In November 1958, a team of four weekend gold seekers rediscovered the hoard. The bars that Noss and his crew removed from Victorio Peak were, in general, crudely formed, indicating the use of primitive smelting processes. There are four major stories on the treasure's origin, said Mr. November 16, 2015. But while trying to blast his way to the gold in 1939, he accidentally closed the hole. Work beneath the city has not slowed, and as science advances . Just 12 years after discovering the treasure, Doc Noss died with just $2.16 in his pocket. CNN Almost four decades ago, a gold bar was found on land that used to be Aztec ruins in 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. New York Times, July 29, 1992 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. At least one close relative was convinced that Atkins death was not accidental and that it was directly related to his getting too close to the true story of Victorio Peak. In 1937, the peak was miles from nowhere. A retired White Sands Missile Range security guard, residing in El Paso, Texas, indicated that he observed Johnson and former Texas Governor John Connally spending about 10 days in the desolate area around Victorio Peak in the late 1960s. 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. 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. 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. 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. After some airmen from a nearby air force base claimed they found some gold at Victorio Peak, the Army and Secret Service began a secret search in 1961. New Mexico does not have a sales tax. [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. The peak is riddled with a network of tunnels. 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. Denied entry by the courts until legalities could determine the legal owner of the mine; Doc feared Ryan would back out of the deal. 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. Anyone can read what you share. They come in a variety of weights, fineness and designs. He supposedly told his wife: "We can make John D. Rockefeller look like a tramp. 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. And we were poor and I guess a little dumb. 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. Returning through the main cavern, he noticed an immense stack of metal bars off to one side. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved ). Two years later, he married Violet Lena Boles, which would further complicate ownership of the treasure rights for years to come. However, disputing the military claim, New Mexico officials stated that they leased only the lands surface to the military. 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. An intense argument ensued, and Noss headed toward his car. Hunting by himself, Doc scouted the base of the mountain. Finally reaching the bottom, Doc stepped into a chamber the size of a small room. One partner, Charles Ryan, shot and killed Doc on March 5, 1949, in Hatch, N. M., after an argument. Meanwhile, Tony Jolley, now a 69-year-old rancher living outside Boise, Ida., never forgot those bars of gold he helped bury in 1949. 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. Patterson, Don Breech, Edgar F. Foreman, Leo D. OConnell, Eppie Montoya and B.D. However, Terry Delonas, her grandson, continued the family tradition and formed the Ova Noss Family Partnership. 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. Years later, in 1946, Doc discussed his exploration with Gordon E. Herkenhoff, field representative of the New Mexico State Land Office.1. Parts of the treasure were described as gold, silver, jewels and as many as 16,000 gold bars estimated around $1.7 billion dollars. Nearly choking, the two men hastily marked their claim and made their exit. 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. Ova Noss, Leonard Fiege and others dont listen when they are told to shut up and they pay the price. 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. Four. hell, I'll get Eleanor.. After more than a year's effort, he took five bars to the Denver Mint. 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. 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. Known placer gold deposits were found along the southern and eastern flanks of the Ortiz Mountains; however, there could be additional placer gold deposits along the western flanks of the mountain range. Reaching a compromise, the military allowed Expeditions Unlimited, representing all of the claimants, to excavate the peak in 1977. Things got complicated in 1937, when Milton E. Noss, a selfasserted chiropodist with a string of arrests for drunk enness, theft and practicing medicine without a license, said he had found the treasure. All attempts failed, leaving him an embittered and angry man, which caused problems in his marriage. History [ edit] Doc Noss The treasure was allegedly found in 1937 by American businessman and gold prospector Milton Ernest "Doc" Noss. The 1.93-kilogram bar was found . 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. Lucky Gold Miners hit it Big in Downieville. In the spring of 1938, Doc Noss and Babe went to Santa Fe to establish legal ownership of the find, filing a lease with the State of New Mexico for the entire section of land surrounding 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 the cavern. Doc later brought one of the eerie things out.2. The room had been undisturbed for so long that the dust, according to Berlett, lay several inches thick. 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. I was just a kid, about 13 or 14 years old, he told this writer. 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. Noss soon deserted Babe, and in November 1945, a divorce was granted. [5] She later was part of an unsuccessful 1963 search. 7 Louisiana Ghost Towns Hidden Deep in the Bayou. Many Noss family members and friends believe that the military exploited Babes claim and that the treasure is now gone. Lack of water has hampered mining in many districts and new technology, which minimizes water usage, may stimulate activity. Fueled by suspicions that the military was working her claim, Babe Noss hired four men to enter the range secretly. About $250,000 was spent, core holes were drilled, seismic tests were taken, and nothing was found. 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. See the article in its original context from. This time, the military began a full-scale mining operation at the Peak. On the walls were drawings, some painted and others chiseled, that appeared to have been made by Indians. She called her lawyer, Philip Koury, of Kansas City, who phoned General Shinkle. But when the Army; Air Force; the White House; Congressmen; New Mexico's Governor and F. Lee Bailey and dozens of other lawyers get into a single treasure saga, only confusion and rumors remain cheap. The rate of this tax varies from 5.125% to 8.8675% depending on where the business is . Although the originals have never been recovered, a copy of one of the documents proved to be a translation from Pope Pius III. Current environmental and permitting restrictions also have hampered recent production in the New Placers and Jicarilla districts. 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. 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. As a child, he said he remembered his grandmother, Ova Noss, talking about it ceaselessly. Others believe that Noss found the treasure of Don Juan de Onate, who, in 1598, founded New Mexico as a Spanish colony. He was overcome with joy that they might be gold. 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. This writer conducted extensive interviews with Thomas Berlett. However, with the discovery of gold, the treaty was broken in 1878, and Victorio went on the warpath. A narrow passage through rocks kept the bulky Porter from following the other two men into the depths of the peak. In 1963, the Army allowed a group of searchers, including Mrs. Noss, to search for the gold. 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. When Docs story eventually hit the headlines, scholars began speculating on how the enormous treasure could have come to be stashed inside Victorio Peak. By James P. Sterba Special to The New York Times. At one end of the chamber, the shaft continued downward. ", 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. He also found some old letters, the most recent of which was dated 1880. 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. Attacking wagon trains, settlements, mail coaches, and churches, he took anything from them that they valued. [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]. The horde of an Apache chief? 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. He said I'll get F.D.R. If the treasure was real, Noss had poor timing. In 1981, a construction worker discovered the gold bar, weighing 4.25 lbs. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Howard, E.V., 1967, Metalliferous occurrences in New Mexico: Phase 1, state resources development plan: State Planning Office, Santa Fe, 270 p. Johnson, M.G., 1972, Placer gold deposits of New Mexico: U.S. Geological Survey. 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. His wife and his two school-age children had also abruptly left. Our Mineral Museum Because of this natural concentration, some placers are richer in gold than the original lode deposits. They insisted they were photographed, finger printed, harassed and not al lowed to go near the search area. In a hunt that began last Thursday, Mr. Delonas's group has been given one year to search 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. Ryan was charged with murder but was later acquitted. The whole truth will probably never be known, but there is no doubt that a treasure existed. 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. Today, the Armys official position on the whereabouts of the gold remains cautious, maintaining that the burden of proof rests with the accusers. 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. Becoming even more complicated, a search of mining records failed to turn up any existing claims including that of Doc Noss. One man, a Mr. As Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH . Doc was trying to obey the law but they grabbed our gold, Mrs. Noss said, He blew up. 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. Six men who worked with Doc in removing the gold C.D. The Army, which runs the missile range, required the searchers to put up $150,000 to cover the cost of environmental assessments, as well as increased security forces. The next day, March 5, 1949, Ryan arrived in the area, insisting that they discuss the problem of what happened to the gold. Unable to sell the gold bars on the open market, Noss was stymied but continued to work steadily to remove the treasure. Doc filled his pockets with gold coins, grabbed a couple of jeweled swords, and laboriously returned to Babe waiting anxiously at the surface. And, on March 4, 1949, the day before Doc was shot, a small plane crashed near Victoria Peak killing the pilot and severely injuring Marvin Beckwith, son of the, first Mrs. Noss. 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). The Lue Map has very strange symbols. Now, researchers say the bar was. 'Like Any Other Client'. Although a suitable path fit for wagons couldn't be found, traces of gold were found somewhere close to Silver City to the north. Many years later, a man named Milton Ernest Doc Noss spent some time exploring Victorio Peak while on a deer hunt. In effect, no one could mine the treasure, and that included the Army and Babe Noss. Four major groups of claimants accuse the oothers of trying to cheat them out of it. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved). The family declines to discuss the incident. Many streams in New Mexico contain at least traces of gold, enough to satisfy weekend gold panners. That about a month after that, I heard E.M. had been beaten to death in California. Maxmillian was assassinated in 1867. 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. 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