gold bars found in new mexico

Several sand and gravel operators periodically extract minor quantities of placer gold from their quarries. 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. Near the bottom, he encountered a huge boulder hanging from the ceiling, almost blocking his way. 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. 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. Topic at Watergate Hearings. Mr. Bailey later dropped the matter. The horde of an Apache chief? In 1961, he returned to the desert and claims to have found 10 . 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. Shriver estimated the total amount of gold removed from Victorio Peak at 25 million troy ounces, of which 10 million came out in 1976. Each skeleton had its hands bound behind it to a large wooden stake driven into the ground. Many people believe the search points to the area of the four corners. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Victorio_Peak_treasure&oldid=1133710645, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 15 January 2023, at 04:22. According to Atkins son, John, Holmes possessed key materials which were being used to press the Army into allowing Atkins and Holmes access to Victorio Peak. You just couldn't trust anybody and still can't, she said. A treaty was reached between the tribe and the Federal government in Washington that the Indians could stay upon the land in New Mexico. All attempts failed, leaving him an embittered and angry man, which caused problems in his marriage. 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. The NMBGMR is conducting a research project examining the origin, occurrence, trace element composition, and resource potential of placer gold deposits in the state. "We have always believed that the gold was still there," said Terry Delonas, the 43-year-old son of one of Mr. Noss's stepdaughters who is directing the search. In November 1937, Doc, Babe, and four others left on a deer hunt into the Hembrillo Basin. The blast was a disaster, causing a cave-in, collapsing the fragile shafts, and effectively shutting Doc out of his mine. 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. [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. For the next few years, Mr. Noss sought partners to help him find the gold. They also were given and passed lie detector tests. I was just a kid, about 13 or 14 years old, he told this writer. While Babe looked on from above, Doc inched his way down the narrow passageway into the mountain nearly 60 feet. 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. After more than a year's effort, he took five bars to the Denver Mint. Caballo Mountains - Also called Horse Mountains, the peaks are located 35 miles north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Passing through the large cavern, he came to a series of smaller caves rooms, he called them. His warriors raided southern New Mexico and Texasin an all-out war against the U.S. Army and the Texas Rangers. 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. The engineer suggested eight sticks of dynamite, to which Noss heatedly disagreed, claiming the mountain was too unstable. Alleged gold cache in the U.S. state of New Mexico, "Hunt for Fabulous Cache of Gold Lands in Court", "Following 1937 Story of Buried Gold, Family Searches New Mexico's Sands", "Seekers of fabled southern N.M. treasure sue Army", "Authors re-examine Victorio Peak storyand think gold really may be there", "Treasure or Treachery? The major took the bar and told Porter to check back with him in a few days. Gold Bars Available from APMEX Gold bullion bars are an investor favorite. 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. "We're treating the gold searchers just like any other client," said Jim Eckles, a spokesman for the White Sands range. Nearly choking, the two men hastily marked their claim and made their exit. Mr. Fertig denied that the report had been censored. 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 . Doc was trying to obey the law but they grabbed our gold, Mrs. Noss said, He blew up. In 1963, the Army allowed a group of searchers, including Mrs. Noss, to search for the gold. He also asserts that military security officers censored out of his report all references to military searches for the treasure. 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. But, she said, mint officers confiscated the five bars and gave her husband a receipt for $97,000. 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. It is one of the most celebrated legends of buried treasure in the history of the American West, a thriller that includes a gunfight, nuclear weapons and the Watergate hearings. He was shot to death in 1949, but his first wife, Mrs. Ova Noss, now 77years old, insists she was with him. In a hunt that began last Thursday, Mr. Delonas's group has been given one year to search for the gold. The gold bar had disappeared without a trace. Although the originals have never been recovered, a copy of one of the documents proved to be a translation from Pope Pius III. and Montana Ave. in El Paso, Texas, to visit with a friend, Frank Foss, owner of the station. Unable to sell the gold bars on the open market, Noss was stymied but continued to work steadily to remove the treasure. 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. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved ). After telling her what he had seen and shown her the loot, she insisted he go back into the mine for one of the iron bars. When the rain finally stopped, Doc returned to camp, telling Babe of the discovery. There were 110 gold bars moved that night, according to an affidavit obtained by this writer and sworn to by Jolley. Finally, others believe that the treasures were hidden by Chief Victorio, for whom the peak is named. Meanwhile, Babe Noss had filed a counter-claim on the entire area. 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. Part II: The bizarre history of Victorio Peak continues to unravel as the Army, the Treasury Department and the Secret Service authorize a top secret operation aimed at locating and bringing out the gold. All told, he reportedly found 27 human skeletons in the caverns of the mountain. Years later, in 1946, Doc discussed his exploration with Gordon E. Herkenhoff, field representative of the New Mexico State Land Office.1. 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. In one room he discovered a large stash of old swords and guns, papers and letters from the 19th century, and a kings ransom in jewels and coins. Gold also concentrates above cemented gravels and clay layers within gravel deposits, which constrain downward migration of gold particles. Additionally, the actual land where Victorio Peak is located was not owned by the State of New Mexico but rather by a man named Roy Henderson, who had leased it to the Army. That while visiting Foss, a man we both knew, E.M. Guthrie, drove in to the station in a late model Ford Thunderbird. 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. This time, the military began a full-scale mining operation at the 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. [7], Theories abound on the origins of the alleged treasure, including that it was pilfered from Mexico during the reign of the Austrian puppet Emperor Maximilian, or through collusion between Pancho Villa and Germany prior to World War I.[8]. While waiting for the rain to subside, he noticed a stone that looked as if it had been worked somehow. What looked to be a piece of iron was a solid gold bar. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. In 1933, he married Ova Babe Beckworth, and the two settled down in Hot Springs, New Mexico, which later changed its name to Truth or Consequences. Attacking wagon trains, settlements, mail coaches, and churches, he took anything from them that they valued. That I walked over to E.M. Guthrie on this occasion in 1972, greeted him, and invited him out to dinner with myself and Frank Foss. now. Becoming even more complicated, a search of mining records failed to turn up any existing claims including that of Doc Noss. She appealed to state officials, who forced the search to stop. [5] The partnership conducted unsuccessful searches until March 1996, when the Army suspended their access. Doc Noss spent the next 10 years in intermittent efforts to regain access to the hoard, in vain. Among the artifacts, Doc is reported to have retrieved documents dated 1797, which he buried in the desert in a Wells Fargo chest along with various other treasures. However, with the discovery of gold, the treaty was broken in 1878, and Victorio went on the warpath. He was also known to take prisoners back to the Basin, where he subjected them to elaborate torture tests before killing them. The mystery boils down to a single question: Was Milton (Doc) Noss telling the truth, or just a tall tale? Docs object at the time of discovery, of course, was more than old bones. Hearing about the story, Captain Swanner, who was stationed at White Sands Missile Range in the early 1960s, came forward. 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. Floyd and his friend Pat were getting ready to look for treasure in an area where Pat found found three old metal bars in a cave on the old Spanish trail in New Mexico. Mrs. Ova Noss said she shad filed papers retaining mineral rights in case the area opened up again. The slightest movement stirred up a cloud. 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. 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. 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. 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. Background research into the enormous wealth contained in the caverns of Victorio Peak revealed many eyewitness reports of the gold. During World War II, he divorced his wife, Ova, and disappeared for several years. 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. However, White Sands issued an edict expressly forbidding them to return to the base. Subsequently, he also filed several mining claims on and around Victorio Peak and a treasure trove claim. One man, a Mr. 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. Victorio used the entire Hembrillo Basin as his stronghold, refusing to live on the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona, where the government wanted to banish him. Ova Noss, her two sons, Harold and Marvin, and her two daughters, Letha and Dorothy, helped Doc in the strenuous task of removing the bars, one at a time, from the depths of the peak. . Noss claimed that he noticed a strange rock while taking shelter in a cave within Victorio Peak, in New Mexico in 1937. According to Berlett, the four men proceeded down a fault into the peak for about 150 feet, at which point their progress was stopped by a large boulder. The economic potential of placer deposits in New Mexico is unknown and most known economic placers in the state have been worked. 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 divorced her, charging desertion. After the death of Doc Noss, Ova and her family continued efforts to regain access to the big treasure room. A third, smaller stack, pyramidal in shape, stood about three feet high. The treasure was allegedly found in 1937 by American businessman and gold prospector Milton Ernest "Doc" Noss. Word of the Doc Noss treasure spread, and keeping people out of the area was no easy chore. Seventy-nine skeletons were described in an adjacent cavern. Fearing Doc was getting a gun, Ryan fired a warning shot in Docs direction, demanding that Noss back away from the vehicle. Noss agreed with Ryan to exchange some of the gold bars for $25,000 to reopen the shaft. But in August, the Army turned him down, saying he deserves no more favored treatment than some 300 others who ask each year for permission to enter the missile range to search. He used too much dynamite, and the cave collapsed, sealing in the treasure. The cave was covering a small tunnel, originally thought to be an abandoned mineshaft. The flamboyant lawyer F. Lee Bailey once said he represented 50 unnamed clients. Estimates vary on the number of bars removed, ranging up to 350 or so. 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. If nothing else, he said, an exhaustive search would lay to rest a question that has driven the family for more than 50 years. The 1.93-kilogram bar was found . The bars that Noss and his crew removed from Victorio Peak were, in general, crudely formed, indicating the use of primitive smelting processes. The whole truth will probably never be known, but there is no doubt that a treasure existed. Many streams in New Mexico contain at least traces of gold, enough to satisfy weekend gold panners. Its occasional visitors included hunting parties, and Doc Noss and his wife, Ova, were on one such expedition in search of deer. 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. 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. That night, according to an affidavit obtained by this writer claims including of! This time, the military began a full-scale mining operation at the Peak years in efforts... 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