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.. The economic potential of placer deposits in New Mexico is unknown and most known economic placers in the state have been worked. Porter subsequently brought the gold bar to the close friend, who was an Army major. 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. Mr. Bailey claimed that given a helicopter and a half-hour, he could find 292 gold bars. In 1955, the missile range was expanded and, the Army closed Victoria Peak to outsiders. Los Angeles Times "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. The saga faded back into obscurity until the Watergate hearings, when John Dean, the dismissed White House counsel, testified before the Ervin Committee that F. Lee Bailey had approached John N. Mitchell, then Attorney General, for help in retrieving 292 bars containing 60 per cent gold and 40 per cent copper from the White Sands range. In 1979, he sold a small mail-order business to devote full time to the search. Victorio Peak, located in northern Dona Ana County, now lies within the White Sands Missile Range in south-central New Mexico. Many Noss family members and friends believe that the military exploited Babes claim and that the treasure is now gone. Holes were drilled and it assayed at $20.67 an ounce, said Mrs. Noss. The Lost Padre Gold Mine in New Mexico. 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. According to members of the family, there would have been more, but Docs work was abruptly and unexpectedly brought to a halt in August 1939 when a dynamite blast, set to enlarge a narrow passage, instead caved the passage in, sealing off the main cavern. Some believe that Doc Noss found the Casa del Cueva de Oro, Spanish for the House of the Golden Cave. Additionally, the actual land where Victorio Peak is located was not owned by the State of New Mexico but rather by a man named Roy Henderson, who had leased it to the Army. Returning through the main cavern, he noticed an immense stack of metal bars off to one side. 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. See the article in its original context from. The higher gold values occur near the base of alluvial gravel deposits where the gold is trapped by natural processes such as riffles in the river bottom, fractures within the bedrock, along bedding or foliation planes, and/or structures that are transverse to the river flow. Mrs. Noss now says she never heard about the divorce and as serts that she is his legal widow. The two decided to keep the discovery between themselves and return to inspect the shaft later. 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. White Sands, New Mexico by the National Park Service. I was just a kid, about 13 or 14 years old, he told this writer. The gold bar had disappeared without a trace. Before leaving, both men had observed an old wooden cross on one of the walls. Ryan hinted that if Noss did not reveal the whereabouts of the gold, Doc would not live to enjoy it. 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. 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. Fueled by suspicions that the military was working her claim, Babe Noss hired four men to enter the range secretly. In November 1937, Doc, Babe, and four others left on a deer hunt into the Hembrillo Basin. Further, they stated that underground wealth, in whatever form it took, belonged to the state or any legal license holders. Sometime around the year 1830, travelers were trying to find a new way to reach California from the newly opened route of Santa Fe. 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. That about a month after that, I heard E.M. had been beaten to death in California. When he reached the surface, he told Babe, This is the last one of them babies Im gonna bring out. However, when Babe rolled the bar over, she noticed a yellow gleam where the gravel of the hillside had scratched off centuries of black grime. 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. About $250,000 was spent, core holes were drilled, seismic tests were taken, and nothing was found. When the rain finally stopped, Doc returned to camp, telling Babe of the discovery. The cloud of death shrouding Victorio Peak has reached far. He also found some old letters, the most recent of which was dated 1880. Now, researchers say the bar was. It would also explain the presence of the Wells Fargo bags, packsaddles, letters, and other artifacts dating to Victorios time. 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. 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. When Docs story eventually hit the headlines, scholars began speculating on how the enormous treasure could have come to be stashed inside Victorio Peak. He was overcome with joy that they might be gold. Lampros later signed sworn affidavits regarding their experiences. 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. This treasure was only the beginning. Although a suitable path fit for wagons couldn't be found, traces of gold were found somewhere close to Silver City to the north. The Army then shut down all operations stating that no additional searches would be allowed. I know, they all claim they can go right to if in two hours, said Bernert Ferdig, a retired civil servant who was in charge of real estate at the White Sands base for 15 years. However, the Army placed a two-week time limit on the group, and they had hardly started before they were forced to leave, without finding anything. Later, some researchers would conclude that the shaft was the same as the Lost Padre Mine used by Padre LaRue in the late 1700s, then later used again by Chief Victorio to store his stolen goods. This Nevada Gold Mine Produces Amazing Crystalline Gold Nuggets! Because of this natural concentration, some placers are richer in gold than the original lode deposits. 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. Subsequently, he also filed several mining claims on and around Victorio Peak and a treasure trove claim. Beyond the Hembrillo Basin is a hundred-mile stretch of desert known as the Jornada del Muerto. 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. ", According to the family, Mr. Noss took some gold bars when he found the cavern in 1937, and planned to return for the rest. Though the gold bar was. General Shinkle finally had enough and ordered everyone out. The gold, Porters friend stated breathlessly, ran in a tremendous stack along one side of the cavern stretching for approximately 200 yards. 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. November 16, 2015. 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 skeletons hands were bound behind its back apparently, the person had been deliberately left there to die. 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. Others speculate that the treasure could be the missing wealth of Emperor Maxmillian, who served as Mexicos emperor in the 1860s. Doc filled his pockets with gold coins, grabbed a couple of jeweled swords, and laboriously returned to Babe waiting anxiously at the surface. Forrest Fenn, a New Mexico art collector, created a treasure hunt in 2010. Later, the wealth in the cave would be calculated to be worth more than two billion dollars. After he got back to the surface, Doc told Ova what he had seen, and almost as an afterthought mentioned the long row of metal bars. Work beneath the city has not slowed, and as science advances . Parts of the treasure were described as gold, silver, jewels and as many as 16,000 gold bars estimated around $1.7 billion dollars. 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. Doc Noss spent the next 10 years in intermittent efforts to regain access to the hoard, in vain. He carries in his wallet a photograph of gold bars and old coins next to a flashlight he provided. After more than a year's effort, he took five bars to the Denver Mint. 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. Over the weekend, he said, someone found the chest he had buried with gold nuggets, coins, gems and artifacts. 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. 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. There are four major stories on the treasure's origin, said Mr. That after he had been beaten to death, according to the information I received, his body was put back into his car, the car was doused with kerosene or gasoline, and then set aflame.. 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. The horde of an Apache chief? In one room he discovered a large stash of old swords and guns, papers and letters from the 19th century, and a kings ransom in jewels and coins. And we were poor and I guess a little dumb. "We're treating the gold searchers just like any other client," said Jim Eckles, a spokesman for the White Sands range. Now, instead of having thousands of gold bars to draw from, Noss had only a few hundred that he had hidden in the desert. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved ). 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 . Ova convinced Doc to return to the big cave and bring one of the heavy bars back up. Neither man being familiar with laws governing the discovery of treasure on a military base, Fiege went to the Judge Advocates Office at Holloman Air Force Base to confer with Colonel Sigmund I. Gasiewicz. Within moments he found more skeletons, most of them bound and secured to stakes like the first. Theories spread over how 16,000 gold bars came to be stashed away in a random cave in New Mexico. They had trekked in from Hot Springs, New Mexico, a town since renamed Truth or Consequences. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. The world's first atomic bomb was detonated here on July 16, 1945. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. [5] The partnership conducted unsuccessful searches until March 1996, when the Army suspended their access. He was also known to take prisoners back to the Basin, where he subjected them to elaborate torture tests before killing them. Several sand and gravel operators periodically extract minor quantities of placer gold from their quarries. 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. 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