For three months beginning on June 20, 1963, the group used various techniques to search the area; however, they failed to turn up anything. Docs object at the time of discovery, of course, was more than old bones. If nothing else, he said, an exhaustive search would lay to rest a question that has driven the family for more than 50 years. Dangerous unexploded 20mm shells from Phantom jet target practice dot the range, the Army insists. (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 In September 1961, Berlett and Fiege swore to the specifics of their discovery in detailed affidavits provided to federal officials. Four major groups of claimants accuse the oothers of trying to cheat them out of it. About $250,000 was spent, core holes were drilled, seismic tests were taken, and nothing was found. South Pass City - A Look into Wyoming's Past. 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. He was also known to take prisoners back to the Basin, where he subjected them to elaborate torture tests before killing them. This has led to charges that military officers have stolen, are stealing, or are preparing to steal the treasure for themselves. Letha told Freedom that she herself handled 12 to 15 of the bars, and I even put one up and hid it for four days.. After the discovery, Fiege told several people that he had caved in the roof and walls to make it look like the tunnel ended. This was the beginning of protracted legal battles over the ownership of the claim. Among those who attested to the accessibility of the peaks treasure was Lynn Porter, a businessman now residing in San Diego, California. In November 1958, a team of four weekend gold seekers rediscovered the hoard. The Army put those fellows in there blind knowing they wouldn't find anything.. 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. Mr. Noss's ex-wife was barred from searching in the 1950's, when the Army extended the White Sands borders to include Victorio Peak. [5] During the 1970s, lawyer F. Lee Bailey represented clients who claimed to know where the treasure was located. But before that happened, he must have hauled 500 or 600 bars of gold out of there and hid them, contended Mrs. Guthrie. 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.. According to the security guard, Johnson and Connally headed a team which brought in sophisticated excavation equipment to remove gold from the peak, the most modern Ive ever seen, he said. The rate of this tax varies from 5.125% to 8.8675% depending on where the business is . Although a suitable path fit for wagons couldn't be found, traces of gold were found somewhere close to Silver City to the north. Most placer deposits in New Mexico had been discovered by 1900. The skeletons hands were bound behind its back apparently, the person had been deliberately left there to die. According to members of the family, there would have been more, but Docs work was abruptly and unexpectedly brought to a halt in August 1939 when a dynamite blast, set to enlarge a narrow passage, instead caved the passage in, sealing off the main cavern. . Instead, it has a "gross receipts tax." This is a tax levied on the business rather than the consumer, like in most states. 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. And a fourth story, pieced together recently by Howard Bryan, a reporter for The Albuquerque Tribune, centers on another Apache war chief named Victorio. If the treasure was real, Noss had poor timing. But the expedition soon went broke, and the Army declared that it would allow no more searches. Mr. Mitchell is said to have forwarded the matter to the White House. Theories spread over how 16,000 gold bars came to be stashed away in a random cave in New Mexico. 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. Gold bars, silver, and jewels were reportedly buried by a spring under the big rocks of Cabello Canyon. 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. 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. This Nevada Gold Mine Produces Amazing Crystalline Gold Nuggets! He said he often grew angry that his grandmother was ignored or ridiculed for her efforts. This writer conducted extensive interviews with Thomas Berlett. Mr. Delonas said the legend of the buried treasure obsessed the family for generations. All told, he reportedly found 27 human skeletons in the caverns of the mountain. Fearing Doc was getting a gun, Ryan fired a warning shot in Docs direction, demanding that Noss back away from the vehicle. Lack of water has hampered mining in many districts and new technology, which minimizes water usage, may stimulate activity. Within just a few days, Doc and Babe were back at the site with ropes and flashlights. Babe then began a regular correspondence with the military requesting permission to work her claim, but she was always denied. 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. The deposits generally occur in Late Tertiary- to Holocene-age alluvial fan deposits, bench or terrace gravel deposits, river-bars, and stream deposits or as residual placers formed directly on top of lode deposits typically derived from Proterozoic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary source rocks. 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. Theories spread over how 16,000 gold bars came to be stashed away in a random cave in New Mexico. 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. 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.. Some believe that Doc Noss found the Casa del Cueva de Oro, Spanish for the House of the Golden Cave. 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. The buried cache was said to have been stolen from the Chihauhua-Spanish by the Indians during the Indian uprisings. They would have the proper persons on guard duty., Possession of gold by private American citizens was illegal under federal law throughout the period of the Johnson presidency. Near the bottom, he encountered a huge boulder hanging from the ceiling, almost blocking his way. Doc was trying to obey the law but they grabbed our gold, Mrs. Noss said, He blew up. 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. Shriver also said that he had copies of other presidential messages, several initialed by LBJ, dealing with the clandestine, illegal removal of the gold. 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. At one end of the chamber, the shaft continued downward. The U.S. Army, which gained control of the area when it was converted to a bombing range during the Second World War, refused her request to bring in an excavation firm and ultimately ordered the Nosses to stay out of the area. She called her lawyer, Philip Koury, of Kansas City, who phoned General Shinkle. And for good reason. Finally, others believe that the treasures were hidden by Chief Victorio, for whom the peak is named. Now, researchers say the bar was. Each skeleton had its hands bound behind it to a large wooden stake driven into the ground. As Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH . ", 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 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. But in 1977, the Army agreed to allow some searchers with competing claims, including Mrs. Noss, to search the grounds. 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. The answer could be worth billions of dollars. 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 buying entity was a Middle Eastern principal, Shriver said. Others believe that Noss found the treasure of Don Juan de Onate, who, in 1598, founded New Mexico as a Spanish colony. One man, a Mr. Two local ranch workers stumbled upon the search and notified Mrs. Noss. We are a research and service division of: Placer gold deposits were an important source of gold in New Mexico prior to 1902, but placer production after 1902 has been minor. They were searching in the wrong place, Mrs. Noss said. Try as he would, Captain Fiege could not penetrate the opening he had used just three years earlier. 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. 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. 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. Finally reaching the bottom, Doc stepped into a chamber the size of a small room. See the article in its original context from. 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. Peak and look, accompanied by the missile range commander, Maj. Gen. John G. Shinkle, military pblicemen and Treasury agents. That about a month after that, I heard E.M. had been beaten to death in California. 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. With so many options available, APMEX has made it easy to find the right Gold bar for your collection or portfolio. and Montana Ave. in El Paso, Texas, to visit with a friend, Frank Foss, owner of the station. Reportedly, he amassed a treasure of gold, silver, and jewels before being ordered back to Mexico City in 1607. The men believed that Porters friend was in a good position to help arrange an official government expedition to claim the gold. A narrow passage through rocks kept the bulky Porter from following the other two men into the depths of the peak. 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. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Although the originals have never been recovered, a copy of one of the documents proved to be a translation from Pope Pius III. The Mystery Of The Lost Victorio Peak Treasure, a group of researchers who published their findings. When Docs story eventually hit the headlines, scholars began speculating on how the enormous treasure could have come to be stashed inside Victorio Peak. In 1963, the Army allowed a group of searchers, including Mrs. Noss, to search for the gold. After the death of Doc Noss, Ova and her family continued efforts to regain access to the big treasure room. [3] Noss was ultimately killed by an associate, Charley Ryan, in 1949 after Ryan accused Noss of fraud and Noss threatened to kill Ryan and his family. Nearly choking, the two men hastily marked their claim and made their exit. The 1.93-kilogram. Gold Bar Found Beneath Mexico City was Loot from Cortes' Aztec Retreat. Now there were two military commands involved. 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. Yet, Doc trusted no one, not even his Babe, disappearing into the desert, hiding pieces of the treasure in places that he never revealed. He bolted from the Mescalero reservation in 1879 and camped near Victoria Peak while plundering the countryside and raiding Wells Fargo stagecoaches. Three days later the Nosses went back, and in the months that followed, Noss hauled gold bars, one at a time, with enormous effort up the narrow passageway, according to Mrs. Noss's daughter, Mrs. Letha Guthrie of Clovis, who said she was also there part of the, time. The 1.93-kilogram bar was found . Noss claimed that he noticed a strange rock while taking shelter in a cave within Victorio Peak, in New Mexico in 1937. The mystery boils down to a single question: Was Milton (Doc) Noss telling the truth, or just a tall tale? 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. Subsequently, he also filed several mining claims on and around Victorio Peak and a treasure trove claim. Doc tried several times to regain entry into his mine, but the shaft was sealed with tons of debris. He also asserts that military security officers censored out of his report all references to military searches for the treasure. There were thousands of them, covered with old, dusty buffalo hides. He carries in his wallet a photograph of gold bars and old coins next to a flashlight he provided. 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. He remained steadfast in his belief that the treasure remained, according to family members. 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. Did they even exist at all? 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. Stepping into the eerie darkness, Doc was alarmed when he saw a human skeleton, kneeling and securely tied to a stake, driven into the ground. [1][a] While there have been multiple documented expeditions to the peak, no gold has been officially recorded as being recovered from the site. Years later, in 1946, Doc discussed his exploration with Gordon E. Herkenhoff, field representative of the New Mexico State Land Office.1. 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. 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 sources of this threat, according to the man who relayed the threat to Scott, were two agents of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. A treaty was reached between the tribe and the Federal government in Washington that the Indians could stay upon the land in New Mexico. But, she said, mint officers confiscated the five bars and gave her husband a receipt for $97,000. This theory explains the thousands of gold bars, antiquities, and artifacts dating more than 100 years later. A third story asserts that Geronimo hid, Apache booty in the area. White Sands Missile Range, Legends, Ghosts, Myths and Mysteries Main Page, Byways & Historic Trails Great Drives in America, Soldiers and Officers in American History, Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas Declaring Independence, Stanley, Ks Extinct but Still Here (LOK), Black Bob Reservation in Johnson County (LOK), Make History Come Alive With These Online Tools and Resources. 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. Mr. Bailey will not say, but Mrs. Noss and, her dozen or so partners have filed a $1billion Federal Court suit charging that the Government, the Secretary of the Army, several military officers and 200 John Does were conspiring to bilk her out of the treasure. 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. Doc mentioned nothing of his find to the group, choosing instead to return to the site a couple of days later with Ova. Exploring further, he found even more skeletons stacked in a small enclosure, much like a burial chamber. hell, I'll get Eleanor.. 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.. Joe Andregg, an electrician from Santa Fe, New Mexico, reflected on the days when he worked with Doc Noss in the late 1930s. This Massive Mine in Utah Has Produced More Gold than Most States! Forrest . This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Later, Fiege would take a lie detector test, which would allow Fiege back on the missile range. The 1.93-kilogram bar was found by a construction worker during excavations for a new building along the Alameda, a picturesque park in the heart of the Mexican capital. And we were poor and I guess a little dumb. The actual movement of the gold in this last, largest shipment, Shriver said, was done by [U.S.] military aircraft. 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