Over the weekend, he said, someone found the chest he had buried with gold nuggets, coins, gems and artifacts. 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. He was shot to death in 1949, but his first wife, Mrs. Ova Noss, now 77years old, insists she was with him. The flamboyant lawyer F. Lee Bailey once said he represented 50 unnamed clients. Two local ranch workers stumbled upon the search and notified Mrs. Noss. 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.. 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. But in August, the Army turned him down, saying he deserves no more favored treatment than some 300 others who ask each year for permission to enter the missile range to search. We all dream of stumbling onto a map or riddle that will lead us on an adventure to find a treasure of glittering gold and jewels, but most of those tales only exist in bedtime stories and movies. Where they the plunder of Spanish conquistadores who had conquered the Aztecs? Now there were two military commands involved. 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. 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. Through the years, soldiers at White Sands have spent weekends looking for the gold. That I knew E.M. Guthrie had taken an active personal interest in the fate of gold located in Victorio Peak by Doc Noss. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved). Chester R. Johnson Jr., a museum archeologist at the time who wrote the official report of the treasure's history, says the 1963 search was inconclusive because, for example, seismic geophones do not work well near the surface. 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. The earliest reports of placer mining were in the 1600s along the northern Rio Grande. 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. 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. One partner, Charles Ryan, shot and killed Doc on March 5, 1949, in Hatch, N. M., after an argument. Denied entry by the courts until legalities could determine the legal owner of the mine; Doc feared Ryan would back out of the deal. Reaching down, he could not budge it, but after digging around the rock, he got his hands under it. 2003-2008 Church of Scientology International. [5] She later was part of an unsuccessful 1963 search. In a hunt that began last Thursday, Mr. Delonas's group has been given one year to search for the gold. Congress had just passed an act outlawing the private ownership of gold, meaning he had no buyers for his supposed stash (via Unsolved ). Attacking wagon trains, settlements, mail coaches, and churches, he took anything from them that they valued. 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. Theories spread over how 16,000 gold bars came to be stashed away in a random cave in New Mexico. Now, researchers say the bar was. 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. Later, Fiege would take a lie detector test, which would allow Fiege back on the missile range. New York Times, July 29, 1992 However, it was a slow process, and in 1955, the White Sands Missile Range unexpectedly expanded their operations to encompass the Hembrillo Basin. Native gold and electrum occurs with quartz, magnetite, ilmenite, amphiboles, pyroxenes, pyrite, zircon, garnet, rutile, and a variety of other heavy minerals. As far as I'm concerned, I've got more gold in my upper bridge than is in those mountains., The center of interest is Victoria Peak, a 1,500foot hill in the San Andres Mountains on missile range land about 25 miles northeast of Las Cruces. This was shortly before a much-publicized expedition, entitled Operation Goldfinder, took place at the site in March 1977. I've heard that story at least 500 times. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. WHITE SANDS, N.M. Lost treasure stories are a dime a dozen in the Southwest. They had trekked in from Hot Springs, New Mexico, a town since renamed Truth or Consequences. 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.. A deal with a man named Charlie Ryan went south, and Noss was gunned down. Immediately reporting the activity to Babe Noss, Babe contacted Oscar Jordan with the New Mexico State Land Office, who, in turn, contacted the Judge Advocates Office at White Sands. Mr. Koury asserted that the General first denied the search was on but admitted it later when sworn statements from the spies were produced. 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. He told this writer that the gold bars in the cave were stacked like cordwood.. He also asserts that military security officers censored out of his report all references to military searches for the treasure. Unable to sell the gold bars on the open market, Noss was stymied but continued to work steadily to remove the treasure. They believe that if the Lue Map and the hieroglyphs could be deciphered then the gold bars could be found. Word of the Doc Noss treasure spread, and keeping people out of the area was no easy chore. Victorio Peak, located in northern Dona Ana County, now lies within the White Sands Missile Range in south-central New Mexico. 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. 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. Noss refused to obey, and Ryan fired again, hitting Noss in the head, killing him instantly. Although the originals have never been recovered, a copy of one of the documents proved to be a translation from Pope Pius III. The gold was supposedly removed from the cave and sent to Fort Knox. [5] The partnership conducted unsuccessful searches until March 1996, when the Army suspended their access. Current environmental and permitting restrictions also have hampered recent production in the New Placers and Jicarilla districts. Hunting by himself, Doc scouted the base of the mountain. Reaching a compromise, the military allowed Expeditions Unlimited, representing all of the claimants, to excavate the peak in 1977. 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. Moon, said that he was from the White House Secret Service detail and he showed the officer a green, laminated card which stated Secret Service, Division of the White House. Another man, an engineer named Dick Richardson, told the officer that he was a boyhood friend of Lyndon Johnsons and that he had personally counted 18,888 gold bars in one stack in a cavern at Victorio Peak, each bar weighing about 60 pounds. The men believed that Porters friend was in a good position to help arrange an official government expedition to claim the gold. The caverns are located in and around Victorio Peak, in a remote, rugged section of south-central New Mexico. They insisted they were photographed, finger printed, harassed and not al lowed to go near the search area. Later, the wealth in the cave would be calculated to be worth more than two billion dollars. In 1963, the Army allowed a group of searchers, including Mrs. Noss, to search for the gold. some of the gold to Mexico, in light planes. Porter and his friends were amused at his story and McDonald, to prove that what he was saying was true, took the two other hunters on a moonlit drive to Victorio Peak. Doc Noss was extremely paranoid and buried everything he took out of the caves, not even trusting his wife, Babe. But in 1977, the Army agreed to allow some searchers with competing claims, including Mrs. Noss, to search the grounds. He was barely able to lift one, much less think of carrying it back to the surface. Ryan hinted that if Noss did not reveal the whereabouts of the gold, Doc would not live to enjoy it. She appealed to state officials, who forced the search to stop. Parts of White Sands are sometimes leased by private corporations and foreign governments for experiments. But while trying to blast his way to the gold in 1939, he accidentally closed the hole. His warriors raided southern New Mexico and Texasin an all-out war against the U.S. Army and the Texas Rangers. hell, I'll get Eleanor.. Using ropes for support and guided by his flashlights wavering beam, Doc Noss descended a series of interconnecting chambers which led downward for 186 feet. On the night of September 1, 1968, Porter drove to the peak with a friend and a civilian security guard from White Sands Missile Range named Clarence McDonald. Mr. Fertig denied that the report had been censored. The buried cache was said to have been stolen from the Chihauhua-Spanish by the Indians during the Indian uprisings. This was the beginning of protracted legal battles over the ownership of the claim. But in a dispute over the treasure in 1949, the business partner, Charlie Ryan, shot Mr. Noss to death. Finally reaching the bottom, Doc stepped into a chamber the size of a small room. 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. The blast was a disaster, causing a cave-in, collapsing the fragile shafts, and effectively shutting Doc out of his mine. 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. They found nothing. Montgomery, the two went into the mountain to blast out the shaft. Ova Noss, Leonard Fiege and others dont listen when they are told to shut up and they pay the price. But, she said, mint officers confiscated the five bars and gave her husband a receipt for $97,000. Though the military confirmed that Swanner had served at White Sands during this time, they claimed there were no documents to support an investigation into the mine nor the removal of the gold bars. 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. In 1948, Doc met Charles Ryan, a Texan involved in drilling operations and oil exploration in West Texas. 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. According to Berlett, the four men proceeded down a fault into the peak for about 150 feet, at which point their progress was stopped by a large boulder. 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. 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. He said he often grew angry that his grandmother was ignored or ridiculed for her efforts. However, Noss demanded to see the money before revealing the new hiding place. 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.. McGuires Place His wife and his two school-age children had also abruptly left. 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. Babe then began a regular correspondence with the military requesting permission to work her claim, but she was always denied. 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. Many streams in New Mexico contain at least traces of gold, enough to satisfy weekend gold panners. After more than a year's effort, he took five bars to the Denver Mint. In 1972, F. Lee Bailey became involved in the dispute, representing some 50 clients, including Babe Noss, the Fiege group, Violet Noss Yancy, Expeditions Unlimited (a Florida-based treasure hunting group), and many others. Hearing about the story, Captain Swanner, who was stationed at White Sands Missile Range in the early 1960s, came forward. 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. 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. The next day, March 5, 1949, Ryan arrived in the area, insisting that they discuss the problem of what happened to the gold. Within moments he found more skeletons, most of them bound and secured to stakes like the first. 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. This time, the military began a full-scale mining operation at the Peak. He also found some old letters, the most recent of which was dated 1880. 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