Doc Noss - Victoria Peak Treasure

Hello all

Has any of these items he allegedly found at the peak has ever turned up?

Hardluck 

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Still looking for actual photos of the artifacts.

excerpt from People Magazine 1992

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Over the next two years, the family believes, Noss painstakingly carried some 200 bars of gold out through the treacherous passage that led from the cavern and buried them in the desert for safekeeping. He also produced a number of artifacts, including a 19th-century German sword that the family still has in its possession. Stepdaughters Letha Guthrie and Dorothy Delonas, who spent time at the peak when they were young women, say that though Noss never let them accompany him to the cave, he did show them a few gold bars and artifacts. "He said the less we knew, the safer we'd be," says Dorothy, now 73, who recalls being handed a gold bar by Doc while they were camping near the peak. "I tried to put it under my pillow, and it was too long. I was up all night trying to protect it."

The family says that in 1939 New Mexico officials assured Noss that if he could widen the access into the peak so that they could inspect the claim, he would be granted title to the site. It was then, they say, that bad luck struck when a dynamite blast by a mining engineer intended to open up the passage caused a cave-in that sealed it closed.

In the following years, with the help of various investors and hired laborers, Noss intermittently worked on digging a 180-foot shaft through the rubble. Increasingly wary of would-be claim jumpers, he took to carrying a gun, often dropping out of sight for long periods. As time wore on, some locals accused him of fraud, and he took to drink. "People were following and making fun of him," Dorothy Delonas says. "He'd get disgusted with things, and so he'd get drunk."

At one point, the family says, some men kidnapped Doc and took a blowtorch to the soles of his feet to get him to divulge the whereabouts of the gold he claimed to have taken from the cave. "It was right after that that he disappeared," Dorothy says. "He always fell he'd get killed over it."

He turned out to be right. In 1949, during a dispute with Charley Ryan, a Texan who was helping to finance the search, Noss was shot in the back of the head as he ran down the main street in Hatch, N.Mex. He died slumped over the fender of a Chevrolet truck. (Ryan was acquitted of the shooting after arguing that he acted in self-defense because Noss was running to get his own gun.)


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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Legends of Lost Gold: the Victorio Peak Treasure (Part 2)

At the end of my previous post on New Mexico's Victorio Peak Treasure ("Legends of Lost Gold: the Victorio Peak Treasure [Part 1]"

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) I mentioned that I'd continue with the legend's history and significant events in the next post. So here goes (please note that all quotes by the parties involved are in italics):

"Something Unusual"

In 1937 the protagonist of our story, Milton "Doc" Noss, was illegally practicing foot medicine as a podiatrist in Hot Springs, New Mexico (now Truth or Consequences). In November of that same year he, his wife Ova "Babe" Noss, and another couple (who remain unnamed) were on a combined hunting and camping excursion in the Hembrillo Basin, not far from Victorio Peak.

At some point Doc slipped away from the others to hunt deer on his own. He returned to the campsite quite late in the evening and pulled Babe aside in their tent, swearing her to secrecy and whispering to her that he had "found something unusual" near the top of the mountain that included a small opening covered by a rock that led into a "cave-like" room.

"That Was the First of the Treasure"

To ensure that no undue suspicions regarding their activities were raised, Doc and Babe waited for a month or two before to returning to Victorio Peak with lengths of rope, digging tools, lanterns, and other supplies. Over the course of 3 or 4 visits, Doc expanded his initial discovery by venturing deeper and deeper into the mountain, squeezing himself through narrow passages and at one point, crossing an underground stream.

Finally, one fateful evening, after being inside the bowels of Victorio Peak for hours, Doc climbed his way back to the surface to confront a very worried Babe. Without saying a word Doc motioned Babe over to the campfire she had built and with shaking hands reached inside his vest and pulled out an old leather bag.

"It looked like a horse's feed bag" and was filled with "old foreign money" quoted Babe in later years. "That was the first of the treasure," said Babe. Over the next few months Doc would recover a number of other treasure items from inside Victorio Peak, including jewels, an old sword, and a gold crown.

"The Treasure Room"

Doc told Babe that the interior of the mountain was riddled with tunnels and caverns including a huge central chamber that Doc called "the treasure room." According to Doc inside this large, central cavern were several large stacks of "pig iron" which later turned out to be various-sized bars of gold (again, according to Doc) with a black oxidation coating on them. Also in the treasure room were wooden crates filled to the brim with jewels, old weapons and armor, trunks filled with lace and velvet, religious statues, gold crosses, and even old documents and letters.

To prove his point Doc handed Babe a gold crown. Later, while they were at home, Babe cleaned the crown at her kitchen sink, still unable to fully comprehend the treasure trove that Doc had found inside Victorio Peak. In later years Babe stated that "I took it to a jewelerman in El Paso and when he seen it he starting talking to us real polite. The crown had 243 diamonds and one big pigeon-blood ruby."

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Idaho,  I just scanned the attached article, but it is interesting enough that I'm going back and reading it more carefully.   The photos sure match most of the older and more basic written accounts better than anything I've seen from the recent Victorio Peak expeditions.   These Florida folks could be on to something.

BA

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On a previous post I said the Air Force.....it was the Army at WSMR that took control of the situation. However, In 1973 the WSMR Commander agreed to let a Drilling and Seismograph Co. out of Colorado have a permit for a week to try and locate anything. They went to the original shaft that Doc Noss was supposedly to have dug down about 130' and try and clean it out. The weather didn't cooperate and before they could do any good, their permit had ran out...... I really believe that Doc Noss found something, but probably at a different location. He may have used Victoria Peak as a ruse to throw others off his trail.

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