Berlett and Fiege formed a corporation to protect what they had found and make a formal application to enter White Sands for a search and retrieval of the gold. In the summer of 1961, upon the advice of the Director of the Mint, Major General John Shinkle of White Sands allowed Captain Fiege, Captain Orby Swanner, Major Kelly, and Colonel Gorman to work the claim. To further complicate things, rumors swirled about various factions smuggling. 2003-2008 Church of Scientology International. 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. At one end of the chamber, the shaft continued downward. 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. 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. The two decided to keep the discovery between themselves and return to inspect the shaft later. 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. In 1979, he sold a small mail-order business to devote full time to the search. Los Angeles Times Yet, Doc trusted no one, not even his Babe, disappearing into the desert, hiding pieces of the treasure in places that he never revealed. 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. 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. After much searching, he finally found a small iron bar to carry back through the narrow passageway. Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology (INAH) says it has now confirmed that a 1.93-kilogram gold bar was part of looted Aztec treasure (AFP Photo/Jesus VALDOVINOS) A gold bar, found 15 feet down in a Mexico City park in 1981, was just announced to have been part of Montezuma's treasure. Doc later brought one of the eerie things out.2. Lack of water has hampered mining in many districts and new technology, which minimizes water usage, may stimulate activity. In March of 1949 I handled 110 rough poured bars of gold in the area which is now White Sands Missile Range which is now the area of Victorio Peak. Several smaller rooms had been chiseled from the rock along one wall. Did they even exist at all? 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. Joe Andregg, an electrician from Santa Fe, New Mexico, reflected on the days when he worked with Doc Noss in the late 1930s. Finally, others believe that the treasures were hidden by Chief Victorio, for whom the peak is named. Case Kathy Weiser-Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2021. 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. He was barely able to lift one, much less think of carrying it back to 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. [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. In one of the most closely guarded crimes of recent history, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tons of gold bullion were secretly and illegally removed from caverns on White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the beneficiaries allegedly including former President Lyndon Johnson and individuals connected with the U.S. Army, the Central Intelligence Agency and organized crime. 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. Parts of the treasure were described as gold, silver, jewels and as many as 16,000 gold bars estimated around $1.7 billion dollars. If the treasure was real, Noss had poor timing. Within moments he found more skeletons, most of them bound and secured to stakes like the first. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. This writer conducted extensive interviews with Thomas Berlett. 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. 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. 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 . But the matter would not rest. Babe then began a regular correspondence with the military requesting permission to work her claim, but she was always denied. The Army put those fellows in there blind knowing they wouldn't find anything.. He was overcome with joy that they might be gold. It has banned treasure hunters from the range since 1963. Trace element analysis of placer gold can be used as a valuable exploration tool in order to determine the original deposit source and locating lode gold deposits. Doc Noss was born in Oklahoma and traveled all over the Southwest, seeking excitement. 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. 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. Topic at Watergate Hearings. Native gold and electrum occurs with quartz, magnetite, ilmenite, amphiboles, pyroxenes, pyrite, zircon, garnet, rutile, and a variety of other heavy minerals. 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. Now, researchers say the bar was. The rate of this tax varies from 5.125% to 8.8675% depending on where the business is . When it began to rain, Doc sought shelter under a rocky overhang near the mountains summit. When Docs story eventually hit the headlines, scholars began speculating on how the enormous treasure could have come to be stashed inside Victorio Peak. 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. In 1963, the Army, consented to another search by a Denver mining company sponsored by the Museum of New Mexico. This was shortly before a much-publicized expedition, entitled Operation Goldfinder, took place at the site in March 1977. The gold was supposedly removed from the cave and sent to Fort Knox. After determining the accuracy of the two mens reports, the entire area was placed off-limits until an official investigation could be conducted. The major took the bar and told Porter to check back with him in a few days. Where they the plunder of Spanish conquistadores who had conquered the Aztecs? For three months beginning on June 20, 1963, the group used various techniques to search the area; however, they failed to turn up anything. Exploring further, he found even more skeletons stacked in a small enclosure, much like a burial chamber. But in 1977, the Army agreed to allow some searchers with competing claims, including Mrs. Noss, to search the grounds. You just couldn't trust anybody and still can't, she said. Before leaving, both men had observed an old wooden cross on one of the walls. Several sand and gravel operators periodically extract minor quantities of placer gold from their quarries. Subsequently, he also filed several mining claims on and around Victorio Peak and a treasure trove claim. 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? In 1933, he married Ova Babe Beckworth, and the two settled down in Hot Springs, New Mexico, which later changed its name to Truth or Consequences. The skeletons hands were bound behind its back apparently, the person had been deliberately left there to die. 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. Ova convinced Doc to return to the big cave and bring one of the heavy bars back up. 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. Ova Noss took up the search, without success. Once again, Doc began to descend about 125 feet before the shaft again leveled off into a large natural cavern. The cloud of death shrouding Victorio Peak has reached far. As Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH . The family declines to discuss the incident. 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. 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. The Army, which controls the missile range, insists there is no treasure and has never been any. He worked with a succession of partners, the last of whom, Charlie Ryan of Alice, Texas, shot and killed Noss in an altercation in Hatch, New Mexico, on March 5, 1949. Hunting by himself, Doc scouted the base of the mountain. Shriver estimated the total amount of gold removed from Victorio Peak at 25 million troy ounces, of which 10 million came out in 1976. 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. 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. 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. Shriver also said that he had copies of other presidential messages, several initialed by LBJ, dealing with the clandestine, illegal removal of the gold. Further, they stated that underground wealth, in whatever form it took, belonged to the state or any legal license holders. 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. 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. Seventy-nine skeletons were described in an adjacent cavern. In the meantime, Mrs. Noss said her spies, illegally visited the peak and found military men excavating it. Lost Treasures, Recent Posts. 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. 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 . During World War II, he divorced his wife, Ova, and disappeared for several years. 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. 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. Rare Gold Nuggets. 2016, Trace Element Analysis of Placer Gold Samples (abstr. 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. Four. The future economic potential will depend upon the discovery of large-volume, medium-grade deposits that can be mined by bulk-mining methods. A jury ruled that Mr. Ryan had acted in self-defense. Noss traveled down, passing caverns with Native American designs until he reached a room with hoards of gold, jewels, pouches, documents and 27 skeletons. 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. Over the weekend, he said, someone found the chest he had buried with gold nuggets, coins, gems and artifacts. 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 were searching in the wrong place, Mrs. Noss said. 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. 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. In the room were two large stacks of gold bars, each roughly six feet high, three feet wide and eight feet long. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Fueled by suspicions that the military was working her claim, Babe Noss hired four men to enter the range secretly. He was also known to take prisoners back to the Basin, where he subjected them to elaborate torture tests before killing them. Work beneath the city has not slowed, and as science advances . [1][a] While there have been multiple documented expeditions to the peak, no gold has been officially recorded as being recovered from the site. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. 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 . A four-pound gold bar found on a building site in downtown Mexico City last month is believed to be part of the treasure seized from the Aztec Emperor Montezuma II by the Spanish. A third, smaller stack, pyramidal in shape, stood about three feet high. The flamboyant lawyer F. Lee Bailey once said he represented 50 unnamed clients. 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. Many streams in New Mexico contain at least traces of gold, enough to satisfy weekend gold panners. 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. Although the originals have never been recovered, a copy of one of the documents proved to be a translation from Pope Pius III. 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. New York Times, July 29, 1992 Patterson, Don Breech, Edgar F. Foreman, Leo D. OConnell, Eppie Montoya and B.D. General Shinkle finally had enough and ordered everyone out. In 1981, a worker in Mexico City found a gold bar just north of Alameda Centralthe oldest public park in the Americasduring the construction of a bank. He did, only to find that in the short, three-day interim the major had been whisked away, transferred to the Pentagon. Mr. Noss returned in the late 1940's with a new wife, and a business partner. Speaking to a Noss family member, he stated that he had been the Chief of Security in 1961 and was sent to inspect the report made by Airman Berlett and Captain Fiege. But the legend of the hidden gold was fueled again during the Watergate hearings in 1973. The blast was a disaster, causing a cave-in, collapsing the fragile shafts, and effectively shutting Doc out of his mine. Even though the military refused any of Babes efforts to work her claim, it did not refuse other military personnel from exploring portions of Victorio Peak. 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. This Nevada Gold Mine Produces Amazing Crystalline Gold Nuggets! 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. Legend says he sent a palace full of valuables to the United States to be hidden. Thayer Snipes of El Paso, Texas, swore to an affidavit regarding another death. The. This was the beginning of protracted legal battles over the ownership of the claim. 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. A Partner and a Gunfight. Nearly choking, the two men hastily marked their claim and made their exit. A narrow passage through rocks kept the bulky Porter from following the other two men into the depths of the peak. Reportedly, he amassed a treasure of gold, silver, and jewels before being ordered back to Mexico City in 1607. In 1828, large placer deposits were found in the Ortiz Mountains in Santa Fe County (Old Placers district, DIS187), which began one of the earliest gold rushes in the western United States. And for good reason. 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. The Army then shut down all operations stating that no additional searches would be allowed. 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. Though caught trespassing and escorted from the area, the men reported observing several men in Army fatigues upon the peak. He estimated there were thousands of these bars, each weighing over 40 pounds stacked against a wall. The bars that Noss and his crew removed from Victorio Peak were, in general, crudely formed, indicating the use of primitive smelting processes. 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. Gold also concentrates above cemented gravels and clay layers within gravel deposits, which constrain downward migration of gold particles. Asked about the bars, he said, I sawed one in two with a hacksaw., One person who worked with Doc Noss inside the cave was Jose Serafin Sedillo of Cuchillo, New Mexico. They found nothing. He bolted from the Mescalero reservation in 1879 and camped near Victoria Peak while plundering the countryside and raiding Wells Fargo stagecoaches. 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. Noss refused to obey, and Ryan fired again, hitting Noss in the head, killing him instantly. 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. 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. After the discovery, Fiege told several people that he had caved in the roof and walls to make it look like the tunnel ended. Floyd and his friend Pat were getting ready to look for treasure in an area where Pat found found three old metal bars in a cave on the old Spanish trail in New Mexico. 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. Gold Bars Available from APMEX Gold bullion bars are an investor favorite. 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. Its occasional visitors included hunting parties, and Doc Noss and his wife, Ova, were on one such expedition in search of deer. The buried cache was said to have been stolen from the Chihauhua-Spanish by the Indians during the Indian uprisings. A priest named LaRue at Durango in northern Mexico was looking after the soldier who told the priest . [5] During the 1970s, lawyer F. Lee Bailey represented clients who claimed to know where the treasure was located. 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. Mr. Fertig denied that the report had been censored. Unable to sell the gold bars on the open market, Noss was stymied but continued to work steadily to remove the treasure. 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. 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. Begrudgingly, he did so. Lampros later signed sworn affidavits regarding their experiences. Searching with 15 people at a time to try to determine the size of the cave, the group in a few weeks plans to start drilling 6-inch holes several hundred feet deep into the areas where the soundings show the cave is. In the Fall of 1939, Doc wanted to enlarge the passageway into Victorio Peak so that the treasures could be more easily removed. ", 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. Four major groups of claimants accuse the oothers of trying to cheat them out of it. Another concerns renegades who robbed the Monterey Mint in 1743 and were in turn attacked by Apaches. In September 1961, Berlett and Fiege swore to the specifics of their discovery in detailed affidavits provided to federal officials. Background research into the enormous wealth contained in the caverns of Victorio Peak revealed many eyewitness reports of the gold. This was one of Apache Chief Victorios hideouts and was the site of a battle in 1880 between Victorios warriors and the U.S. Army Ninth Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers.. Jan 20, 2020 Ian Harvey. 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. He said I'll get F.D.R. 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. Peak and look, accompanied by the missile range commander, Maj. Gen. John G. Shinkle, military pblicemen and Treasury agents. 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