gold bars found in new mexico
In 1963, the Army, consented to another search by a Denver mining company sponsored by the Museum of New Mexico. 'Like Any Other Client'. 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. In 1979, Babe died without ever finding the treasure. But in a dispute over the treasure in 1949, the business partner, Charlie Ryan, shot Mr. Noss to death. This could explain the skeletons in the cavern. As a child, he said he remembered his grandmother, Ova Noss, talking about it ceaselessly. After discovering the treasure, Doc and Babe spent every free moment exploring the tunnels inside the mountain, living in a tent at the base of the peak. If the treasure was real, Noss had poor timing. The Lue Map has very strange symbols. 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. 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 Trademark Information on Scientology Services. Gold Bars Available from APMEX Gold bullion bars are an investor favorite. Beyond that there is supposed to be another incline upward at about 30 degrees for some distance (40 feet as I remember it) where entrance is gained to a cave some 2700 feet long which contains many evidences that the cave was occupied as living quarters by a large group of humans for many years., The group evidently had some grisly practices, for the first thing Doc Noss encountered was a row of skeletons, 27 in all. The cave was covering a small tunnel, originally thought to be an abandoned mineshaft. The initial soundings appear to indicate a cavern precisely where Mr. Noss described. 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. Mrs. Noss now says she never heard about the divorce and as serts that she is his legal widow. However, Terry Delonas, her grandson, continued the family tradition and formed the Ova Noss Family Partnership. After the death of Doc Noss, Ova and her family continued efforts to regain access to the big treasure room. All attempts failed, leaving him an embittered and angry man, which caused problems in his marriage. A source interviewed in Mexico stated that it was common knowledge in the towns of Jimenez and Camargo that Johnsons 110,000-acre ranch in Chihuahua served as a storage area for a very large amount of gold flown in by a four-engine, propeller-driven aircraft in the late 1960s. Now, scientists confirm it was part of a plunder by Spanish conquistador Hernn. This was shortly before a much-publicized expedition, entitled Operation Goldfinder, took place at the site in March 1977. Four. 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. 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. The peak is riddled with a network of tunnels. 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. Article content. 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. Discovered by a . Montgomery, the two went into the mountain to blast out the shaft. But the expedition soon went broke, and the Army declared that it would allow no more searches. About $250,000 was spent, core holes were drilled, seismic tests were taken, and nothing was found. Hearing about the story, Captain Swanner, who was stationed at White Sands Missile Range in the early 1960s, came forward. A priest named LaRue at Durango in northern Mexico was looking after the soldier who told the priest . This has led to charges that military officers have stolen, are stealing, or are preparing to steal the treasure for themselves. Acquitted on grounds of selfdefense, Mr. Ryan testified that Doc had promised him 51 bars of gold in return for his $27,000 investment. The mystery boils down to a single question: Was Milton (Doc) Noss telling the truth, or just a tall tale? 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. Too much evidence supports the treasure, including photographs, affidavits, and relics held by the Noss family. Two years later, he married Violet Lena Boles, which would further complicate ownership of the treasure rights for years to come. 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. Mr. Delonas said the legend of the buried treasure obsessed the family for generations. Topic at Watergate Hearings. All told, he reportedly found 27 human skeletons in the caverns of the mountain. General Shinkle finally had enough and ordered everyone out. He estimated there were thousands of these bars, each weighing over 40 pounds stacked against a wall. In a hunt that began last Thursday, Mr. Delonas's group has been given one year to search for the 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. The 1.93-kilogram bar was found . He estimated the total amount of gold coming from the peak at a staggering 96 million troy ounces, worth, at $320 an ounce, nearly $31 billion. 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. In the meantime, Mrs. Noss said her spies, illegally visited the peak and found military men excavating it. Lucky Gold Miners hit it Big in Downieville. The reports of the massive treasure would consume his marriage and eventually his life, and mysteries around the treasure persist to this day (via Legends of America). But while trying to blast his way to the gold in 1939, he accidentally closed the hole. Mrs. Ova Noss said she shad filed papers retaining mineral rights in case the area opened up again. Sometime around the year 1830, travelers were trying to find a new way to reach California from the newly opened route of Santa Fe. They also were given and passed lie detector tests. They come in a variety of weights, fineness and designs. That I knew E.M. Guthrie had taken an active personal interest in the fate of gold located in Victorio Peak by Doc Noss. Two airmen from nearby Holloman Air Force Base would later say that they had found the gold cavern from another natural opening in the side of the peak. Although a suitable path fit for wagons couldn't be found, traces of gold were found somewhere close to Silver City to the north. Reached for comment in Cocoa Beach, Florida, General Shinkle adamantly denied any knowledge of the gold and refused to comment at all on the story. Within moments he found more skeletons, most of them bound and secured to stakes like the first. 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. Fearing a Federal swindle at the time, Noss returned to Victoria Peak, carrying out gold bars and hiding them, Mrs. Guthrie said. Kathy Weiser-Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2021. It could finally solve the mystery. The bars that Noss and his crew removed from Victorio Peak were, in general, crudely formed, indicating the use of primitive smelting processes. 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. 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. 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 . Fueled by suspicions that the military was working her claim, Babe Noss hired four men to enter the range secretly. Where they the plunder of Spanish conquistadores who had conquered the Aztecs? 7 Louisiana Ghost Towns Hidden Deep in the Bayou. Peak and look, accompanied by the missile range commander, Maj. Gen. John G. Shinkle, military pblicemen and Treasury agents. The horde of an Apache chief? 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. Published historic reserves exist for only two districts: Jicarilla with 5.4 million yd3 of 0.043 oz Au/yd3, or approximately 230,000 oz Au in place and Pittsburg with 2 million yd3 of 0.01 oz Au/yd3, or approximately 20,000 oz Au in place in 1936. The family declines to discuss the incident. Though caught trespassing and escorted from the area, the men reported observing several men in Army fatigues upon the peak. Mr. Bailey claimed that given a helicopter and a half-hour, he could find 292 gold bars. The night before his death, perhaps sensing that a business deal was going sour, Doc enlisted the aid of a cowboy named Tony Jolley to shuffle the locations of various stashes of the bars. In 1948, Doc met Charles Ryan, a Texan involved in drilling operations and oil exploration in West Texas. As the years passed, Babe Noss held onto her claim at Victorio Peak, occasionally hiring men to help her clear the shaft. He also told his wife that there were enough gold and silver coins to load 60 to 80 mules.. 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. Native gold and electrum occurs with quartz, magnetite, ilmenite, amphiboles, pyroxenes, pyrite, zircon, garnet, rutile, and a variety of other heavy minerals. Some believe that Doc Noss found the Casa del Cueva de Oro, Spanish for the House of the Golden Cave. In effect, no one could mine the treasure, and that included the Army and Babe Noss. The economic potential of placer deposits in New Mexico is unknown and most known economic placers in the state have been worked. Los Angeles Times South Pass City - A Look into Wyoming's Past. There were 110 gold bars moved that night, according to an affidavit obtained by this writer and sworn to by Jolley. [6][5] By 1992, a grandson of Ova formed the Ova Noss Family Partnership to finance additional searching. 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. Doc Noss was extremely paranoid and buried everything he took out of the caves, not even trusting his wife, Babe. A narrow passage through rocks kept the bulky Porter from following the other two men into the depths of the 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. The gold bar had disappeared without a trace. 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. A third story asserts that Geronimo hid, Apache booty in the area. 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. The men believed that Porters friend was in a good position to help arrange an official government expedition to claim the gold. An investigation by Freedom has probed the history of that region, particularly the nearly 49 years since gold bars were first found in that area in November 1937 by a man named Milton Ernest "Doc" Noss, as fascinating a character as ever held a six-gun. Mr. Noss returned in the late 1940's with a new wife, and a business partner. Nearly choking, the two men hastily marked their claim and made their exit. At one time, he brought out a crown, which contained 243 diamonds and one pigeon-blood ruby. In November 1958, a team of four weekend gold seekers rediscovered the hoard. He has recruited friends and investors to form the Ova Noss Family Partnership, named for his late grandmother, that is financing the new search. However, Terry Delongas stated, Were not accusing the military of stealing the gold, but I do feel that the Department of the Army in the 1960s treated my grandmother unfairly However, weve worked very hard over the years to establish a working relationship with the military, and were certainly not going to jeopardize that by accusing them of theft.. Did they even exist at all? Over the weekend, he said, someone found the chest he had buried with gold nuggets, coins, gems and artifacts. Others speculate that the treasure could be the missing wealth of Emperor Maxmillian, who served as Mexicos emperor in the 1860s. In 1955, the missile range was expanded and, the Army closed Victoria Peak to outsiders. 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 Lost Padre Gold Mine in New Mexico. now. 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