Kathy Weiser-Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2021. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About $250,000 was spent, core holes were drilled, seismic tests were taken, and nothing was found. 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. 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. On the walls were drawings, some painted and others chiseled, that appeared to have been made by Indians. 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. 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. The room had been undisturbed for so long that the dust, according to Berlett, lay several inches thick. For three months beginning on June 20, 1963, the group used various techniques to search the area; however, they failed to turn up anything. See the article in its original context from. 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. Doc Noss was extremely paranoid and buried everything he took out of the caves, not even trusting his wife, Babe. Doc mentioned nothing of his find to the group, choosing instead to return to the site a couple of days later with Ova. Doc thought that he had discovered an old abandoned mineshaft. 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. A Partner and a Gunfight. Now, scientists confirm it was part of a plunder by Spanish conquistador Hernn. Most deposits are thin and less than 45 ft below the surface, but thicker deposits are found in the Elizabethtown-Baldy district (up to 275 ft) and in the Rio Grande Valley district (up to 370 ft). Gold Bar Found Beneath Mexico City was Loot from Cortes' Aztec Retreat. CNN Almost four decades ago, a gold bar was found on land that used to be Aztec ruins in Mexico. 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. 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. Seventy-nine skeletons were described in an adjacent cavern. Sometime around the year 1830, travelers were trying to find a new way to reach California from the newly opened route of Santa Fe. 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. But in a dispute over the treasure in 1949, the business partner, Charlie Ryan, shot Mr. Noss to death. In a deeper cavern, Doc found what he thought was a stack of worthless iron bars. 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. (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 After the discovery, Fiege told several people that he had caved in the roof and walls to make it look like the tunnel ended. 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. 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. 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. A small town was built near the place 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. 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.. 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. 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. 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. Noss soon deserted Babe, and in November 1945, a divorce was granted. He also asserts that military security officers censored out of his report all references to military searches for the treasure. All Rights Reserved. The caverns are located in and around Victorio Peak, in a remote, rugged section of south-central New Mexico. After the discovery, Fiege told several people that he had caved in the roof and walls to make it look like the tunnel ended. 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. In 1948, Doc met Charles Ryan, a Texan involved in drilling operations and oil exploration in West Texas. 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. Each skeleton had its hands bound behind it to a large wooden stake driven into the ground. Forrest . and Montana Ave. in El Paso, Texas, to visit with a friend, Frank Foss, owner of the station. With legal ownership established, Noss began to work the claim openly, but he also became increasingly paranoid, hiding the gold bars all over the desert. Over the weekend, he said, someone found the chest he had buried with gold nuggets, coins, gems and artifacts. 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. The next day, March 5, 1949, Ryan arrived in the area, insisting that they discuss the problem of what happened to the gold. The. In all, eight persons told this writer they had received direct threats against their lives or against the lives of their families. 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. The fortune of a Mexican emperor? White Sands, New Mexico by the National Park Service. In effect, no one could mine the treasure, and that included the Army and Babe Noss. An intense argument ensued, and Noss headed toward his car. However, Noss demanded to see the money before revealing the new hiding place. Montgomery, the two went into the mountain to blast out the shaft. 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. Hunting by himself, Doc scouted the base of the mountain. After 35 years of localized dispute, the Great White Sands Missile Range Lost Gold Treasure Affair has blossomed into a national mystery. By this time, Babes story had spread across the nation, profiled in several magazines and newspapers. Los Angeles Times Mr. Bailey claimed that given a helicopter and a half-hour, he could find 292 gold bars. Many years later, a man named Milton Ernest Doc Noss spent some time exploring Victorio Peak while on a deer hunt. He also told his wife that there were enough gold and silver coins to load 60 to 80 mules.. However, Terry Delonas, her grandson, continued the family tradition and formed the Ova Noss Family Partnership. They come in a variety of weights, fineness and designs. 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. 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. In a four-page confidential report entitled Field Examination of Noss Mining Claims, Hembrillo District, Herkenhoff recorded a description: Dr. At one end of the chamber, the shaft continued downward. McLemore, V.T., 2001, Silver and gold resources in New Mexico: New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, Resource Map 21, 60 p. Luterbach, T.D., and McLemore, V.T. It is estimated that 662,000 oz of gold have been produced from placer deposits throughout New Mexico from 1828 to 1991. It has banned treasure hunters from the range since 1963. In 1963, the Army allowed a group of searchers, including Mrs. Noss, to search for the gold. 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. Now, instead of having thousands of gold bars to draw from, Noss had only a few hundred that he had hidden in the desert. The whole truth will probably never be known, but there is no doubt that a treasure existed. 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. 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.. The family declines to discuss the incident. If the treasure was real, Noss had poor timing. 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. 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. [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. Try as he would, Captain Fiege could not penetrate the opening he had used just three years earlier. In November 1937, Doc, Babe, and four others left on a deer hunt into the Hembrillo Basin. Decades of Searching. 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. Within moments he found more skeletons, most of them bound and secured to stakes like the first. Discovered by a . In 1939, he hired a mining engineer to try to open a wider passage into Victorio Peak, but the attempt was disastrous and there was a massive cave-in. 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. Where they the plunder of Spanish conquistadores who had conquered the Aztecs? 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. 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. 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. No one in the provost marshals office to whom Porter talked would admit to knowing anything about the gold, and he was warned by the provost marshal that any future trespassing would be dealt with severely. 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. 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. Lack of water has hampered mining in many districts and new technology, which minimizes water usage, may stimulate activity. 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. One partner, Charles Ryan, shot and killed Doc on March 5, 1949, in Hatch, N. M., after an argument. Its occasional visitors included hunting parties, and Doc Noss and his wife, Ova, were on one such expedition in search of deer. McGuires Place 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. His wife and his two school-age children had also abruptly left. 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. All attempts failed, leaving him an embittered and angry man, which caused problems in his marriage. A narrow passage through rocks kept the bulky Porter from following the other two men into the depths of the peak. 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. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved ). According to this source, a B-24 was used to transport at least seven loads of the peaks gold, with up to 20 tons of gold moving in each load. 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. Fueled by suspicions that the military was working her claim, Babe Noss hired four men to enter the range secretly. Noss claimed that he noticed a strange rock while taking shelter in a cave within Victorio Peak, in New Mexico in 1937. 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 . By James P. Sterba Special to The New York Times. Because of this natural concentration, some placers are richer in gold than the original lode deposits. Legend says he sent a palace full of valuables to the United States to be hidden. Work beneath the city has not slowed, and as science advances . 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? : Did 'Doc' Noss Really Find Caverns of Gold or Did He Pull Off a Hoax That Has Plagued His Kin for Years? After more than a year's effort, he took five bars to the Denver Mint. 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). A third story asserts that Geronimo hid, Apache booty in the area. 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. For the next few years, Mr. Noss sought partners to help him find 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. Now there were two military commands involved. The skeletons hands were bound behind its back apparently, the person had been deliberately left there to die. Further, they stated that underground wealth, in whatever form it took, belonged to the state or any legal license holders. 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. Reaching a compromise, the military allowed Expeditions Unlimited, representing all of the claimants, to excavate the peak in 1977. 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