Passing through the large cavern, he came to a series of smaller caves rooms, he called them. She called her lawyer, Philip Koury, of Kansas City, who phoned General Shinkle. When it began to rain, Doc sought shelter under a rocky overhang near the mountains summit. Meanwhile, Babe Noss had filed a counter-claim on the entire area. 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. Ryan was charged with murder but was later acquitted. Lack of water has hampered mining in many districts and new technology, which minimizes water usage, may stimulate activity. After more than a year's effort, he took five bars to the Denver Mint. 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. South Pass City - A Look into Wyoming's Past. The whole truth will probably never be known, but there is no doubt that a treasure existed. Try as he would, Captain Fiege could not penetrate the opening he had used just three years earlier. [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. 2016, Trace Element Analysis of Placer Gold Samples (abstr. 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. 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.. Suddenly, a host of people surfaced to lay claims on the legendary gold treasure. 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. Theories spread over how 16,000 gold bars came to be stashed away in a random cave in New Mexico. 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. 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. Native gold and electrum occurs with quartz, magnetite, ilmenite, amphiboles, pyroxenes, pyrite, zircon, garnet, rutile, and a variety of other heavy minerals. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. I was just a kid, about 13 or 14 years old, he told this writer. The flamboyant lawyer F. Lee Bailey once said he represented 50 unnamed clients. 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. Jan 20, 2020 Ian Harvey. 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. Ova Noss, Leonard Fiege and others dont listen when they are told to shut up and they pay the price. Shriver estimated the total amount of gold removed from Victorio Peak at 25 million troy ounces, of which 10 million came out in 1976. 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. 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. "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 earliest reports of placer mining were in the 1600s along the northern Rio Grande. 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. His warriors raided southern New Mexico and Texasin an all-out war against the U.S. Army and the Texas Rangers. 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. 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. But in 1977, the Army agreed to allow some searchers with competing claims, including Mrs. Noss, to search the grounds. 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. Becoming even more complicated, a search of mining records failed to turn up any existing claims including that of Doc Noss. 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. 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. Background research into the enormous wealth contained in the caverns of Victorio Peak revealed many eyewitness reports of the gold. Ferdig, adding, The trouble with treasure stories is that there's always a little truth in them.. His wife and his two school-age children had also abruptly left. 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.. After three years they were given permission to go back to Victoria. 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.. Before leaving, both men had observed an old wooden cross on one of the walls. 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. He was overcome with joy that they might be gold. The blast was a disaster, causing a cave-in, collapsing the fragile shafts, and effectively shutting Doc out of his mine. The two decided to keep the discovery between themselves and return to inspect the shaft later. 2003-2008 Church of Scientology International. 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. A new scientific analysis of a large gold bar found decades ago in downtown Mexico City has confirmed it was part of the plunder Spanish conquistadors abandoned as they beat a temporary. 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. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. One group of claimants took the flashlight and provided the photo as evidence that they knew the location of the treasure. A deal with a man named Charlie Ryan went south, and Noss was gunned down. Several sand and gravel operators periodically extract minor quantities of placer gold from their quarries. 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. 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. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Going public with information about the gold stored in Victorio Peak or removed from it, however, is something that people familiar with the subject are generally reluctant to do. 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 said I'll get F.D.R. Doc Noss was extremely paranoid and buried everything he took out of the caves, not even trusting his wife, Babe. In 1955, the missile range was expanded and, the Army closed Victoria Peak to outsiders. Instead, it has a "gross receipts tax." This is a tax levied on the business rather than the consumer, like in most states. Article content. Reportedly, he amassed a treasure of gold, silver, and jewels before being ordered back to Mexico City in 1607. But even the nicest people we'd take in, they'd see gold and go berserk.. The buried cache was said to have been stolen from the Chihauhua-Spanish by the Indians during the Indian uprisings. Unable to sell the gold bars on the open market, Noss was stymied but continued to work steadily to remove the treasure. In 1948, Doc met Charles Ryan, a Texan involved in drilling operations and oil exploration in West Texas. 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.. (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 In 1797, when the work of the Spanish missionaries had almost come to an end, there was an old Spanish soldier who was at his death bed. "We're treating the gold searchers just like any other client," said Jim Eckles, a spokesman for the White Sands range. A third story asserts that Geronimo hid, Apache booty in the area. The gold bar had disappeared without a trace. A priest named LaRue at Durango in northern Mexico was looking after the soldier who told the priest . Many people believe the search points to the area of the four corners. He told this writer that the gold bars in the cave were stacked like cordwood.. Ryan hinted that if Noss did not reveal the whereabouts of the gold, Doc would not live to enjoy it. [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]. Fearing a Federal swindle at the time, Noss returned to Victoria Peak, carrying out gold bars and hiding them, Mrs. Guthrie said. Estimates vary on the number of bars removed, ranging up to 350 or so. In 1963, the Army, consented to another search by a Denver mining company sponsored by the Museum of New Mexico. Description: Victorio Peak is surrounded by inhospitable environment near Hot Springs, New Mexico. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved ). In a hunt that began last Thursday, Mr. Delonas's group has been given one year to search for the gold. The engineer suggested eight sticks of dynamite, to which Noss heatedly disagreed, claiming the mountain was too unstable. 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. 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. Many districts and New technology, which minimizes water usage, may stimulate activity at! 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