Doc Noss was born in Oklahoma and traveled all over the Southwest, seeking excitement. 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. 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. Mr. Bailey claimed that given a helicopter and a half-hour, he could find 292 gold bars. Ryan hinted that if Noss did not reveal the whereabouts of the gold, Doc would not live to enjoy it. In 2019, evidence to support the theory that the gold never left Mexico was revealed when archaeologists confirmed that a gold bar found in 1981 was from Montezuma's treasure. 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. The economic potential of placer deposits in New Mexico is unknown and most known economic placers in the state have been worked. Meanwhile, Tony Jolley, now a 69-year-old rancher living outside Boise, Ida., never forgot those bars of gold he helped bury in 1949. After more than a year's effort, he took five bars to the Denver Mint. Parts of White Sands are sometimes leased by private corporations and foreign governments for experiments. Doc thought that he had discovered an old abandoned mineshaft. Near the bottom, he encountered a huge boulder hanging from the ceiling, almost blocking his way. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved). The gold was then shipped to Switzerland and sold in a new form in Zurich. Mrs. Noss now says she never heard about the divorce and as serts that she is his legal widow. 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 boils down to a single question: Was Milton (Doc) Noss telling the truth, or just a tall tale? After the discovery, Fiege told several people that he had caved in the roof and walls to make it look like the tunnel ended. Though caught trespassing and escorted from the area, the men reported observing several men in Army fatigues upon the peak. Ryan was charged with murder but was later acquitted. Fearing Doc was getting a gun, Ryan fired a warning shot in Docs direction, demanding that Noss back away from the vehicle. 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 room had been undisturbed for so long that the dust, according to Berlett, lay several inches thick. A prospector made an extraordinary discovery yesterday, when he found an "incredibly rare" 12-pound (5.5-kilogram) gold nugget under only 23 inches of dirt. After the discovery, Fiege told several people that he had caved in the roof and walls to make it look like the tunnel ended. The Lost Padre Gold Mine in New Mexico. An intense argument ensued, and Noss headed toward his car. For the next few years, Mr. Noss sought partners to help him find the gold. Kathy Weiser-Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2021. 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. 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. Gold Bars Available from APMEX Gold bullion bars are an investor favorite. However, White Sands issued an edict expressly forbidding them to return to the base. They had trekked in from Hot Springs, New Mexico, a town since renamed Truth or Consequences. A Partner and a Gunfight. 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. Doc tried several times to regain entry into his mine, but the shaft was sealed with tons of debris. Acquitted on grounds of selfdefense, Mr. Ryan testified that Doc had promised him 51 bars of gold in return for his $27,000 investment. [5] The partnership conducted unsuccessful searches until March 1996, when the Army suspended their access. 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. Within moments he found more skeletons, most of them bound and secured to stakes like the first. Now there were two military commands involved. Sam Scott, for example, a retired airline pilot, was warned in 1977 to keep clear of anything regarding Victorio Peak for at least five years under pain of having his home firebombed and his wife and daughter killed. Gold also concentrates above cemented gravels and clay layers within gravel deposits, which constrain downward migration of gold particles. A treaty was reached between the tribe and the Federal government in Washington that the Indians could stay upon the land in New Mexico. For Trademark Information on Scientology Services. In 1963, the Army, consented to another search by a Denver mining company sponsored by the Museum of New Mexico. 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. 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. They dug under it, and Berlett and Fiege moved past it for another 100 to 125 feet, coming eventually to what Berlett described as a small cavern, approximately eight feet wide by 10 or 12 feet long. 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. [3] Noss was ultimately killed by an associate, Charley Ryan, in 1949 after Ryan accused Noss of fraud and Noss threatened to kill Ryan and his family. The buried cache was said to have been stolen from the Chihauhua-Spanish by the Indians during the Indian uprisings. We wanted to lay the matter to rest once and for all, said General Shinkle, who is now tetireil and lives in Cocoa Beach, Fla. We gave him a lie detector test beforehand and it was apparentiy, successful but he couldn't find anything.. The NMBGMR is conducting a research project examining the origin, occurrence, trace element composition, and resource potential of placer gold deposits in the state. 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. Instead, it has a "gross receipts tax." This is a tax levied on the business rather than the consumer, like in most states. A jury ruled that Mr. Ryan had acted in self-defense. In 1963, the Army allowed a group of searchers, including Mrs. Noss, to search for the gold. 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. But the expedition soon went broke, and the Army declared that it would allow no more searches. The 1.93-kilogram bar was found . Becoming even more complicated, a search of mining records failed to turn up any existing claims including that of Doc Noss. 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. Years later, in 1946, Doc discussed his exploration with Gordon E. Herkenhoff, field representative of the New Mexico State Land Office.1. However, Noss demanded to see the money before revealing the new hiding place. Lampros later signed sworn affidavits regarding their experiences. He did, only to find that in the short, three-day interim the major had been whisked away, transferred to the Pentagon. The slightest movement stirred up a cloud. Article content. 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. He remained steadfast in his belief that the treasure remained, according to family members. Forrest . 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. Mr. Delonas said the legend of the buried treasure obsessed the family for generations. The treasure was allegedly found in 1937 by American businessman and gold prospector Milton Ernest "Doc" Noss. 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 . When Maxmillian heard of the plot to assassinate him, he moved his gold and treasures out of Mexico. But in a dispute over the treasure in 1949, the business partner, Charlie Ryan, shot Mr. Noss to death. On August 5, Fiege and his party returned to Victorio Peak, accompanied by the commander of the Missile Range, a secret service agent, and 14 military police. Lucky Gold Miners hit it Big in Downieville. 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. Sometime around the year 1830, travelers were trying to find a new way to reach California from the newly opened route of Santa Fe. The peak, named after a 19th century Apache war chief, apparently served as a repository for immense quantities of gold mined centuries ago by Spaniards and Indians and smelted into tens of thousands of crudely formed bars. : Did 'Doc' Noss Really Find Caverns of Gold or Did He Pull Off a Hoax That Has Plagued His Kin for Years? 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. . 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. Just 12 years after discovering the treasure, Doc Noss died with just $2.16 in his pocket. 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. I've heard that story at least 500 times. 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. That while visiting Foss, a man we both knew, E.M. Guthrie, drove in to the station in a late model Ford Thunderbird. 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. 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. Part II: The bizarre history of Victorio Peak continues to unravel as the Army, the Treasury Department and the Secret Service authorize a top secret operation aimed at locating and bringing out the gold. The secret stash of a gold mine owner? Later, the wealth in the cave would be calculated to be worth more than two billion dollars. The rate of this tax varies from 5.125% to 8.8675% depending on where the business is . During World War II, he divorced his wife, Ova, and disappeared for several years. After three years they were given permission to go back to Victoria. He estimated there were thousands of these bars, each weighing over 40 pounds stacked against a wall. McGuires Place She appealed to state officials, who forced the search to stop. Still another source reported knowledge of aircraft movements of the gold from Chihuahua to Vancouver, British Columbia, during the period of Johnsons presidency. It has banned treasure hunters from the range since 1963. Once again, Doc began to descend about 125 feet before the shaft again leveled off into a large natural 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. Begrudgingly, he did so. 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. The answer could be worth billions of dollars. Returning through the main cavern, he noticed an immense stack of metal bars off to one side. Passing through the large cavern, he came to a series of smaller caves rooms, he called them. In 1955, the missile range was expanded and, the Army closed Victoria Peak to outsiders. Victorio Peak, located in northern Dona Ana County, now lies within the White Sands Missile Range in south-central New Mexico. 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.. "We're treating the gold searchers just like any other client," said Jim Eckles, a spokesman for the White Sands range. 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 three men had been on a hunting party when McDonald, who reportedly had imbibed several cans of beer, began talking freely about a huge stash of gold. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. He was also known to take prisoners back to the Basin, where he subjected them to elaborate torture tests before killing them. 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. Several sand and gravel operators periodically extract minor quantities of placer gold from their quarries. In 1937, the peak was miles from nowhere. Gold bullion bars are struck continuously to meet the demand for gold, with the following refineries and mints representing some of the greatest refiners of gold bars: Credit Suisse PAMP Suisse Republic Metals Corporation Sunshine Minting Valcambi Suisse Buying Gold Bullion from JM Bullion Although a suitable path fit for wagons couldn't be found, traces of gold were found somewhere close to Silver City to the north. He has recruited friends and investors to form the Ova Noss Family Partnership, named for his late grandmother, that is financing the new search. 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. White Sands, New Mexico by the National Park Service. The men believed that Porters friend was in a good position to help arrange an official government expedition to claim the gold. Fueled by suspicions that the military was working her claim, Babe Noss hired four men to enter the range secretly. Been undisturbed for so long that the military was working her claim, Babe Noss hired four men enter! Turn up any existing claims including that of Doc Noss from the vehicle it would allow no more searches went... 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