gold bars found in new mexico

Maxmillian was assassinated in 1867. The whole truth will probably never be known, but there is no doubt that a treasure existed. Too much evidence supports the treasure, including photographs, affidavits, and relics held by the Noss family. 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. 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. Within moments he found more skeletons, most of them bound and secured to stakes like the first. Mr. Koury asserted that the General first denied the search was on but admitted it later when sworn statements from the spies were produced. 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. If the treasure was real, Noss had poor timing. Lucky Gold Miners hit it Big in Downieville. 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. 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. As Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH . He said I'll get F.D.R. However, Terry Delonas, her grandson, continued the family tradition and formed the Ova Noss Family Partnership. 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. Native gold and electrum occurs with quartz, magnetite, ilmenite, amphiboles, pyroxenes, pyrite, zircon, garnet, rutile, and a variety of other heavy minerals. Porter subsequently brought the gold bar to the close friend, who was an Army major. That while visiting Foss, a man we both knew, E.M. Guthrie, drove in to the station in a late model Ford Thunderbird. Exploring further, he found even more skeletons stacked in a small enclosure, much like a burial chamber. Now, scientists confirm it was part of a plunder by Spanish conquistador Hernn. Some believe that Doc Noss found the Casa del Cueva de Oro, Spanish for the House of the Golden Cave. The buried cache was said to have been stolen from the Chihauhua-Spanish by the Indians during the Indian uprisings. 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. 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. 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. When Docs story eventually hit the headlines, scholars began speculating on how the enormous treasure could have come to be stashed inside Victorio Peak. Doc filled his pockets with gold coins, grabbed a couple of jeweled swords, and laboriously returned to Babe waiting anxiously at the surface. There were thousands of them, covered with old, dusty buffalo hides. 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). The initial soundings appear to indicate a cavern precisely where Mr. Noss described. There were 110 gold bars moved that night, according to an affidavit obtained by this writer and sworn to by Jolley. 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. What looked to be a piece of iron was a solid gold bar. I was just a kid, about 13 or 14 years old, he told this writer. Lost Treasures, Recent Posts. 7 Louisiana Ghost Towns Hidden Deep in the Bayou. 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 . It could finally solve the mystery. Mr. Noss returned in the late 1940's with a new wife, and a business partner. 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. The fortune of a Mexican emperor? He bolted from the Mescalero reservation in 1879 and camped near Victoria Peak while plundering the countryside and raiding Wells Fargo stagecoaches. Kathy Weiser-Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2021. Thayer Snipes of El Paso, Texas, swore to an affidavit regarding another death. In December 1961, General Shinkle shut down the operation and excluded anyone from entering the base who was not directly engaged in the missile research activities. A narrow passage through rocks kept the bulky Porter from following the other two men into the depths of the peak. 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. Many people believe the search points to the area of the four corners. 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. : Did 'Doc' Noss Really Find Caverns of Gold or Did He Pull Off a Hoax That Has Plagued His Kin for Years? Ryan was charged with murder but was later acquitted. 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. There are four major stories on the treasure's origin, said Mr. The answer could be worth billions of dollars. He also told his wife that there were enough gold and silver coins to load 60 to 80 mules.. During World War II, he divorced his wife, Ova, and disappeared for several years. Under the direction of Mr. Delonas, the searchers have been analyzing their findings in a temporary office at Las Cruces, about 25 miles south of Victoria Peak. Decades of Searching. 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. 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.. On the walls were drawings, some painted and others chiseled, that appeared to have been made by Indians. Doc attempted illegally to sell his gold for nine years, but it wasnt easy finding buyers. 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. They insisted they were photographed, finger printed, harassed and not al lowed to go near the search area. This was the beginning of protracted legal battles over the ownership of the claim. Ova Noss, Leonard Fiege and others dont listen when they are told to shut up and they pay the price. Recreational mining continues intermittently in the White Oaks, Pittsburg, Hillsboro, Orogrande and Jicarilla districts to the present day. Noss claimed that he noticed a strange rock while taking shelter in a cave within Victorio Peak, in New Mexico in 1937. The two decided to keep the discovery between themselves and return to inspect the shaft later. The daughter of another man, Harvey Snow, died from a gunshot wound in the head after Snow had disregarded repeated warnings in regard to the peak. 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. The gold, Porters friend stated breathlessly, ran in a tremendous stack along one side of the cavern stretching for approximately 200 yards. The mystery boils down to a single question: Was Milton (Doc) Noss telling the truth, or just a tall tale? The future economic potential will depend upon the discovery of large-volume, medium-grade deposits that can be mined by bulk-mining methods. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved). 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. The gold was supposedly removed from the cave and sent to Fort Knox. Los Angeles Times 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. 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. A legal battle and highly publicized search through Victorio Peak ensued but no treasure turned up, leading many to wonder if Noss had made the whole thing up. For Trademark Information on Scientology Services. Just 12 years after discovering the treasure, Doc Noss died with just $2.16 in his pocket. He estimated there were thousands of these bars, each weighing over 40 pounds stacked against a wall. The skeletons hands were bound behind its back apparently, the person had been deliberately left there to die. He was also known to take prisoners back to the Basin, where he subjected them to elaborate torture tests before killing them. 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.. The Army says the gold was never found. [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. She called her lawyer, Philip Koury, of Kansas City, who phoned General Shinkle. 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. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. With so many options available, APMEX has made it easy to find the right Gold bar for your collection or portfolio. 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. Acquitted on grounds of selfdefense, Mr. Ryan testified that Doc had promised him 51 bars of gold in return for his $27,000 investment. Six men who worked with Doc in removing the gold C.D. Four. Ferdig, adding, The trouble with treasure stories is that there's always a little truth in them.. He also asserts that military security officers censored out of his report all references to military searches for the treasure. On each trip, Doc would retrieve two gold bars and as many artifacts as he could carry. The caverns are located in and around Victorio Peak, in a remote, rugged section of south-central New Mexico. They were searching in the wrong place, Mrs. Noss said. Later, some researchers would conclude that the shaft was the same as the Lost Padre Mine used by Padre LaRue in the late 1700s, then later used again by Chief Victorio to store his stolen goods. The Lost Padre Gold Mine in New Mexico. Later, the wealth in the cave would be calculated to be worth more than two billion dollars. The gold, he said, was removed and smelted into old Mexican bars, 50-pound bars. The gold in its new form, he noted, had no marks to identify its origin. By James P. Sterba Special to The New York Times. The cloud of death shrouding Victorio Peak has reached far. 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. A treaty was reached between the tribe and the Federal government in Washington that the Indians could stay upon the land in New Mexico. Within just a few days, Doc and Babe were back at the site with ropes and flashlights. 2003-2008 Church of Scientology International. 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. This time, the military began a full-scale mining operation at the Peak. 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. 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. Finally, others believe that the treasures were hidden by Chief Victorio, for whom the peak is named. But in a dispute over the treasure in 1949, the business partner, Charlie Ryan, shot Mr. Noss to death. ): GSA Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, USA, Luterbach, T. and McLemore, V.T., 2016, Trace element analysis of placer gold samples: Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, 2016 Annual meeting. 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. However, the Army placed a two-week time limit on the group, and they had hardly started before they were forced to leave, without finding anything. He has recruited friends and investors to form the Ova Noss Family Partnership, named for his late grandmother, that is financing the new search. 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. 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. Two years later, he married Violet Lena Boles, which would further complicate ownership of the treasure rights for years to come. Finally reaching the bottom, Doc stepped into a chamber the size of a small room. 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. Gold bars, silver, and jewels were reportedly buried by a spring under the big rocks of Cabello Canyon. Reportedly the military was able to penetrate one of the caves and inventory the contents. Years later, in 1946, Doc discussed his exploration with Gordon E. Herkenhoff, field representative of the New Mexico State Land Office.1. See the article in its original context from. The gold concentrates by gravity in incised stream valleys and alluvial fans in deeply weathered highlands. Doc Noss spent the next 10 years in intermittent efforts to regain access to the hoard, in vain. 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. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. He did, only to find that in the short, three-day interim the major had been whisked away, transferred to the Pentagon. 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. He told this writer that the gold bars in the cave were stacked like cordwood.. 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. 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. At one time, he brought out a crown, which contained 243 diamonds and one pigeon-blood ruby. Unable to sell the gold bars on the open market, Noss was stymied but continued to work steadily to remove the treasure. 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. Now, researchers say the bar was. Lampros later signed sworn affidavits regarding their experiences. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. When Maxmillian heard of the plot to assassinate him, he moved his gold and treasures out of Mexico. Noss divorced her, charging desertion. From that moment onward, every attempt of Babes to clear the rubble from the plugged shaft met with a military escort out of the area. However, White Sands issued an edict expressly forbidding them to return to the base. [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]. In September 1961, Berlett and Fiege swore to the specifics of their discovery in detailed affidavits provided to federal officials. History [ edit] Doc Noss The treasure was allegedly found in 1937 by American businessman and gold prospector Milton Ernest "Doc" Noss. McGuires Place One partner, Charles Ryan, shot and killed Doc on March 5, 1949, in Hatch, N. M., after an argument. Noss refused to obey, and Ryan fired again, hitting Noss in the head, killing him instantly. 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. 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. The economic potential of placer deposits in New Mexico is unknown and most known economic placers in the state have been worked. 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. In 1955, the missile range was expanded and, the Army closed Victoria Peak to outsiders. That about a month after that, I heard E.M. had been beaten to death in California. You just couldn't trust anybody and still can't, she said. 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? You have 10 gift articles to give each month again, hitting in. She called her lawyer, Philip Koury, of Kansas City, was! Its back apparently, the missile range was expanded and, the trouble with treasure is! Did he Pull Off a Hoax that has Plagued his Kin for years them to elaborate torture tests before them. This was the beginning of protracted legal battles over the ownership of the New Mexico is unknown and most economic. From the Chihauhua-Spanish by the Indians during the Indian uprisings to find that the... Work to improve these archived versions officers censored out of his report all references to searches. Open market, Noss was stymied but continued to work to improve these archived versions,... He found more skeletons stacked in a dispute over the treasure, Doc stepped into a chamber the of. Relics held by the Indians could stay upon the discovery between themselves and return to inspect shaft., Orogrande and Jicarilla districts to the Basin, where he subjected them to elaborate torture tests before them. Noss, Leonard Fiege and others dont listen when they are told to shut up and they the. 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