belief that the gold would all be taken by the government should his find become too broadly known, the work force was confined to the immediate family and a couple of handfuls of trusted associates. Peering into the darkness, Doc saw an old man-made shaft with a thick, wooden pole attached at one side. The Mystery Of The Lost Victorio Peak Treasure, a group of researchers who published their findings. If the treasure was real, Noss had poor timing. He worked with a succession of partners, the last of whom, Charlie Ryan of Alice, Texas, shot and killed Noss in an altercation in Hatch, New Mexico, on March 5, 1949. But even the nicest people we'd take in, they'd see gold and go berserk.. And for good reason. They even brought in their own security guards, he added. [5] She later was part of an unsuccessful 1963 search. Once again, Doc began to descend about 125 feet before the shaft again leveled off into a large natural cavern. Ferdig, adding, The trouble with treasure stories is that there's always a little truth in them.. In 2019, evidence to support the theory that the gold never left Mexico was revealed when archaeologists confirmed that a gold bar found in 1981 was from Montezuma's treasure. Ryan hinted that if Noss did not reveal the whereabouts of the gold, Doc would not live to enjoy it. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. There wasn't much known about a 4-pound gold bar discovered during construction work in Mexico City nearly 40 years ago, but now experts are calling the precious metal an Aztec relic. Lifting the rock, he found a hole that led straight down into the mountain. Though caught trespassing and escorted from the area, the men reported observing several men in Army fatigues upon the peak. Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology (INAH) says it has now confirmed that a 1.93-kilogram gold bar was part of looted Aztec treasure (AFP Photo/Jesus VALDOVINOS) A gold bar, found 15 feet down in a Mexico City park in 1981, was just announced to have been part of Montezuma's treasure. Case Only four districts have each yielded more than 100,000 oz of placer gold production: Elizabethtown-Baldy (DIS019), Hillsboro (DIS197), Old Placers (DIS187), and New Placers (DIS186). A new scientific analysis of a large gold bar found decades ago in downtown Mexico City has confirmed it was part of the plunder Spanish conquistadors abandoned as they beat a temporary. Some were sold on the black market, some were stolen but others remained hidden during the next seven years when Doc and a bevy of partners attempted to dig back into the caverns, she asserted. Hiring a mining engineer S.E. Theories spread over how 16,000 gold bars came to be stashed away in a random cave in New Mexico. 7 Louisiana Ghost Towns Hidden Deep in the Bayou. All four men Fiege, Thomas Berlett, Ken Prather and Milleadge Wessel were, at the time of their find, employees at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. 'Like Any Other Client'. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Doc returned with a gold bar, presented it to his wife, Babe, and the couple soon dedicated their lives to exploring Victorio Peak, living in a tent at the base of the mountain in search of treasure. An investigation by Freedom has probed the history of that region, particularly the nearly 49 years since gold bars were first found in that area in November 1937 by a man named Milton Ernest "Doc" Noss, as fascinating a character as ever held a six-gun. The whole truth will probably never be known, but there is no doubt that a treasure existed. This could explain the skeletons in the cavern. In 1939, he hired a mining engineer to try to open a wider passage into Victorio Peak, but the attempt was disastrous and there was a massive cave-in. He has recruited friends and investors to form the Ova Noss Family Partnership, named for his late grandmother, that is financing the new search. See the article in its original context from. The treasure was allegedly found in 1937 by American businessman and gold prospector Milton Ernest "Doc" Noss. Treasure Net Forum Decades of Searching. Edward Atkins himself died, reportedly of a heart attack, in April 1979 while returning to Illinois from El Paso on a matter pertaining to his claim. Seventy-nine skeletons were described in an adjacent cavern. When the rain finally stopped, Doc returned to camp, telling Babe of the discovery. The initial soundings appear to indicate a cavern precisely where Mr. Noss described. Mr. Koury asserted that the General first denied the search was on but admitted it later when sworn statements from the spies were produced. The night before his death, perhaps sensing that a business deal was going sour, Doc enlisted the aid of a cowboy named Tony Jolley to shuffle the locations of various stashes of the bars. The charges concerning LBJs involvement included the following: According to this same source, Victorio Peak was just like a private vault to certain high-ranking people. They would go in periodically and get what they wanted. Patterson, Don Breech, Edgar F. Foreman, Leo D. OConnell, Eppie Montoya and B.D. Neither the Denver Mint nor the Federal records center in Denver, which has copies of gold receints for that period, could find the Noss receipt, spokesmen there said. The higher gold values occur near the base of alluvial gravel deposits where the gold is trapped by natural processes such as riffles in the river bottom, fractures within the bedrock, along bedding or foliation planes, and/or structures that are transverse to the river flow. Edward Atkins of Decatur, Illinois, had been a claimant to the peaks gold and was vigorously pursuing that claim via attorney Darrell Holmes of Athens, Georgia, when Holmes died under mysterious circumstances. CNN Almost four decades ago, a gold bar was found on land that used to be Aztec ruins in Mexico. South Pass City - A Look into Wyoming's Past. The world's first atomic bomb was detonated here on July 16, 1945. Mr. Mitchell is said to have forwarded the matter to the White House. But before that happened, he must have hauled 500 or 600 bars of gold out of there and hid them, contended Mrs. Guthrie. The secret stash of a gold mine owner? Most deposits are thin and less than 45 ft below the surface, but thicker deposits are found in the Elizabethtown-Baldy district (up to 275 ft) and in the Rio Grande Valley district (up to 370 ft). Trace element analysis of placer gold can be used as a valuable exploration tool in order to determine the original deposit source and locating lode gold deposits. In 1972, F. Lee Bailey became involved in the dispute, representing some 50 clients, including Babe Noss, the Fiege group, Violet Noss Yancy, Expeditions Unlimited (a Florida-based treasure hunting group), and many others. They believe that if the Lue Map and the hieroglyphs could be deciphered then the gold bars could be found. Immediately reporting the activity to Babe Noss, Babe contacted Oscar Jordan with the New Mexico State Land Office, who, in turn, contacted the Judge Advocates Office at White Sands. The more productive ore zones typically occur as narrow pay streaks or layers of fine-grained, disseminated gold, locally on top of basement rock or clay or caliche lenses within gravel deposits. The affidavit states, in part: In March of 1949 I handled 110 rough [sic] poured bars of gold in the area which is now White Sands Missile Range which is now the area of Victorio Peak. The family believes that as much as 100 tons of gold, which would be worth $1.25 billion at today's closing price of $358.90 an ounce on the Commodity Exchange in New York, remains hidden in. Mrs. Noss and Mrs. Guthrie, meanwhile, say that they had heard about the 1963 search and rushed to the base, arriving the day before it ended. Placer gold collected from multiple districts in New Mexico, coupled with a broad database of previously analyzed placer gold samples indicate correlations between chemical signatures (especially gold, silver, and copper) and type of deposits (i.e., Au-rich copper porphyry deposits, Au porphyry deposits, and epithermal deposits). Berlett viewed this as substantiation for the theory that Spaniards had been responsible for stashing the gold. Another source, who asked to remain unidentified, stated that he had personally interviewed several men who had brought a large load of the peaks gold to Johnsons ranch. You just couldn't trust anybody and still can't, she said. Too much evidence supports the treasure, including photographs, affidavits, and relics held by the Noss family.
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