gold bars found in new mexico

Gold also concentrates above cemented gravels and clay layers within gravel deposits, which constrain downward migration of gold particles. But, she said, mint officers confiscated the five bars and gave her husband a receipt for $97,000. 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. Kathy Weiser-Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2021. The major took the bar and told Porter to check back with him in a few days. 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. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved). Seeking out the Seven Cities of Gold, Onate was said to have been a cruel man, brutally subjugating the Indians to do his bidding by beating and torturing them. Chester Stout, for example, a retired Army sergeant, traced the removal of two large truckloads of gold from Victorio Peak, but later had to move out of New Mexico; his life was threatened because, as he was told, he knew too much.. When it began to rain, Doc sought shelter under a rocky overhang near the mountains summit. 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. At one end of the chamber, the shaft continued downward. some of the gold to Mexico, in light planes. Parts of White Sands are sometimes leased by private corporations and foreign governments for experiments. The secret stash of a gold mine owner? 2003-2008 Church of Scientology International. 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. He also asserts that military security officers censored out of his report all references to military searches for the treasure. The affidavit states: I, Thayer Snipes, first being duly sworn, on my oath state: That in the latter part of 1972, I had stopped by the Airport Chevron Station at the corner of Airway Blvd. But the expedition soon went broke, and the Army declared that it would allow no more searches. 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. Through the years, soldiers at White Sands have spent weekends looking for the gold. Two local ranch workers stumbled upon the search and notified Mrs. Noss. The. There were thousands of them, covered with old, dusty buffalo hides. And a fourth story, pieced together recently by Howard Bryan, a reporter for The Albuquerque Tribune, centers on another Apache war chief named Victorio. 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. 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. WHITE SANDS, N.M. Lost treasure stories are a dime a dozen in the Southwest. The reported treasure and efforts to find it have been covered in books and on television, including: On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Gold Bars Available from APMEX Gold bullion bars are an investor favorite. In November 1958, a team of four weekend gold seekers rediscovered the hoard. 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. The cloud of death shrouding Victorio Peak has reached far. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. This writer conducted extensive interviews with Thomas Berlett. 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 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. A retired White Sands Missile Range security guard, residing in El Paso, Texas, indicated that he observed Johnson and former Texas Governor John Connally spending about 10 days in the desolate area around Victorio Peak in the late 1960s. 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. Among those who attested to the accessibility of the peaks treasure was Lynn Porter, a businessman now residing in San Diego, California. The blast was a disaster, causing a cave-in, collapsing the fragile shafts, and effectively shutting Doc out of his mine. In 1979, Babe died without ever finding the treasure. 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. It would also explain the presence of the Wells Fargo bags, packsaddles, letters, and other artifacts dating to Victorios time. Anyone can read what you share. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Another concerns renegades who robbed the Monterey Mint in 1743 and were in turn attacked by Apaches. The more productive ore zones typically occur as narrow pay streaks or layers of fine-grained, disseminated gold, locally on top of basement rock or clay or caliche lenses within gravel deposits. See the article in its original context from. Later, the wealth in the cave would be calculated to be worth more than two billion dollars. In a hunt that began last Thursday, Mr. Delonas's group has been given one year to search for the gold. 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. 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). Four major groups of claimants accuse the oothers of trying to cheat them out of it. After the discovery, Fiege told several people that he had caved in the roof and walls to make it look like the tunnel ended. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. However, Noss demanded to see the money before revealing the new hiding place. 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. Porter subsequently brought the gold bar to the close friend, who was an Army major. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. : Did 'Doc' Noss Really Find Caverns of Gold or Did He Pull Off a Hoax That Has Plagued His Kin for Years? See the article in its original context from. The cast of characters ranges from John W. Dean 3d to Geronimo and the vocabulary is marked by double as a prefixas in doublecross, doubletalk and doubledealing. 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. What looked to be a piece of iron was a solid gold bar. Ova Noss, Leonard Fiege and others dont listen when they are told to shut up and they pay the price. Mrs. Noss and Mrs. Guthrie, meanwhile, say that they had heard about the 1963 search and rushed to the base, arriving the day before it ended. By completing a chemical analysis and determining the particle morphology of placer gold collected from these districts using an electron microprobe, patterns in the chemical signatures from each location can be used to examine chemical variability (1) within the individual placer gold particles, (2) within the same district and (3) among different districts. 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. 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. Doc thought that he had discovered an old abandoned mineshaft. Ryan hinted that if Noss did not reveal the whereabouts of the gold, Doc would not live to enjoy it. Because of this natural concentration, some placers are richer in gold than the original lode deposits. Several smaller rooms had been chiseled from the rock along one wall. Seventy-nine skeletons were described in an adjacent cavern. At one time, he brought out a crown, which contained 243 diamonds and one pigeon-blood ruby. For Trademark Information on Scientology Services. 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. In 1955, the missile range was expanded and, the Army closed Victoria Peak to outsiders. The flamboyant lawyer F. Lee Bailey once said he represented 50 unnamed clients. is also on Facebook, New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources, Notice of Right to Inspect Public Records, Stephen Wells Bright Star Scholar Program, National Uranium Resource Evaluation database (NURE), Stacy Timmons interviewed for "Searchlight New Mexico" article, New paper published on the timing of small-volume eruptions and related volcanic hazards at Valles caldera. 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. One partner, Charles Ryan, shot and killed Doc on March 5, 1949, in Hatch, N. M., after an argument. The U.S. Army, which gained control of the area when it was converted to a bombing range during the Second World War, refused her request to bring in an excavation firm and ultimately ordered the Nosses to stay out of the area. A small town was built near the place Our Mineral Museum After the death of Doc Noss, Ova and her family continued efforts to regain access to the big treasure room. Hearing about the story, Captain Swanner, who was stationed at White Sands Missile Range in the early 1960s, came forward. In the meantime, Mrs. Noss said her spies, illegally visited the peak and found military men excavating it. The Lue Map has very strange symbols. Estimates vary on the number of bars removed, ranging up to 350 or so. Reportedly the military was able to penetrate one of the caves and inventory the contents. In November 1937, Doc, Babe, and four others left on a deer hunt into the Hembrillo Basin. However, the business often passes the tax onto the consumer by adding it to the selling price. During World War II, he divorced his wife, Ova, and disappeared for several years. 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. 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. Finally reaching the bottom, Doc stepped into a chamber the size of a small room. 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 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. He has recruited friends and investors to form the Ova Noss Family Partnership, named for his late grandmother, that is financing the new search. 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. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Try as he would, Captain Fiege could not penetrate the opening he had used just three years earlier. The slightest movement stirred up a cloud. 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. She appealed to state officials, who forced the search to stop. 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. The horde of an Apache chief? Now there were two military commands involved. Background research into the enormous wealth contained in the caverns of Victorio Peak revealed many eyewitness reports of the gold. The two decided to keep the discovery between themselves and return to inspect the shaft later. "We have always believed that the gold was still there," said Terry Delonas, the 43-year-old son of one of Mr. Noss's stepdaughters who is directing the search. 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. [7], Theories abound on the origins of the alleged treasure, including that it was pilfered from Mexico during the reign of the Austrian puppet Emperor Maximilian, or through collusion between Pancho Villa and Germany prior to World War I.[8]. Peak and look, accompanied by the missile range commander, Maj. Gen. John G. Shinkle, military pblicemen and Treasury agents. They were searching in the wrong place, Mrs. Noss said. Patterson, Don Breech, Edgar F. Foreman, Leo D. OConnell, Eppie Montoya and B.D. Doc Noss spent the next 10 years in intermittent efforts to regain access to the hoard, in vain. Reaching down, he could not budge it, but after digging around the rock, he got his hands under it. 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. A deal with a man named Charlie Ryan went south, and Noss was gunned down. 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). The Army, which controls the missile range, insists there is no treasure and has never been any. Holes were drilled and it assayed at $20.67 an ounce, said Mrs. Noss. 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. 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. 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. This treasure was only the beginning. New York Times, July 29, 1992 About $250,000 was spent, core holes were drilled, seismic tests were taken, and nothing was found. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. The initial soundings appear to indicate a cavern precisely where Mr. Noss described. The Army says the gold was never found. In the room were two large stacks of gold bars, each roughly six feet high, three feet wide and eight feet long. 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. The whole truth will probably never be known, but there is no doubt that a treasure existed. 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.. With so many options available, APMEX has made it easy to find the right Gold bar for your collection or portfolio. ", According to the family, Mr. Noss took some gold bars when he found the cavern in 1937, and planned to return for the rest. That while visiting Foss, a man we both knew, E.M. Guthrie, drove in to the station in a late model Ford Thunderbird. Bill Shriver, before his death, told this writer that he had a copy of a transcribed order from Lyndon Johnson describing in detail how the president wanted a military escort to handle the supply of gold taken out of Victorio Peak and taken to his ranch. 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. The 1.93-kilogram bar was found . Theories spread over how 16,000 gold bars came to be stashed away in a random cave in New Mexico. He was barely able to lift one, much less think of carrying it back to the surface. Mr. Bailey claimed that given a helicopter and a half-hour, he could find 292 gold bars. 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 . This could explain the skeletons in the cavern. To further complicate things, rumors swirled about various factions smuggling. The answer could be worth billions of dollars. 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. Soldiers at White Sands have spent weekends looking for the gold,,. Gravel deposits, which constrain downward migration of gold or Did he Pull a. In a few days place, Mrs. Noss one end of the gold to Mexico, in.! 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