In 1981, a construction worker discovered the gold bar, weighing 4.25 lbs. The engineer suggested eight sticks of dynamite, to which Noss heatedly disagreed, claiming the mountain was too unstable. But, she said, mint officers confiscated the five bars and gave her husband a receipt for $97,000. Exploring further, he found even more skeletons stacked in a small enclosure, much like a burial chamber. Edward Atkins himself died, reportedly of a heart attack, in April 1979 while returning to Illinois from El Paso on a matter pertaining to his claim. If nothing else, he said, an exhaustive search would lay to rest a question that has driven the family for more than 50 years. Acquitted on grounds of selfdefense, Mr. Ryan testified that Doc had promised him 51 bars of gold in return for his $27,000 investment. Going public with information about the gold stored in Victorio Peak or removed from it, however, is something that people familiar with the subject are generally reluctant to do. For the next few years, Mr. Noss sought partners to help him find the gold. All attempts failed, leaving him an embittered and angry man, which caused problems in his marriage. Four major groups of claimants accuse the oothers of trying to cheat them out of it. Forrest Fenn, a New Mexico art collector, created a treasure hunt in 2010. Try as he would, Captain Fiege could not penetrate the opening he had used just three years earlier. Doc filled his pockets with gold coins, grabbed a couple of jeweled swords, and laboriously returned to Babe waiting anxiously at the surface. According to a close relative interviewed by Freedom, Shriver was murdered. The relative said that Shriver was beaten up in California, beaten about the kidneys and the head and subsequently died from his injuries. 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. Native gold and electrum occurs with quartz, magnetite, ilmenite, amphiboles, pyroxenes, pyrite, zircon, garnet, rutile, and a variety of other heavy minerals. All told, he reportedly found 27 human skeletons in the caverns of the mountain. Mrs. Noss believes Mr. Bailey's clients to be mili tary officers and perhaps some of her husband's old partners. Doc attempted illegally to sell his gold for nine years, but it wasnt easy finding buyers. Mr. Bryan, The Albuquerque Tribune writer, said he had gone through a chunk of Mr. Johnson's memorabilia recently and found both the censored and uncensored drafts of the report. Doc was trying to obey the law but they grabbed our gold, Mrs. Noss said, He blew up. Within moments he found more skeletons, most of them bound and secured to stakes like the first. 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. 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. However, the business often passes the tax onto the consumer by adding it to the selling price. 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. 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. 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. 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. We all dream of stumbling onto a map or riddle that will lead us on an adventure to find a treasure of glittering gold and jewels, but most of those tales only exist in bedtime stories and movies. The Lost Padre Gold Mine in New Mexico. 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. And a fourth story, pieced together recently by Howard Bryan, a reporter for The Albuquerque Tribune, centers on another Apache war chief named Victorio. A priest named LaRue at Durango in northern Mexico was looking after the soldier who told the priest . Gold Bars Available from APMEX Gold bullion bars are an investor favorite. 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. "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. Parts of the treasure were described as gold, silver, jewels and as many as 16,000 gold bars estimated around $1.7 billion dollars. 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 . Now, scientists confirm it was part of a plunder by Spanish conquistador Hernn. Ova convinced Doc to return to the big cave and bring one of the heavy bars back up. The slightest movement stirred up a cloud. 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. 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. 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 Mystery Of The Lost Victorio Peak Treasure, a group of researchers who published their findings. A deal with a man named Charlie Ryan went south, and Noss was gunned down. The bars that Noss and his crew removed from Victorio Peak were, in general, crudely formed, indicating the use of primitive smelting processes. As Doc continued to explore the side caverns, he found a hoard of treasure, including coins, jewels, saddles, and priceless artifacts, including a gold statue of the Virgin Mary. They insisted they were photographed, finger printed, harassed and not al lowed to go near the search area. White Sands, New Mexico by the National Park Service. Background research into the enormous wealth contained in the caverns of Victorio Peak revealed many eyewitness reports of the gold. 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. Doc Noss was extremely paranoid and buried everything he took out of the caves, not even trusting his wife, Babe. Parts of White Sands are sometimes leased by private corporations and foreign governments for experiments. 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. Now, instead of having thousands of gold bars to draw from, Noss had only a few hundred that he had hidden in the desert. 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. Article content. 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.. Another source confirmed the manner and the circumstances of E.M. Guthries death, noting that it was listed as just a natural death, but hed been worked over with a baseball bat. This source said that he had hired a team of experienced investigators to dig into Guthries death and more than 30 other deaths in connection with a massive, continuing cover-up of the removal of gold from Victorio Peak. One partner, Charles Ryan, shot and killed Doc on March 5, 1949, in Hatch, N. M., after an argument. During World War II, he divorced his wife, Ova, and disappeared for several years. History [ edit] Doc Noss The treasure was allegedly found in 1937 by American businessman and gold prospector Milton Ernest "Doc" Noss. Estimates vary on the number of bars removed, ranging up to 350 or so. According to accounts from members of the Noss family, Doc bagged no deer, but he found something that whetted his appetite for the area a shaft near the top of Victorio Peak which led into the bowels of the mountain. The buried cache was said to have been stolen from the Chihauhua-Spanish by the Indians during the Indian uprisings. Doc Noss spent the next 10 years in intermittent efforts to regain access to the hoard, in vain. A treaty was reached between the tribe and the Federal government in Washington that the Indians could stay upon the land in New Mexico. 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. 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. After determining the accuracy of the two mens reports, the entire area was placed off-limits until an official investigation could be conducted. 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. Discovered by a . However, disputing the military claim, New Mexico officials stated that they leased only the lands surface to the military. He was barely able to lift one, much less think of carrying it back to the surface. A number of sources also independently named Major General John G. Shinkle, the commander of White Sands Missile Range from June 1960 to July 1962, as knowing about the movement of tons of gold from Victorio Peak. The Army put those fellows in there blind knowing they wouldn't find anything.. His warriors raided southern New Mexico and Texasin an all-out war against the U.S. Army and the Texas Rangers. Caballo Mountains - Also called Horse Mountains, the peaks are located 35 miles north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The Army then shut down all operations stating that no additional searches would be allowed. now. He bolted from the Mescalero reservation in 1879 and camped near Victoria Peak while plundering the countryside and raiding Wells Fargo stagecoaches. However, Terry Delonas, her grandson, continued the family tradition and formed the Ova Noss Family Partnership. 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. 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. 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. Seventy-nine skeletons were described in an adjacent cavern. The men believed that Porters friend was in a good position to help arrange an official government expedition to claim the gold. 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. While waiting for the rain to subside, he noticed a stone that looked as if it had been worked somehow. The gold was then shipped to Switzerland and sold in a new form in Zurich. Noss traveled down, passing caverns with Native American designs until he reached a room with hoards of gold, jewels, pouches, documents and 27 skeletons. As Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH . His wife and his two school-age children had also abruptly left. They had trekked in from Hot Springs, New Mexico, a town since renamed Truth or Consequences. He has recruited friends and investors to form the Ova Noss Family Partnership, named for his late grandmother, that is financing the new search. Four. 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. Attacking wagon trains, settlements, mail coaches, and churches, he took anything from them that they valued. One man, a Mr. 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. What looked to be a piece of iron was a solid gold bar. Some believe that Doc Noss found the Casa del Cueva de Oro, Spanish for the House of the Golden Cave. The Lue Map has very strange symbols. Reaching down, he could not budge it, but after digging around the rock, he got his hands under it. Case Mrs. Ova Noss said she shad filed papers retaining mineral rights in case the area opened up again. One group of claimants took the flashlight and provided the photo as evidence that they knew the location of the treasure. Instead, it has a "gross receipts tax." This is a tax levied on the business rather than the consumer, like in most states. 2003-2008 Church of Scientology International. New York Times, July 29, 1992 The gold concentrates by gravity in incised stream valleys and alluvial fans in deeply weathered highlands. After the death of Doc Noss, Ova and her family continued efforts to regain access to the big treasure room. some of the gold to Mexico, in light planes. 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. Another woman, now Mrs. Violet Yancy of Fort Worth, says she married Noss in 1947, that she is his legal widow, and that he gave her 76 per cent interest in the treasure. 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. Where they the plunder of Spanish conquistadores who had conquered the Aztecs? A jury ruled that Mr. Ryan had acted in self-defense. A Partner and a Gunfight. It could finally solve the mystery. At one time, he brought out a crown, which contained 243 diamonds and one pigeon-blood ruby. 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. 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. 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). Following 1937 Story of Buried Gold, Family Searches New Mexico's Sands, https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/29/us/following-1937-story-of-buried-gold-family-searches-new-mexico-s-sands.html. Mr. Bailey later dropped the matter. A small town was built near the place Peak and look, accompanied by the missile range commander, Maj. Gen. John G. Shinkle, military pblicemen and Treasury agents. When the rain finally stopped, Doc returned to camp, telling Babe of the discovery. Word of the Doc Noss treasure spread, and keeping people out of the area was no easy chore. 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. This has led to charges that military officers have stolen, are stealing, or are preparing to steal the treasure for themselves. This treasure was only the beginning. He used too much dynamite, and the cave collapsed, sealing in the treasure. Gold Bar Found Beneath Mexico City was Loot from Cortes' Aztec Retreat. With so many options available, APMEX has made it easy to find the right Gold bar for your collection or portfolio. The 1.93-kilogram bar was found . It was on Nov. 7, we had 11 families on a hunting trip and I was doing the cooking, she said in an interview at her daughter's home in Clovis, N. M. She said her husband, called Doc, had come back, to the camp that night and secretly told her of lowering himself with ropes down a crevice on Victoria Peak into caverns laden with coins, jewelry, guns, swords, letters, 27 human skeletons, and hundreds of metal bars that turned out to be gold. The two decided to keep the discovery between themselves and return to inspect the shaft later. 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