The gold was then shipped to Switzerland and sold in a new form in Zurich. 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. 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. CNN Almost four decades ago, a gold bar was found on land that used to be Aztec ruins in Mexico. Noss agreed with Ryan to exchange some of the gold bars for $25,000 to reopen the shaft. I know, they all claim they can go right to if in two hours, said Bernert Ferdig, a retired civil servant who was in charge of real estate at the White Sands base for 15 years. It has banned treasure hunters from the range since 1963. 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. The Lue Map has very strange symbols. This treasure was only the beginning. 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. 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. Lucky Gold Miners hit it Big in Downieville. hell, I'll get Eleanor.. And we were poor and I guess a little dumb. This theory explains the thousands of gold bars, antiquities, and artifacts dating more than 100 years later. Seventy-nine skeletons were described in an adjacent cavern. After 35 years of localized dispute, the Great White Sands Missile Range Lost Gold Treasure Affair has blossomed into a national mystery. 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. 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. Attacking wagon trains, settlements, mail coaches, and churches, he took anything from them that they valued. 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. 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. 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. Noss soon deserted Babe, and in November 1945, a divorce was granted. When Maxmillian heard of the plot to assassinate him, he moved his gold and treasures out of Mexico. The cave was covering a small tunnel, originally thought to be an abandoned mineshaft. The room had been undisturbed for so long that the dust, according to Berlett, lay several inches thick. Doc returned with a gold bar, presented it to his wife, Babe, and the couple soon dedicated their lives to exploring Victorio Peak, living in a tent at the base of the mountain in search of treasure. As the years passed, Babe Noss held onto her claim at Victorio Peak, occasionally hiring men to help her clear the shaft. But the expedition soon went broke, and the Army declared that it would allow no more searches. The. Unable to sell the gold bars on the open market, Noss was stymied but continued to work steadily to remove the treasure. In a deeper cavern, Doc found what he thought was a stack of worthless iron bars. Peak and look, accompanied by the missile range commander, Maj. Gen. John G. Shinkle, military pblicemen and Treasury agents. The major took the bar and told Porter to check back with him in a few days. Too much evidence supports the treasure, including photographs, affidavits, and relics held by the Noss family. Peering into the darkness, Doc saw an old man-made shaft with a thick, wooden pole attached at one side. On the night of September 1, 1968, Porter drove to the peak with a friend and a civilian security guard from White Sands Missile Range named Clarence McDonald. He told this writer that the gold bars in the cave were stacked like cordwood.. This Nevada Gold Mine Produces Amazing Crystalline Gold Nuggets! Mr. Noss, a traveling doctor who was known for a hot temper and an appetite for liquor, claimed that the cache consisted of Spanish artifacts and Wells Fargo chests, along with the gold. 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. Begrudgingly, he did so. Los Angeles Times But the legend of the hidden gold was fueled again during the Watergate hearings in 1973. Its occasional visitors included hunting parties, and Doc Noss and his wife, Ova, were on one such expedition in search of deer. ", 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. In 1963, the Army allowed a group of searchers, including Mrs. Noss, to search for the gold. At one time, he brought out a crown, which contained 243 diamonds and one pigeon-blood ruby. On the walls were drawings, some painted and others chiseled, that appeared to have been made by Indians. The Army says the gold was never found. 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. Background research into the enormous wealth contained in the caverns of Victorio Peak revealed many eyewitness reports of the gold. 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. They also were given and passed lie detector tests. A new scientific analysis of a large gold bar found decades ago in downtown Mexico City has confirmed it was part of the plunder Spanish conquistadors abandoned as they beat a temporary. Holes were drilled and it assayed at $20.67 an ounce, said Mrs. Noss. Discovered by a . In 1979, he sold a small mail-order business to devote full time to the search. Now, instead of having thousands of gold bars to draw from, Noss had only a few hundred that he had hidden in the desert. 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. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved). 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. 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. This writer conducted extensive interviews with Thomas Berlett. 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. Patterson, Don Breech, Edgar F. Foreman, Leo D. OConnell, Eppie Montoya and B.D. 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 . Lyndon Johnsons name loomed large in the information that Freedom uncovered, with various sources claiming that the president was instrumental in the planning and execution of the removal of the gold. However, it was a slow process, and in 1955, the White Sands Missile Range unexpectedly expanded their operations to encompass the Hembrillo Basin. [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. The peak, named after a 19th century Apache war chief, apparently served as a repository for immense quantities of gold mined centuries ago by Spaniards and Indians and smelted into tens of thousands of crudely formed bars. [6][5] By 1992, a grandson of Ova formed the Ova Noss Family Partnership to finance additional searching. The gold was supposedly removed from the cave and sent to Fort Knox. Yet, Doc trusted no one, not even his Babe, disappearing into the desert, hiding pieces of the treasure in places that he never revealed. 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. 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. He also found some old letters, the most recent of which was dated 1880. 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. Noss traveled down, passing caverns with Native American designs until he reached a room with hoards of gold, jewels, pouches, documents and 27 skeletons. They believe that sophisticated equipment like devices to take soundings showing whether there are underground caves will help this search succeed where other ventures failed. 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. 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. All four men Fiege, Thomas Berlett, Ken Prather and Milleadge Wessel were, at the time of their find, employees at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. For three months beginning on June 20, 1963, the group used various techniques to search the area; however, they failed to turn up anything. 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. His warriors raided southern New Mexico and Texasin an all-out war against the U.S. Army and the Texas Rangers. 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. 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. 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. I've heard that story at least 500 times. He was overcome with joy that they might be gold. 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. However, according to a group of researchers who published their findingsfroma seismic study in the 1990s, there definitely is a sizable cavern underneath Victorio Peak, meaning there may be some truth to the treasure. One partner, Charles Ryan, shot and killed Doc on March 5, 1949, in Hatch, N. M., after an argument. Victorio knew how much the white man valued gold and had little use for it himself; he amassed vast amounts of treasure by attacking the white settlers. Description: Victorio Peak is surrounded by inhospitable environment near Hot Springs, New Mexico. Parts of the treasure were described as gold, silver, jewels and as many as 16,000 gold bars estimated around $1.7 billion dollars. 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 priest named LaRue at Durango in northern Mexico was looking after the soldier who told the priest . 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. This was shortly before a much-publicized expedition, entitled Operation Goldfinder, took place at the site in March 1977. As Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH . White Sands, New Mexico by the National Park Service. 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 . November 16, 2015. Although a suitable path fit for wagons couldn't be found, traces of gold were found somewhere close to Silver City to the north. During fluvial events, large volumes of sediment containing free gold are transported and deposited in relatively poorly-sorted alluvial and stream deposits. 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. The answer could be worth billions of dollars. 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. Did they even exist at all? But the matter would not rest. That I knew E.M. Guthrie had taken an active personal interest in the fate of gold located in Victorio Peak by Doc Noss. 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). 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. All told, he reportedly found 27 human skeletons in the caverns of the mountain. 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. Montgomery, the two went into the mountain to blast out the shaft. 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. 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. 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. By James P. Sterba Special to The New York Times. In the room were two large stacks of gold bars, each roughly six feet high, three feet wide and eight feet long. 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. Recreational mining continues intermittently in the White Oaks, Pittsburg, Hillsboro, Orogrande and Jicarilla districts to the present day. If the treasure was real, Noss had poor timing. He did, only to find that in the short, three-day interim the major had been whisked away, transferred to the Pentagon. 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. New York Times, July 29, 1992 Ryan was charged with murder but was later acquitted. Caballo Mountains - Also called Horse Mountains, the peaks are located 35 miles north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Noss refused to obey, and Ryan fired again, hitting Noss in the head, killing him instantly. Then, in 1942 or 1943, she isn't sure, he tried to blast the tunnel bigger in order to haul up more gold bars at one time. Many years later, a man named Milton Ernest Doc Noss spent some time exploring Victorio Peak while on a deer hunt. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. This time, the military began a full-scale mining operation at the Peak. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. The family declines to discuss the incident. If nothing else, he said, an exhaustive search would lay to rest a question that has driven the family for more than 50 years. 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. 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. The rate of this tax varies from 5.125% to 8.8675% depending on where the business is . Mrs. Noss now says she never heard about the divorce and as serts that she is his legal widow. now. It could finally solve the mystery. some of the gold to Mexico, in light planes. Moon, said that he was from the White House Secret Service detail and he showed the officer a green, laminated card which stated Secret Service, Division of the White House. Another man, an engineer named Dick Richardson, told the officer that he was a boyhood friend of Lyndon Johnsons and that he had personally counted 18,888 gold bars in one stack in a cavern at Victorio Peak, each bar weighing about 60 pounds. Many Noss family members and friends believe that the military exploited Babes claim and that the treasure is now gone. Subsequently, he also filed several mining claims on and around Victorio Peak and a treasure trove claim. They come in a variety of weights, fineness and designs. The Army, which controls the missile range, insists there is no treasure and has never been any. In 1963, the Army, consented to another search by a Denver mining company sponsored by the Museum of New Mexico. 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. 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. 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. He said he often grew angry that his grandmother was ignored or ridiculed for her efforts. But before that happened, he must have hauled 500 or 600 bars of gold out of there and hid them, contended Mrs. Guthrie. The horde of an Apache chief? 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. 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. Mr. Koury asserted that the General first denied the search was on but admitted it later when sworn statements from the spies were produced. 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