2003-2008 Church of Scientology International. The answer could be worth billions of dollars. See the article in its original context from. Peak and look, accompanied by the missile range commander, Maj. Gen. John G. Shinkle, military pblicemen and Treasury agents. now. 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. (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 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. Did they even exist at all? Background research into the enormous wealth contained in the caverns of Victorio Peak revealed many eyewitness reports of the gold. The Mystery Of The Lost Victorio Peak Treasure, a group of researchers who published their findings. Neither the Denver Mint nor the Federal records center in Denver, which has copies of gold receints for that period, could find the Noss receipt, spokesmen there said. Meanwhile, Tony Jolley, now a 69-year-old rancher living outside Boise, Ida., never forgot those bars of gold he helped bury in 1949. Some believe that Doc Noss found the Casa del Cueva de Oro, Spanish for the House of the Golden Cave. Others speculate that the treasure could be the missing wealth of Emperor Maxmillian, who served as Mexicos emperor in the 1860s. Most deposits are thin and less than 45 ft below the surface, but thicker deposits are found in the Elizabethtown-Baldy district (up to 275 ft) and in the Rio Grande Valley district (up to 370 ft). Lack of water has hampered mining in many districts and new technology, which minimizes water usage, may stimulate activity. She called her lawyer, Philip Koury, of Kansas City, who phoned General Shinkle. The two decided to keep the discovery between themselves and return to inspect the shaft later. Acquitted on grounds of selfdefense, Mr. Ryan testified that Doc had promised him 51 bars of gold in return for his $27,000 investment. Lifting the rock, he found a hole that led straight down into the mountain. Mrs. Noss believes Mr. Bailey's clients to be mili tary officers and perhaps some of her husband's old partners. That I knew E.M. Guthrie had taken an active personal interest in the fate of gold located in Victorio Peak by Doc Noss. In November 1937, Doc, Babe, and four others left on a deer hunt into the Hembrillo Basin. 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. When Maxmillian heard of the plot to assassinate him, he moved his gold and treasures out of Mexico. 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. 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. Shriver also said that he had copies of other presidential messages, several initialed by LBJ, dealing with the clandestine, illegal removal of the gold. 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. If the treasure was real, Noss had poor timing. 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. Docs object at the time of discovery, of course, was more than old bones. 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. There were thousands of them, covered with old, dusty buffalo hides. In 1981, a worker in Mexico City found a gold bar just north of Alameda Centralthe oldest public park in the Americasduring the construction of a bank. Mrs. Ova Noss said she shad filed papers retaining mineral rights in case the area opened up again. White Sands is the nation's largest military installation, about the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. In 1955, the missile range was expanded and, the Army closed Victoria Peak to outsiders. 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. Noss claimed that he noticed a strange rock while taking shelter in a cave within Victorio Peak, in New Mexico in 1937. Most placer deposits in New Mexico had been discovered by 1900. Another concerns renegades who robbed the Monterey Mint in 1743 and were in turn attacked by Apaches. The Lost Padre Gold Mine in New Mexico. 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. A third, smaller stack, pyramidal in shape, stood about three feet high. I was just a kid, about 13 or 14 years old, he told this writer. White Sands, New Mexico by the National Park Service. (1.93 kilograms), while digging for the construction of a central bank in Mexico City. A Partner and a Gunfight. This time, the military began a full-scale mining operation at the Peak. In 1961, he returned to the desert and claims to have found 10 . The gold concentrates by gravity in incised stream valleys and alluvial fans in deeply weathered highlands. Reaching down, he could not budge it, but after digging around the rock, he got his hands under it. They also were given and passed lie detector tests. Article content. Theories spread over how 16,000 gold bars came to be stashed away in a random cave in New Mexico. At one time, he brought out a crown, which contained 243 diamonds and one pigeon-blood ruby. This was the beginning of protracted legal battles over the ownership of the claim. 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. He estimated the total amount of gold coming from the peak at a staggering 96 million troy ounces, worth, at $320 an ounce, nearly $31 billion. They bore the Spanish stamp. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. Though caught trespassing and escorted from the area, the men reported observing several men in Army fatigues upon the peak. 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. However, Terry Delonas, her grandson, continued the family tradition and formed the Ova Noss Family Partnership. The mystery boils down to a single question: Was Milton (Doc) Noss telling the truth, or just a tall tale? That about a month after that, I heard E.M. had been beaten to death in California. In September 1961, Berlett and Fiege swore to the specifics of their discovery in detailed affidavits provided to federal officials. Kathy Weiser-Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2021. If nothing else, he said, an exhaustive search would lay to rest a question that has driven the family for more than 50 years. However, the expert won the argument. The 1.93-kilogram bar was found . In one of the most closely guarded crimes of recent history, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tons of gold bullion were secretly and illegally removed from caverns on White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the beneficiaries allegedly including former President Lyndon Johnson and individuals connected with the U.S. Army, the Central Intelligence Agency and organized crime. Then in 1981, the construction crew found the gold bar, and today scientists have confirmed it was part of the Aztec treasures that Cortes hoped to steal away from Mexico for Spain. He also asserts that military security officers censored out of his report all references to military searches for the treasure. The Army then shut down all operations stating that no additional searches would be allowed. Doc Noss was extremely paranoid and buried everything he took out of the caves, not even trusting his wife, Babe. some of the gold to Mexico, in light planes. However, the business often passes the tax onto the consumer by adding it to the selling price. 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. Edward Atkins of Decatur, Illinois, had been a claimant to the peaks gold and was vigorously pursuing that claim via attorney Darrell Holmes of Athens, Georgia, when Holmes died under mysterious circumstances. His warriors raided southern New Mexico and Texasin an all-out war against the U.S. Army and the Texas Rangers. The gold bar had disappeared without a trace. He stood guard while McDonald and the other man descended into a large cavern, returning with a crudely formed gold bar roughly 2 1/2 inches wide by 7 inches long. Reaching a compromise, the military allowed Expeditions Unlimited, representing all of the claimants, to excavate the peak in 1977. The rate of this tax varies from 5.125% to 8.8675% depending on where the business is . Estimates vary on the number of bars removed, ranging up to 350 or so. Doc thought that he had discovered an old abandoned mineshaft. The actual movement of the gold in this last, largest shipment, Shriver said, was done by [U.S.] military aircraft. Independent of Shriver, another source traced a number of large removals from Victorio Peak. 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. On each trip, Doc would retrieve two gold bars and as many artifacts as he could carry. Today, the Armys official position on the whereabouts of the gold remains cautious, maintaining that the burden of proof rests with the accusers. 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. 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