It’s Been Said Since The 1930s That, At The Heart Of A Desert Lake In New Mexico, There Lies A Hidden Hoard Of Gold Worth Billions Of Dollars
At the center of Hembrillo Basin, a desert lake in New Mexico, lies a craggy outcropping of rock called Victorio Peak.
Since the 1930s, it has been said that a hoard of gold worth billions of dollars was hidden at the site. No one has ever been able to prove that the treasure actually exists, but nevertheless, people have persisted with the search.
The story of the Victorio Peak treasure all started with Milton “Doc” Noss, a self-taught foot doctor. He lived in New Mexico with his wife, Ova “Babe” Noss, in the 1930s.
In November 1937, Doc went on a deer hunting trip. While at the base of Victorio Peak, he felt a breeze on his leg. The breeze was coming from underneath a rock. When he removed the rock, he discovered a passageway leading into the mountain.
Afterward, he rushed home to tell his wife about it. Together, they returned to the mountain with ropes and flashlights. Once Doc entered the shaft, he encountered a complex network of caves filled with skeletons.
He also claimed to have found stashes of jewelry, gold coins, 19th-century letters, Spanish armor, a gold statue of the Virgin Mary, and other treasures.
In addition, there were 16,000 dark metal bricks stacked against the cave walls. After Babe examined one of the bars, she discovered that it was gold.
So, the Nosses set up camp at the base of Victorio Peak to haul out the valuables. The gold bricks were extremely heavy, though. Plus, he had to squeeze between a bunch of boulders and rocks. Doc only managed to retrieve 200 gold bars over two years.
Another problem they ran into at the time was that Congress had passed the Gold Reserve Act, which banned the private ownership of gold. This meant the Nosses would have difficulty selling their newfound riches. Instead, they hid the treasure in the surrounding desert.
Dmitry Pichugin – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
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In 1939, they hired an engineer to blow up the shaft so they could reach the gold more easily. However, the shaft collapsed, burying the treasure and sending Doc into a fit of despair.
Apparently, he abandoned Victorio Peak and his wife. Then, he returned a decade later to try to get his treasure back.
He persuaded a man from Texas named Charley Ryan to fund a project to clear the ruins of the shaft. In exchange, he would give Ryan gold.
Doc was afraid that Ryan would steal all his gold, so he hid 110 bars in the desert. When Ryan never got his share of gold, he accused Doc of conning him. They got into a fight that ended with Ryan shooting Doc twice.
Rumors of the vast fortune reached four airmen from the nearby Holloman Air Force Base in 1958. They searched Victorio Peak for an entrance to the cavern.
They found piles of gold bars and sealed off the entrance so no one could see it. They then asked the military for permission to excavate, a process that took three long years. By 1961, they returned to Victorio Peak but couldn’t find the gold.
Soon after, military equipment and vehicles were spotted at the site. Eventually, the Army admitted that they had been conducting excavations there but declared that they did not find any gold. To this day, the treasure still has not been recovered.
Some believe that it was all a hoax concocted by Doc, while others have speculated that the Army secretly confiscated it.
The mystery of the treasure’s location and who might be in possession of it may never be solved due to the lack of concrete proof.
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