Mrs. Noss believes Mr. Bailey's clients to be mili tary officers and perhaps some of her husband's old partners. An affidavit dated October 28, 1961, was signed to this effect, also claiming to have seen a military jeep and a weapons carrier on the mountain. It would also explain the presence of the Wells Fargo bags, packsaddles, letters, and other artifacts dating to Victorios time. Reportedly the military was able to penetrate one of the caves and inventory the contents. Once again, Doc began to descend about 125 feet before the shaft again leveled off into a large natural cavern. Decades of Searching. Led by U.S. Air Force Captain Leonard V. Fiege, the four had done extensive research on Victorio Peak, poring over old documents and records, and even traveling south into Mexico to check stories there regarding a man who has often been linked with the origin of the gold, Padre Philip La Rue. The actual movement of the gold in this last, largest shipment, Shriver said, was done by [U.S.] military aircraft. Independent of Shriver, another source traced a number of large removals from Victorio Peak. 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. That I had known E.M. Guthrie for about three years prior to this meeting and knew him to be the husband of Letha Guthrie, stepdaughter of Milton Ernest Doc Noss. He has recruited friends and investors to form the Ova Noss Family Partnership, named for his late grandmother, that is financing the new search. It is estimated that 662,000 oz of gold have been produced from placer deposits throughout New Mexico from 1828 to 1991. For the next few years, Mr. Noss sought partners to help him find the gold. Attacking wagon trains, settlements, mail coaches, and churches, he took anything from them that they valued. Letha Guthrie, Ovas eldest daughter from a previous marriage, described the next few years as a very happy time for the Noss family, one of simple, hard work with a bright, limitless future. Before leaving, both men had observed an old wooden cross on one of the walls. Dangerous unexploded 20mm shells from Phantom jet target practice dot the range, the Army insists. In 1979, he sold a small mail-order business to devote full time to the search. The Army put those fellows in there blind knowing they wouldn't find anything.. "We're treating the gold searchers just like any other client," said Jim Eckles, a spokesman for the White Sands range. As the years passed, Babe Noss held onto her claim at Victorio Peak, occasionally hiring men to help her clear the shaft. These materials, including tape-recorded sessions wherein Lyndon Johnson discussed the disposition of some of the gold bars on his ranch, disappeared from Holmes office at the time of his death in February 1977. Because of this natural concentration, some placers are richer in gold than the original lode deposits. 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. Still another source reported knowledge of aircraft movements of the gold from Chihuahua to Vancouver, British Columbia, during the period of Johnsons presidency. Meanwhile, Babe Noss had filed a counter-claim on the entire area. hell, I'll get Eleanor.. By this time, Babes story had spread across the nation, profiled in several magazines and newspapers. Doc was trying to obey the law but they grabbed our gold, Mrs. Noss said, He blew up. Lack of water has hampered mining in many districts and new technology, which minimizes water usage, may stimulate activity. On the night of September 1, 1968, Porter drove to the peak with a friend and a civilian security guard from White Sands Missile Range named Clarence McDonald. If the treasure was real, Noss had poor timing. Fueled by suspicions that the military was working her claim, Babe Noss hired four men to enter the range secretly. Holes were drilled and it assayed at $20.67 an ounce, said Mrs. Noss. However, the business often passes the tax onto the consumer by adding it to the selling price. Los Angeles Times Caballo Mountains - Also called Horse Mountains, the peaks are located 35 miles north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Another concerns renegades who robbed the Monterey Mint in 1743 and were in turn attacked by Apaches. Noss divorced her, charging desertion. The gold bar had disappeared without a trace. Fearing a Federal swindle at the time, Noss returned to Victoria Peak, carrying out gold bars and hiding them, Mrs. Guthrie said. Noss soon deserted Babe, and in November 1945, a divorce was granted. Hunting by himself, Doc scouted the base of the mountain. 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. Going public with information about the gold stored in Victorio Peak or removed from it, however, is something that people familiar with the subject are generally reluctant to do. Native gold and electrum occurs with quartz, magnetite, ilmenite, amphiboles, pyroxenes, pyrite, zircon, garnet, rutile, and a variety of other heavy minerals. Setting up camp on the desert floor at the base of Victoria Peak, the men headed into the wilderness while their wives stayed at camp. This was the beginning of protracted legal battles over the ownership of the claim. 2003-2008 Church of Scientology International. In November 1937, Doc, Babe, and four others left on a deer hunt into the Hembrillo Basin. As far as I'm concerned, I've got more gold in my upper bridge than is in those mountains., The center of interest is Victoria Peak, a 1,500foot hill in the San Andres Mountains on missile range land about 25 miles northeast of Las Cruces. Noss agreed with Ryan to exchange some of the gold bars for $25,000 to reopen the shaft. He was barely able to lift one, much less think of carrying it back to the surface. The horde of an Apache chief? Large movements of bullion from the peak went on for nearly a decade, with the largest single removal of gold occurring in 1976, according to Bill Shriver. Published historic reserves exist for only two districts: Jicarilla with 5.4 million yd3 of 0.043 oz Au/yd3, or approximately 230,000 oz Au in place and Pittsburg with 2 million yd3 of 0.01 oz Au/yd3, or approximately 20,000 oz Au in place in 1936. After determining the accuracy of the two mens reports, the entire area was placed off-limits until an official investigation could be conducted. Joe Andregg, an electrician from Santa Fe, New Mexico, reflected on the days when he worked with Doc Noss in the late 1930s. 2016, Trace Element Analysis of Placer Gold Samples (abstr. And we were poor and I guess a little dumb. The next day, March 5, 1949, Ryan arrived in the area, insisting that they discuss the problem of what happened to the gold. Dozens of people claim a piece of the actionthat is, gold bars and treasure said to be hidden on the missile range, and worth from a few million dollars to $1.5billion. After more than a year's effort, he took five bars to the Denver Mint. 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. As a child, he said he remembered his grandmother, Ova Noss, talking about it ceaselessly. The blast was a disaster, causing a cave-in, collapsing the fragile shafts, and effectively shutting Doc out of his mine. 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. His wife and his two school-age children had also abruptly left. It has banned treasure hunters from the range since 1963. The soldiers, Airman First Class Thomas Berlett and Captain Leonard V. Fiege said they had found approximately 100 gold bars weighing between 40 and 80 pounds each in a small cavern. 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. A Partner and a Gunfight. 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. Within moments he found more skeletons, most of them bound and secured to stakes like the first. Bill Shriver, an international dealer in precious metals who proved very helpful in the initial stages of this investigation until his death, brought the total still higher. Two local ranch workers stumbled upon the search and notified Mrs. Noss. It all started in 1937, when Mr. Noss, who practiced as a foot doctor though it was never clear if he had a medical license, returned from a hunting trip at New Mexico's Victorio Peak with startling news: he had glimpsed a hidden trove of riches, 16,000 gold bars. Many years later, a man named Milton Ernest Doc Noss spent some time exploring Victorio Peak while on a deer hunt. While Babe looked on from above, Doc inched his way down the narrow passageway into the mountain nearly 60 feet. In the meantime, Mrs. Noss said her spies, illegally visited the peak and found military men excavating it. The earliest reports of placer mining were in the 1600s along the northern Rio Grande. Mr. Fertig denied that the report had been censored. Sensing a double-cross by Ryan, Doc dug up the gold that was to be used in the exchange and reburied it in a place where Ryan was unaware. The peak, named after a 19th century Apache war chief, apparently served as a repository for immense quantities of gold mined centuries ago by Spaniards and Indians and smelted into tens of thousands of crudely formed bars. Where they the plunder of Spanish conquistadores who had conquered the Aztecs? Chester R. Johnson Jr., a museum archeologist at the time who wrote the official report of the treasure's history, says the 1963 search was inconclusive because, for example, seismic geophones do not work well near the surface. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. The gold, Porters friend stated breathlessly, ran in a tremendous stack along one side of the cavern stretching for approximately 200 yards. In November 1958, a team of four weekend gold seekers rediscovered the hoard. But the legend of the hidden gold was fueled again during the Watergate hearings in 1973. However, disputing the military claim, New Mexico officials stated that they leased only the lands surface to the military. Theories spread over how 16,000 gold bars came to be stashed away in a random cave in New Mexico. Lindgren, W., Graton, L.C., and Gordon, C.H., 1910, The ore deposits of New Mexico: U.S. Geological Survey, Professional Paper 68, 361 p. McLemore, V.T., 1994, Placer gold deposits in New Mexico: McLemore, V.T., Dunbar, N., Heizler, L., and Heizler, M., 2014, Geology and mineral deposits of the Orogrande mining district, Jarilla Mountains, Otero County, New Mexico: New Mexico Geological Society, Guidebook 65, p. 247-259. One story involves a Jesuit missionary named Padre LaRue whose band of 40 gold mining families was massacred in a punitive raid by Spanish soldiers in the early eighteenhundreds. 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. Noss claimed that he noticed a strange rock while taking shelter in a cave within Victorio Peak, in New Mexico in 1937. Mr. Noss returned in the late 1940's with a new wife, and a business partner. There is evidence to indicate that many gold bars were removed from Victorio Peak a short time after Lynn Porter brought the bar to the Fort Bliss provost marshals office. (Reuters) 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.For 39 years, its origins remained a mystery.INAH - National Institute of Anthropology and History/Handout via REUTERS Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History With so many options available, APMEX has made it easy to find the right Gold bar for your collection or portfolio. Fearing Doc was getting a gun, Ryan fired a warning shot in Docs direction, demanding that Noss back away from the vehicle. General Shinkle finally had enough and ordered everyone out. 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. Mrs. Ova Noss said she shad filed papers retaining mineral rights in case the area opened up again. Through the years, soldiers at White Sands have spent weekends looking for the gold. CNN Almost four decades ago, a gold bar was found on land that used to be Aztec ruins in Mexico. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. At the same time, he concentrated on the gold coins and bars. Legend says he sent a palace full of valuables to the United States to be hidden. The mystery boils down to a single question: Was Milton (Doc) Noss telling the truth, or just a tall tale? Passing through the large cavern, he came to a series of smaller caves rooms, he called them. In 1937, the peak was miles from nowhere. 7 Louisiana Ghost Towns Hidden Deep in the Bayou. Begrudgingly, he did so. Then, in 1942 or 1943, she isn't sure, he tried to blast the tunnel bigger in order to haul up more gold bars at one time. If nothing else, he said, an exhaustive search would lay to rest a question that has driven the family for more than 50 years. Lyndon Johnsons name loomed large in the information that Freedom uncovered, with various sources claiming that the president was instrumental in the planning and execution of the removal of the gold. Shriver also said that he had copies of other presidential messages, several initialed by LBJ, dealing with the clandestine, illegal removal of the gold. Several smaller rooms had been chiseled from the rock along one wall. That three or four weeks later Frank Foss told me that E.M. had called him and said he was in Central America. After some discussion, the men decided that Porter should take the bar to a close friend of his who worked in the provost marshals office in nearby Fort Bliss, Texas. 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. 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. South Pass City - A Look into Wyoming's Past. Ever since then, driven by a desire to become fabulously wealthy, Mr. Noss himself, his descendants, investors and soldiers at White Sands Missile Range, which includes Victorio Peak, have gone in time after time searching for treasure, but have always come up empty. In 1797, when the work of the Spanish missionaries had almost come to an end, there was an old Spanish soldier who was at his death bed. 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. Acquitted on grounds of selfdefense, Mr. Ryan testified that Doc had promised him 51 bars of gold in return for his $27,000 investment. Many Noss family members and friends believe that the military exploited Babes claim and that the treasure is now gone. A third, smaller stack, pyramidal in shape, stood about three feet high. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Gold also concentrates above cemented gravels and clay layers within gravel deposits, which constrain downward migration of gold particles. He also found some old letters, the most recent of which was dated 1880. 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. Lampros later signed sworn affidavits regarding their experiences. The engineer suggested eight sticks of dynamite, to which Noss heatedly disagreed, claiming the mountain was too unstable. But while trying to blast his way to the gold in 1939, he accidentally closed the hole. An intense argument ensued, and Noss headed toward his car. What looked to be a piece of iron was a solid gold bar. Many hieroglyphs have been found in New Mexico near his home, according to treasure hunters from the area. With legal ownership established, Noss began to work the claim openly, but he also became increasingly paranoid, hiding the gold bars all over the desert. Reaching down, he could not budge it, but after digging around the rock, he got his hands under it. Gold bars, silver, and jewels were reportedly buried by a spring under the big rocks of Cabello Canyon. now. Anyone can read what you share. Two years later, he married Violet Lena Boles, which would further complicate ownership of the treasure rights for years to come. He supposedly told his wife: "We can make John D. Rockefeller look like a tramp. But in 1977, the Army agreed to allow some searchers with competing claims, including Mrs. Noss, to search the grounds. Representative Harold Runnels, a Democrat whose district includes the White Sands range, has proposed a joint Federalstate search for the treasure. When he reached the surface, he told Babe, This is the last one of them babies Im gonna bring out. However, when Babe rolled the bar over, she noticed a yellow gleam where the gravel of the hillside had scratched off centuries of black grime. In 1981, a construction worker discovered the gold bar, weighing 4.25 lbs. We took 90 bars stacked by a mine shaft at Victorio Peak and reburied them 10 in a pile scattered throughout the basin with the exception of 30 bars that we buried in a grassy flat near the road we came out on.. If the treasure was real, Noss had poor timing. Reportedly, he amassed a treasure of gold, silver, and jewels before being ordered back to Mexico City in 1607. Mr. Bailey, who represents 50 unidentified claimants, says that with a helicopter and a half an hour he can lead officials to 292 gold bars, for openers. New York Times, July 29, 1992 MEXICO CITY A new scientific analysis of a large gold bar found decades ago in downtown Mexico City reveals it was part of the plunder Spanish conquerors tried to carry away . That after he had been beaten to death, according to the information I received, his body was put back into his car, the car was doused with kerosene or gasoline, and then set aflame.. The Army then shut down all operations stating that no additional searches would be allowed. Doc thought that he had discovered an old abandoned mineshaft. They bore the Spanish stamp. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Maxmillian was assassinated in 1867. Army spokesmen have consistently dismissed all reports of Victorio Peak gold as rumors. An apparent propaganda campaign, in fact, has been conducted for many years by the Army in order to dispel these reports and to keep treasure seekers away from the missile range. In all, eight persons told this writer they had received direct threats against their lives or against the lives of their families. 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. Yet, Doc trusted no one, not even his Babe, disappearing into the desert, hiding pieces of the treasure in places that he never revealed. The future economic potential will depend upon the discovery of large-volume, medium-grade deposits that can be mined by bulk-mining methods. After 35 years of localized dispute, the Great White Sands Missile Range Lost Gold Treasure Affair has blossomed into a national mystery. To further complicate things, rumors swirled about various factions smuggling. Mr. Noss, a traveling doctor who was known for a hot temper and an appetite for liquor, claimed that the cache consisted of Spanish artifacts and Wells Fargo chests, along with the gold. Another woman, now Mrs. Violet Yancy of Fort Worth, says she married Noss in 1947, that she is his legal widow, and that he gave her 76 per cent interest in the treasure. 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. White Sands, New Mexico by the National Park Service. McGuires Place The soldiers, Airman First Class Thomas Berlett and Captain Leonard V. Fiege said they had found approximately 100 gold bars weighing between 40 and 80 pounds each in a small cavern. The cast of characters ranges from John W. Dean 3d to Geronimo and the vocabulary is marked by double as a prefixas in doublecross, doubletalk and doubledealing. Lampros, for example, described having his photograph taken with Colonel Willard E. Holt of Lordsburg, New Mexico; each held an end of a bar while it was being sawed in half. A deal with a man named Charlie Ryan went south, and Noss was gunned down. November 16, 2015. John Dean, the former lawyer for President Richard M. Nixon, mentioned that Attorney General John Mitchell had been asked to pull strings to allow some searchers to look for the gold. Porter and his friends were amused at his story and McDonald, to prove that what he was saying was true, took the two other hunters on a moonlit drive to Victorio Peak. On August 5, Fiege and his party returned to Victorio Peak, accompanied by the commander of the Missile Range, a secret service agent, and 14 military police. The gold concentrates by gravity in incised stream valleys and alluvial fans in deeply weathered highlands. Montgomery, the two went into the mountain to blast out the shaft. Ova Noss took up the search, without success. [5] She later was part of an unsuccessful 1963 search. Berlett and Fiege formed a corporation to protect what they had found and make a formal application to enter White Sands for a search and retrieval of the gold. Parts of White Sands are sometimes leased by private corporations and foreign governments for experiments. Word of the Doc Noss treasure spread, and keeping people out of the area was no easy chore. Neither man being familiar with laws governing the discovery of treasure on a military base, Fiege went to the Judge Advocates Office at Holloman Air Force Base to confer with Colonel Sigmund I. Gasiewicz. The Mystery Of The Lost Victorio Peak Treasure, a group of researchers who published their findings. 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. Further, they stated that underground wealth, in whatever form it took, belonged to the state or any legal license holders. McLemore, V.T., 2001, Silver and gold resources in New Mexico: New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, Resource Map 21, 60 p. Luterbach, T.D., and McLemore, V.T. He carries in his wallet a photograph of gold bars and old coins next to a flashlight he provided. We wanted to lay the matter to rest once and for all, said General Shinkle, who is now tetireil and lives in Cocoa Beach, Fla. We gave him a lie detector test beforehand and it was apparentiy, successful but he couldn't find anything.. She called her lawyer, Philip Koury, of Kansas City, who phoned General Shinkle. Several sand and gravel operators periodically extract minor quantities of placer gold from their quarries. They were searching in the wrong place, Mrs. Noss said. The military claim stemmed from a statement made by New Mexico officials on November 14, 1951, which withdrew prospecting, entry, location, and purchase under the mining laws, reserving the land for military use only. In 1979, Babe died without ever finding the treasure. In a hunt that began last Thursday, Mr. Delonas's group has been given one year to search for the gold. Doc Noss was born in Oklahoma and traveled all over the Southwest, seeking excitement. He was shot to death in 1949, but his first wife, Mrs. Ova Noss, now 77years old, insists she was with him. Description: Victorio Peak is surrounded by inhospitable environment near Hot Springs, New Mexico. The cave was covering a small tunnel, originally thought to be an abandoned mineshaft. 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. Today, the Armys official position on the whereabouts of the gold remains cautious, maintaining that the burden of proof rests with the accusers. Article content. Speaking to a Noss family member, he stated that he had been the Chief of Security in 1961 and was sent to inspect the report made by Airman Berlett and Captain Fiege. [3][b], A 1961 search by the U.S. Armythe peak lies within White Sands Missile Rangewas stopped following a request to state officials by Noss's first wife, Ova. 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. He said I'll get F.D.R. Later, the wealth in the cave would be calculated to be worth more than two billion dollars. Two airmen from nearby Holloman Air Force Base would later say that they had found the gold cavern from another natural opening in the side of the peak. Beyond the Hembrillo Basin is a hundred-mile stretch of desert known as the Jornada del Muerto. The gold was then shipped to Switzerland and sold in a new form in Zurich. They found nothing. 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. The Army, which controls the missile range, insists there is no treasure and has never been any. The room had been undisturbed for so long that the dust, according to Berlett, lay several inches thick. In the Fall of 1939, Doc wanted to enlarge the passageway into Victorio Peak so that the treasures could be more easily removed. 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