She called her lawyer, Philip Koury, of Kansas City, who phoned General Shinkle. The next day, March 5, 1949, Ryan arrived in the area, insisting that they discuss the problem of what happened to the gold. In November 1958, a team of four weekend gold seekers rediscovered the hoard. 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. 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. Theories spread over how 16,000 gold bars came to be stashed away in a random cave in New Mexico. During fluvial events, large volumes of sediment containing free gold are transported and deposited in relatively poorly-sorted alluvial and stream deposits. Reportedly, he amassed a treasure of gold, silver, and jewels before being ordered back to Mexico City in 1607. Ferdig, adding, The trouble with treasure stories is that there's always a little truth in them.. The gold, Porters friend stated breathlessly, ran in a tremendous stack along one side of the cavern stretching for approximately 200 yards. Doc Noss was born in Oklahoma and traveled all over the Southwest, seeking excitement. Doc filled his pockets with gold coins, grabbed a couple of jeweled swords, and laboriously returned to Babe waiting anxiously at the surface. Lucky Gold Miners hit it Big in Downieville. Word of the Doc Noss treasure spread, and keeping people out of the area was no easy chore. Los Angeles Times 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. This could explain the skeletons in the cavern. Noss claimed that he noticed a strange rock while taking shelter in a cave within Victorio Peak, in New Mexico in 1937. Yet, Doc trusted no one, not even his Babe, disappearing into the desert, hiding pieces of the treasure in places that he never revealed. Meanwhile, Tony Jolley, now a 69-year-old rancher living outside Boise, Ida., never forgot those bars of gold he helped bury in 1949. "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. 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. They bore the Spanish stamp. The bars that Noss and his crew removed from Victorio Peak were, in general, crudely formed, indicating the use of primitive smelting processes. After much searching, he finally found a small iron bar to carry back through the narrow passageway. 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. The Lost Padre Gold Mine in New Mexico. Babe then began a regular correspondence with the military requesting permission to work her claim, but she was always denied. They come in a variety of weights, fineness and designs. Rare Gold Nuggets. South Pass City - A Look into Wyoming's Past. Its occasional visitors included hunting parties, and Doc Noss and his wife, Ova, were on one such expedition in search of deer. After the discovery, Fiege told several people that he had caved in the roof and walls to make it look like the tunnel ended. Once again, Doc began to descend about 125 feet before the shaft again leveled off into a large natural cavern. Sometime around the year 1830, travelers were trying to find a new way to reach California from the newly opened route of Santa Fe. Doc later brought one of the eerie things out.2. Legend says he sent a palace full of valuables to the United States to be hidden. Noss soon deserted Babe, and in November 1945, a divorce was granted. Mr. Bailey later dropped the matter. The world's first atomic bomb was detonated here on July 16, 1945. The reports of the massive treasure would consume his marriage and eventually his life, and mysteries around the treasure persist to this day (via Legends of America). ", According to the family, Mr. Noss took some gold bars when he found the cavern in 1937, and planned to return for the rest. Now, researchers say the bar was. He was shot to death in 1949, but his first wife, Mrs. Ova Noss, now 77years old, insists she was with him. 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. 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. 2016, Trace Element Analysis of Placer Gold Samples (abstr. The economic potential of placer deposits in New Mexico is unknown and most known economic placers in the state have been worked. Meanwhile, Babe Noss had filed a counter-claim on the entire area. In 1955, the missile range was expanded and, the Army closed Victoria Peak to outsiders. You just couldn't trust anybody and still can't, she said. 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. The Mystery Of The Lost Victorio Peak Treasure, a group of researchers who published their findings. See the article in its original context from. In the meantime, Mrs. Noss said her spies, illegally visited the peak and found military men excavating it. Although the originals have never been recovered, a copy of one of the documents proved to be a translation from Pope Pius III. 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. 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. Four major groups of claimants accuse the oothers of trying to cheat them out of it. For three months beginning on June 20, 1963, the group used various techniques to search the area; however, they failed to turn up anything. If the treasure was real, Noss had poor timing. 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. 'Like Any Other Client'. The fortune of a Mexican emperor? 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). Now, cleared to go by an act of Congress, the best-equipped search ever is under way with $1 million in backing from the descendants and some investors. Another concerns renegades who robbed the Monterey Mint in 1743 and were in turn attacked by Apaches. However, with the discovery of gold, the treaty was broken in 1878, and Victorio went on the warpath. 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. Because of this natural concentration, some placers are richer in gold than the original lode deposits. 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. Several sand and gravel operators periodically extract minor quantities of placer gold from their quarries. 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. But in a dispute over the treasure in 1949, the business partner, Charlie Ryan, shot Mr. Noss to death. She appealed to state officials, who forced the search to stop. Shriver estimated the total amount of gold removed from Victorio Peak at 25 million troy ounces, of which 10 million came out in 1976. He estimated there were thousands of these bars, each weighing over 40 pounds stacked against a wall. The gold bar had disappeared without a trace. Using ropes for support and guided by his flashlights wavering beam, Doc Noss descended a series of interconnecting chambers which led downward for 186 feet. Hearing about the story, Captain Swanner, who was stationed at White Sands Missile Range in the early 1960s, came forward. Ova Noss, Leonard Fiege and others dont listen when they are told to shut up and they pay the price. The treasure was allegedly found in 1937 by American businessman and gold prospector Milton Ernest "Doc" Noss. The two men told Porter they had taken one of the smaller bars from the stack because they felt it would be easier to handle than one of the large bars in moving through the long and sometimes difficult passage. Doc attempted illegally to sell his gold for nine years, but it wasnt easy finding buyers. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved ). and Montana Ave. in El Paso, Texas, to visit with a friend, Frank Foss, owner of the station. In a four-page confidential report entitled Field Examination of Noss Mining Claims, Hembrillo District, Herkenhoff recorded a description: Dr. No one in the provost marshals office to whom Porter talked would admit to knowing anything about the gold, and he was warned by the provost marshal that any future trespassing would be dealt with severely. 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. 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. His main source of income cut off, and his marriage to Babe already deteriorated, Noss was desperate to sell his remaining gold bars on the black market. The mystery boils down to a single question: Was Milton (Doc) Noss telling the truth, or just a tall tale? A prospector made an extraordinary discovery yesterday, when he found an "incredibly rare" 12-pound (5.5-kilogram) gold nugget under only 23 inches of dirt. ", 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. 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 . 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 . 7 Louisiana Ghost Towns Hidden Deep in the Bayou. 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. Then in 1981, the construction crew found the gold bar, and today scientists have confirmed it was part of the Aztec treasures that Cortes hoped to steal away from Mexico for Spain. The flamboyant lawyer F. Lee Bailey once said he represented 50 unnamed clients. The. Forrest . Gold Bars 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. Several smaller rooms had been chiseled from the rock along one wall. However, the expert won the argument. When it began to rain, Doc sought shelter under a rocky overhang near the mountains summit. They insisted they were photographed, finger printed, harassed and not al lowed to go near the search area. At one end of the chamber, the shaft continued downward. American and foreign car makers have rented land at the installation to test new air bags. Gold bullion bars are struck continuously to meet the demand for gold, with the following refineries and mints representing some of the greatest refiners of gold bars: Credit Suisse PAMP Suisse Republic Metals Corporation Sunshine Minting Valcambi Suisse Buying Gold Bullion from JM Bullion However, disputing the military claim, New Mexico officials stated that they leased only the lands surface to the military. 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. See the article in its original context from. Try as he would, Captain Fiege could not penetrate the opening he had used just three years earlier. Finally reaching the bottom, Doc stepped into a chamber the size of a small room. 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. A deal with a man named Charlie Ryan went south, and Noss was gunned down. 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. Just 12 years after discovering the treasure, Doc Noss died with just $2.16 in his pocket. In 1963, the Gaddis Mining Company of Denver, Colorado, obtained permission to work the site under a contract with the Denver Mint and the Museum of New Mexico. Mrs. Noss believes Mr. Bailey's clients to be mili tary officers and perhaps some of her husband's old partners. Doc tried several times to regain entry into his mine, but the shaft was sealed with tons of debris. The 1.93-kilogram bar was found . However, White Sands issued an edict expressly forbidding them to return to the base. But the legend of the hidden gold was fueled again during the Watergate hearings in 1973. 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. A small town was built near the place He stood guard while McDonald and the other man descended into a large cavern, returning with a crudely formed gold bar roughly 2 1/2 inches wide by 7 inches long. Noss refused to obey, and Ryan fired again, hitting Noss in the head, killing him instantly. He remained steadfast in his belief that the treasure remained, according to family members. They believe that if the Lue Map and the hieroglyphs could be deciphered then the gold bars could be found. The rate of this tax varies from 5.125% to 8.8675% depending on where the business is . A jury ruled that Mr. Ryan had acted in self-defense. In one of the most closely guarded crimes of recent history, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tons of gold bullion were secretly and illegally removed from caverns on White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the beneficiaries allegedly including former President Lyndon Johnson and individuals connected with the U.S. Army, the Central Intelligence Agency and organized crime. Many streams in New Mexico contain at least traces of gold, enough to satisfy weekend gold panners. Meanwhile, Noss's mining claims (for talc as a disguise) expired in 1948, and Mrs. Noss renewed them in her name. Yet that is exactly what happened to Milton "Doc" Noss, a traveling doctor who discovered an extensive cave network laden with gold and historical artifacts or so he claimed. 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. . But in 1977, the Army agreed to allow some searchers with competing claims, including Mrs. Noss, to search the grounds. If the treasure was real, Noss had poor timing. This was the beginning of protracted legal battles over the ownership of the claim. A narrow passage through rocks kept the bulky Porter from following the other two men into the depths of the peak. He estimated the total amount of gold coming from the peak at a staggering 96 million troy ounces, worth, at $320 an ounce, nearly $31 billion. He did, only to find that in the short, three-day interim the major had been whisked away, transferred to the Pentagon. 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. There were 110 gold bars moved that night, according to an affidavit obtained by this writer and sworn to by Jolley. now. Peering into the darkness, Doc saw an old man-made shaft with a thick, wooden pole attached at one side. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. Forrest Fenn, a New Mexico art collector, created a treasure hunt in 2010. 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. However, Doc was unable to capitalize on the gold bars, as four years before his discovery, Congress had passed the Gold Act, which outlawed the private ownership of gold. Gold also concentrates above cemented gravels and clay layers within gravel deposits, which constrain downward migration of gold particles. Suddenly, a host of people surfaced to lay claims on the legendary gold treasure. Four. Gold Bars Available from APMEX Gold bullion bars are an investor favorite. It has banned treasure hunters from the range since 1963. He was barely able to lift one, much less think of carrying it back to the surface. Others believe that Noss found the treasure of Don Juan de Onate, who, in 1598, founded New Mexico as a Spanish colony. The family declines to discuss the incident. 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. The Army, which controls the missile range, insists there is no treasure and has never been any. Though the military confirmed that Swanner had served at White Sands during this time, they claimed there were no documents to support an investigation into the mine nor the removal of the gold bars. 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