Victorio Peak, New Mexico Caves of Gold
As usual, with all my treasure stories, I will start this with my warnings and disclaimers! The place this story encompasses lies WITHIN the boundaries of the White Sands Missile Range. Sneaking onto the base could end up with you getting kicked off (at minimum) or arrested (worst case). Also, this is in a remote and barren area.
In 1937, a gentleman named Milton Ernest "Doc" Noss and his wife Ova "Babe" Noss, were deer hunting in the Hembrillo Basin Area East of present day Truth or Consequences, NM. In trying to avoid getting soaked by a sudden downpour, Doc stumbled upon what may well be one of, if the THE largest hidden caches of gold and antiquities in North America (approximately 23 million troy ounces of gold if the story is true).
You can read different versions of the story, but the main two that everybody should read are :
1. The Official Government Version of the story available on the White Sands Missile Range Website.......CLICK HERE
2. A two-part 1986 article in Freedom Magazine by Thomas G. Whittle. Before clicking over, you should know that Freedom Magazine is published by the Church of Scientology. As with any story that has any religious affilliation, I know it makes many people very skeptical. Don't be. It is the most well researched annotated version I have yet found. The writer actually went and lived with the players in the story while researching it. Forget that the article has ANY religious affiliation at all. Just read it and judge the article on its' merits. To read.........CLICK HERE
In reading both versions, I will tell you what I took away from them.
Everything the Freedom Magazine Article was, the WSMR Article was not. While Tom Whittle's Article was annotated and he used the actual names of the people that were involved, statements from them, and quotes from any documentation he unearthed. The WSMR Article, on the other hand, uses unnamed sources and unsubstantiated stories to denigrate the character of Milton "Doc" Noss. Not very professional.
In the end of things, I tend to base my opinions on people's actions, and not their words. Doc fought the government tooth and nail until 1949 when he was killed. Ova Noss kept the fight going until her death in 1979. Her grandson, Terry Delonas, formed the Ova Noss Family Partnership, and continues the fight to this day. If this was a figment of Doc and Ova's Imaginations, or a sham dreamed up by them, WOULD THEY HAVE REALLY FOUGHT AS HARD AS THEY HAVE FOR AS LONG AS THEY HAVE?
OF COURSE NOT!!!!
The saddest part of this whole story is that with the highest probability, everything of any value has been long ago excavated from the depths of that little 400 foot peak in the desert in New Mexico. If I can figure this out, I'm certain the parties directly involved must have surmised this as well. If this is so, then why keep up the fight for access to the area? If they can go in and prove that Doc's description of the cave systems was accurate, it would go a long way to exonerating his name for history. Also, if they can find ANY evidence that the gold was there, it could be the basis for a major lawsuit against the Government by the Noss Family.
Here is a Google Earth picture of modern day Victorio Peak. If there was never anything in that hill, why all the construction activity there?
