According to the security guard, Johnson and Connally headed a team which brought in sophisticated excavation equipment to remove gold from the peak, the most modern Ive ever seen, he said. Ryan was charged with murder but was later acquitted. That three or four weeks later Frank Foss told me that E.M. had called him and said he was in Central America. Representative Harold Runnels, a Democrat whose district includes the White Sands range, has proposed a joint Federalstate search for the treasure. In the spring of 1938, Doc Noss and Babe went to Santa Fe to establish legal ownership of the find, filing a lease with the State of New Mexico for the entire section of land surrounding Victorio Peak. . 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. 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. 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. 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. Doc attempted illegally to sell his gold for nine years, but it wasnt easy finding buyers. What looked to be a piece of iron was a solid gold bar. [5] She later was part of an unsuccessful 1963 search. After scraping a small section of the bar clean, she exclaimed, Doc, this is gold!. The dispute was finally worked out when a federal court issued a compromise of sorts, which stated the Army would continue to use the lands surface, but no one would be allowed on the property without the Armys consent. Among those who attested to the accessibility of the peaks treasure was Lynn Porter, a businessman now residing in San Diego, California. 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. These materials, including tape-recorded sessions wherein Lyndon Johnson discussed the disposition of some of the gold bars on his ranch, disappeared from Holmes office at the time of his death in February 1977. Reportedly the military was able to penetrate one of the caves and inventory the contents. The two decided to keep the discovery between themselves and return to inspect the shaft later. However, Noss demanded to see the money before revealing the new hiding place. 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. Mrs. Noss now says she never heard about the divorce and as serts that she is his legal widow. They believe that if the Lue Map and the hieroglyphs could be deciphered then the gold bars could be found. Meanwhile, Babe Noss had filed a counter-claim on the entire area. Mr. Bailey later dropped the matter. Deferring to Docs belief that the gold would all be taken by the government should his find become too broadly known, the work force was confined to the immediate family and a couple of handfuls of trusted associates. 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. Begrudgingly, he did so. Discovered by a . 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. Anyone can read what you share. 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. Later, Fiege would take a lie detector test, which would allow Fiege back on the missile range. 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.. Berlett and Fiege had found a different passage into Victorio Peak, leading into a different chamber. hell, I'll get Eleanor.. See the article in its original context from. 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. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved ). 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. Treasure Net Forum 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.. Meanwhile, Tony Jolley, now a 69-year-old rancher living outside Boise, Ida., never forgot those bars of gold he helped bury in 1949. Estimates vary on the number of bars removed, ranging up to 350 or so. Mr. Noss returned in the late 1940's with a new wife, and a business partner. 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. Four. The bars that Noss and his crew removed from Victorio Peak were, in general, crudely formed, indicating the use of primitive smelting processes. The family declines to discuss the incident. They had trekked in from Hot Springs, New Mexico, a town since renamed Truth or Consequences. The. 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. In addition, Victorio Peak lay on land owned by the state of New Mexico, and removal of gold without permission of the state violated New Mexico law.4. A deal with a man named Charlie Ryan went south, and Noss was gunned down. 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. The Mystery Of The Lost Victorio Peak Treasure, a group of researchers who published their findings. 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. One group of claimants took the flashlight and provided the photo as evidence that they knew the location of the treasure. Because of this natural concentration, some placers are richer in gold than the original lode deposits. Did they even exist at all? 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). Attacking wagon trains, settlements, mail coaches, and churches, he took anything from them that they valued. At least one close relative was convinced that Atkins death was not accidental and that it was directly related to his getting too close to the true story of Victorio Peak. When Maxmillian heard of the plot to assassinate him, he moved his gold and treasures out of Mexico. 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. Joe Andregg, an electrician from Santa Fe, New Mexico, reflected on the days when he worked with Doc Noss in the late 1930s. Lifting the rock, he found a hole that led straight down into the mountain. Parts of the treasure were described as gold, silver, jewels and as many as 16,000 gold bars estimated around $1.7 billion dollars. Case Beyond the Hembrillo Basin is a hundred-mile stretch of desert known as the Jornada del Muerto. This Nevada Gold Mine Produces Amazing Crystalline Gold Nuggets! Most placer deposits in New Mexico had been discovered by 1900. Another concerns renegades who robbed the Monterey Mint in 1743 and were in turn attacked by Apaches. 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. 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. Native gold and electrum occurs with quartz, magnetite, ilmenite, amphiboles, pyroxenes, pyrite, zircon, garnet, rutile, and a variety of other heavy minerals. Seventy-nine skeletons were described in an adjacent cavern. Finally reaching the bottom, Doc stepped into a chamber the size of a small room. But, she said, mint officers confiscated the five bars and gave her husband a receipt for $97,000. A third, smaller stack, pyramidal in shape, stood about three feet high. He has recruited friends and investors to form the Ova Noss Family Partnership, named for his late grandmother, that is financing the new search. Lampros later signed sworn affidavits regarding their experiences. In November 1937, Doc, Babe, and four others left on a deer hunt into the Hembrillo Basin. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Yet, Doc trusted no one, not even his Babe, disappearing into the desert, hiding pieces of the treasure in places that he never revealed. 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. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. 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 as they fled the Aztec capital . But the matter would not rest. 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. 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. The 1.93-kilogram. Doc thought that he had discovered an old abandoned mineshaft. According to Berlett, the four men proceeded down a fault into the peak for about 150 feet, at which point their progress was stopped by a large boulder. She appealed to state officials, who forced the search to stop. Noss agreed with Ryan to exchange some of the gold bars for $25,000 to reopen the shaft. Ryan hinted that if Noss did not reveal the whereabouts of the gold, Doc would not live to enjoy it. Near the bottom, he encountered a huge boulder hanging from the ceiling, almost blocking his way. Still another source reported knowledge of aircraft movements of the gold from Chihuahua to Vancouver, British Columbia, during the period of Johnsons presidency. It is estimated that 662,000 oz of gold have been produced from placer deposits throughout New Mexico from 1828 to 1991. He used too much dynamite, and the cave collapsed, sealing in the treasure. Doc was trying to obey the law but they grabbed our gold, Mrs. Noss said, He blew up. (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 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. 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. Now, researchers say the bar was. The military claim stemmed from a statement made by New Mexico officials on November 14, 1951, which withdrew prospecting, entry, location, and purchase under the mining laws, reserving the land for military use only. For the next few years, Mr. Noss sought partners to help him find the gold. But in a dispute over the treasure in 1949, the business partner, Charlie Ryan, shot Mr. Noss to death. Returning through the main cavern, he noticed an immense stack of metal bars off to one side. However, the expert won the argument. The Lue Map has very strange symbols. 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. They even brought in their own security guards, he added. 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. 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. Some believe that Doc Noss found the Casa del Cueva de Oro, Spanish for the House of the Golden Cave. He told this writer that the gold bars in the cave were stacked like cordwood.. Ferdig, adding, The trouble with treasure stories is that there's always a little truth in them.. Jan 20, 2020 Ian Harvey. 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. On the walls were drawings, some painted and others chiseled, that appeared to have been made by Indians. 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. However, Doc was unable to capitalize on the gold bars, as four years before his discovery, Congress had passed the Gold Act, which outlawed the private ownership of gold. 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. 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. Reaching down, he could not budge it, but after digging around the rock, he got his hands under it. 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. The future economic potential will depend upon the discovery of large-volume, medium-grade deposits that can be mined by bulk-mining methods. 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. The cloud of death shrouding Victorio Peak has reached far. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 7 Louisiana Ghost Towns Hidden Deep in the Bayou. 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. 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. Six men who worked with Doc in removing the gold C.D. As a child, he said he remembered his grandmother, Ova Noss, talking about it ceaselessly. In 1958, Leonard V. 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