Jason Roberts's Blog
January 12, 2020
Victorio Peak Part Three
Victorio Peak (Part Three)
Our story continues; if you missed one and two, go back and read.
With the passage to his “mine” completely caved in, Doc Noss found himself in a serious quandary. His financial situation declined and he struggled to find buyers for any of his stashed gold bars. The strain proved too much for his marriage and he left Ova, their divorce being finalized in 1945. In 1947 he married Violet Boles, which would significantly complicate the future of the claim.
Ova, not to be deprived, kept her claims to the treasure and filed claims with the New Mexico court, effectively suspending the operations at Victorio Peak. These events came to a head in 1948 when a Texas oil man named Charles Ryan entered the picture. Ryan had agreed to fund a $25,000 operation to clear the shaft in exchange for a stash of gold bars. Around the time of the exchange, one of Ova’s injunctions came into play, blocking Doc’s ability to perform any work on the site. Perhaps believing Ryan to be in league with his ex-wife, Doc hurriedly relocated the stash of bars meant for Ryan. The following day the men met and argued over the failed transaction.
Understand that the account exists solely from Charles Ryan’s statements. Allegedly, when the conversation had reached a boiling point, Noss turned his back on Ryan and went to his car. Ryan took this as a threat that he intended to retrieve a gun. The only real facts you can take away from the encounter is that Charles Ryan shot Doc Noss in the head and killed him and that Ryan was later acquitted of the murder.
Take what you will from the death of Doc Noss, the legend of his buried gold bars remains to this day. There is one account of a man said to have assisted Doc Noss in moving the gold bars intended for Ryan, but if he went back for them, he took the secret to his grave. Enough eyewitness accounts exist of the gold bars to at least lend a significant amount of credibility to the whole story.
With Doc passed, the only thing impeding Ova was a collapsed shaft and poverty. She worked the site as best she could with her resources, attempting to clear the shaft. Periodically she hired workers to assist, but it was slow going. Unfortunately for Ova, things were about to become exceedingly complicated.
In 1955 the Army unexpectedly expanded the White Sands Missile Range to encompass Victorio Peak and the surrounding areas. Further confounding Ova’s efforts, all records of mining claims filed by either her or Doc mysteriously disappeared. This is about the time I would encourage you to put on your tinfoil hat, because things just get weirder from here.
That, we will save for part four.
Our story continues; if you missed one and two, go back and read.
With the passage to his “mine” completely caved in, Doc Noss found himself in a serious quandary. His financial situation declined and he struggled to find buyers for any of his stashed gold bars. The strain proved too much for his marriage and he left Ova, their divorce being finalized in 1945. In 1947 he married Violet Boles, which would significantly complicate the future of the claim.
Ova, not to be deprived, kept her claims to the treasure and filed claims with the New Mexico court, effectively suspending the operations at Victorio Peak. These events came to a head in 1948 when a Texas oil man named Charles Ryan entered the picture. Ryan had agreed to fund a $25,000 operation to clear the shaft in exchange for a stash of gold bars. Around the time of the exchange, one of Ova’s injunctions came into play, blocking Doc’s ability to perform any work on the site. Perhaps believing Ryan to be in league with his ex-wife, Doc hurriedly relocated the stash of bars meant for Ryan. The following day the men met and argued over the failed transaction.
Understand that the account exists solely from Charles Ryan’s statements. Allegedly, when the conversation had reached a boiling point, Noss turned his back on Ryan and went to his car. Ryan took this as a threat that he intended to retrieve a gun. The only real facts you can take away from the encounter is that Charles Ryan shot Doc Noss in the head and killed him and that Ryan was later acquitted of the murder.
Take what you will from the death of Doc Noss, the legend of his buried gold bars remains to this day. There is one account of a man said to have assisted Doc Noss in moving the gold bars intended for Ryan, but if he went back for them, he took the secret to his grave. Enough eyewitness accounts exist of the gold bars to at least lend a significant amount of credibility to the whole story.
With Doc passed, the only thing impeding Ova was a collapsed shaft and poverty. She worked the site as best she could with her resources, attempting to clear the shaft. Periodically she hired workers to assist, but it was slow going. Unfortunately for Ova, things were about to become exceedingly complicated.
In 1955 the Army unexpectedly expanded the White Sands Missile Range to encompass Victorio Peak and the surrounding areas. Further confounding Ova’s efforts, all records of mining claims filed by either her or Doc mysteriously disappeared. This is about the time I would encourage you to put on your tinfoil hat, because things just get weirder from here.
That, we will save for part four.
December 13, 2019
Victorio Peak Part Two
Victorio Peak (Part 2)
Forgive me for the cliff-hanger; it was a cruel place to pause the story. If you missed last week, then go back and check it out. Where were we…
Scattered among the human remains, Doc found a fabulous, if not curious, collection of treasure. Gold coins, jewels, and strange artifacts filled the small chambers. The account of the riches is a matter both tantalizing and vexing to historians, hopelessly speculating how they possibly arrived there. Included among the treasure were numerous jeweled swords, a solid gold statue of the Virgin Mary, a crown with 244 gemstones and set with a large pigeon blood ruby, countless gold and silver coins, a jeweled scepter, and chests of letters and documents. Notably one chest was identified as a Western Union chest holding letters dated up to 1880. Further into the cave system he discovered an enormous quantity of what he believed at first to be iron bars, which as you may have guessed, were gold ingots. Noss claimed these ingots weighed about forty pounds each and he was barely able to lift them out of the cave. We’ll go into the implications of these artifacts later, as that is another story unto itself.
It is important to note that these are the accounts filtered down through surviving members of the Noss family, whose knowledge of the items came from a very paranoid Doc Noss. While some photographic evidence exists, most of what we know comes from the family or a few rare accounts of eyewitnesses to Doc’s strange doings. As it happens there were very good reasons for Doc’s paranoia and the secrecy in which he operated.
Due to the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, it was illegal for citizens to own gold or gold certificates. This was immensely problematic for Noss. The nation was also mired in the Great Depression, which added a certain amount of risk in staking a claim of that size. Noss believed, and rightly so, that if his fellow man wasn’t trying to rob him, his government most certainly would. Regardless of the risk, they filed for a treasure trove permit and several mining claims on Victorio Peak and the surrounding area.
Doc worked the trove as secretly as he could, keeping the contents of what he removed secret from even his own family. Allegedly he was able to remove several hundred gold bars between 1937 and 1939, squirreling them away to multiple caches buried across the desert. Because of the Gold Act, Noss was unable to profit much from his find. He sold off small amounts of gold on the black market to finance his efforts, but the bulk of his gold remained buried.
By 1939 his paranoia had escalated to mania. Convinced he had been followed to one cache or another, he began digging up his gold and redepositing it in increasingly distant locations. It was this desperation that inspired him to step up his excavation of the peak. Noss hired a mining engineer by the name of S.E. Montgomery to assist him. Montgomery suggested using eight sticks of dynamite to blast open the portal, to which Noss vehemently disagreed, citing the passages were not stable enough. In the end, Montgomery won out and to Doc’s horror, the entrance to the peak was obliterated.
This however is not the end of the story, tune in next week for Part Three!
Forgive me for the cliff-hanger; it was a cruel place to pause the story. If you missed last week, then go back and check it out. Where were we…
Scattered among the human remains, Doc found a fabulous, if not curious, collection of treasure. Gold coins, jewels, and strange artifacts filled the small chambers. The account of the riches is a matter both tantalizing and vexing to historians, hopelessly speculating how they possibly arrived there. Included among the treasure were numerous jeweled swords, a solid gold statue of the Virgin Mary, a crown with 244 gemstones and set with a large pigeon blood ruby, countless gold and silver coins, a jeweled scepter, and chests of letters and documents. Notably one chest was identified as a Western Union chest holding letters dated up to 1880. Further into the cave system he discovered an enormous quantity of what he believed at first to be iron bars, which as you may have guessed, were gold ingots. Noss claimed these ingots weighed about forty pounds each and he was barely able to lift them out of the cave. We’ll go into the implications of these artifacts later, as that is another story unto itself.
It is important to note that these are the accounts filtered down through surviving members of the Noss family, whose knowledge of the items came from a very paranoid Doc Noss. While some photographic evidence exists, most of what we know comes from the family or a few rare accounts of eyewitnesses to Doc’s strange doings. As it happens there were very good reasons for Doc’s paranoia and the secrecy in which he operated.
Due to the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, it was illegal for citizens to own gold or gold certificates. This was immensely problematic for Noss. The nation was also mired in the Great Depression, which added a certain amount of risk in staking a claim of that size. Noss believed, and rightly so, that if his fellow man wasn’t trying to rob him, his government most certainly would. Regardless of the risk, they filed for a treasure trove permit and several mining claims on Victorio Peak and the surrounding area.
Doc worked the trove as secretly as he could, keeping the contents of what he removed secret from even his own family. Allegedly he was able to remove several hundred gold bars between 1937 and 1939, squirreling them away to multiple caches buried across the desert. Because of the Gold Act, Noss was unable to profit much from his find. He sold off small amounts of gold on the black market to finance his efforts, but the bulk of his gold remained buried.
By 1939 his paranoia had escalated to mania. Convinced he had been followed to one cache or another, he began digging up his gold and redepositing it in increasingly distant locations. It was this desperation that inspired him to step up his excavation of the peak. Noss hired a mining engineer by the name of S.E. Montgomery to assist him. Montgomery suggested using eight sticks of dynamite to blast open the portal, to which Noss vehemently disagreed, citing the passages were not stable enough. In the end, Montgomery won out and to Doc’s horror, the entrance to the peak was obliterated.
This however is not the end of the story, tune in next week for Part Three!
December 9, 2019
December 6, 2019
Victorio Peak (Part One)
By now, some of you have read my book, The Yellow Painted Man. For those who have not, I will avoid major spoilers, however, I will be referencing characters and events from the text. So, if that bothers you, then go read the book!
Clearly TYPM is filled with historical individuals and events, which I have endeavored to represent as faithfully as possible within the context of the story. Beneath the surface there is another, less obvious, layer of obscure references and historical Easter Eggs. One of the more prominent examples of this is “The Tiny Mountain”, or as it is known to history; Victorio Peak.
Located in the Hembrillo Basin and within the confines of the present-day White Sands Missile Range, Victorio Peak is not much to look at. In fact, divorced from its historic and mythic significance, it’s hardly discernable from any other outcropping loitering about the landscape. Beneath it, however, is said to exist one of the richest hoards of gold and treasure ever discovered; but we’ll get to that a little later.
Chiricahua Chief Victorio and his band used the basin as a stronghold during the series of conflicts known as Victorio’s War, in the later years of the Apache Wars. In April of 1880 Victorio led Chiricahua and Mescalero warriors against elements of the United States Army’s Sixth and Ninth Cavalry, in the Battle of Hembrillo Basin. Victorio took the high ground of the now famous peak and used it to hold off the superior force. His strategy was to block the Army’s access to the only potable water source and therefor cause them to retreat. The gambit worked well, until Army reinforcements arrived. Regardless, his position allowed for a strategic withdraw from the basin while suffering almost no casualties.
Time had almost erased the memory of Victorio Peak by 1937. Many maps mistakenly marked it as “Victoria” Peak, having all but forgotten the Chiricahua Chief and namesake. Enter Milton Ernest “Doc” Noss and his wife Ova “Babe” Noss. In November of that year, the couple were camped in the basin, hunting deer. While scouting the top of the peak, Doc noticed a stone that looked worked by human hands. Digging around the stone, he was able to pry it free, revealing a shaft of indeterminable depth, bored straight into the peak. After showing his discovery to Babe, the two decided to come back later and explore.
A few days later, armed with rope and a light, Doc made his way some sixty feet into the depths of the shaft. He found himself in a small room with drawings and carvings on the wall that he posited were “Indian” in origin. At the other end of the chamber another shaft descended about a hundred and twenty-five feet further before leveling out into a series of carved out rooms. It was here Doc made a grisly discovery; a human skeleton kneeling with its hands bound behind its back and tied to a stake; apparently left to die. Further investigation revealed a total of twenty-seven skeletons secured in similar fashion.
It was what he found among the remains that was truly remarkable. Tune in next week for part two!
Clearly TYPM is filled with historical individuals and events, which I have endeavored to represent as faithfully as possible within the context of the story. Beneath the surface there is another, less obvious, layer of obscure references and historical Easter Eggs. One of the more prominent examples of this is “The Tiny Mountain”, or as it is known to history; Victorio Peak.
Located in the Hembrillo Basin and within the confines of the present-day White Sands Missile Range, Victorio Peak is not much to look at. In fact, divorced from its historic and mythic significance, it’s hardly discernable from any other outcropping loitering about the landscape. Beneath it, however, is said to exist one of the richest hoards of gold and treasure ever discovered; but we’ll get to that a little later.
Chiricahua Chief Victorio and his band used the basin as a stronghold during the series of conflicts known as Victorio’s War, in the later years of the Apache Wars. In April of 1880 Victorio led Chiricahua and Mescalero warriors against elements of the United States Army’s Sixth and Ninth Cavalry, in the Battle of Hembrillo Basin. Victorio took the high ground of the now famous peak and used it to hold off the superior force. His strategy was to block the Army’s access to the only potable water source and therefor cause them to retreat. The gambit worked well, until Army reinforcements arrived. Regardless, his position allowed for a strategic withdraw from the basin while suffering almost no casualties.
Time had almost erased the memory of Victorio Peak by 1937. Many maps mistakenly marked it as “Victoria” Peak, having all but forgotten the Chiricahua Chief and namesake. Enter Milton Ernest “Doc” Noss and his wife Ova “Babe” Noss. In November of that year, the couple were camped in the basin, hunting deer. While scouting the top of the peak, Doc noticed a stone that looked worked by human hands. Digging around the stone, he was able to pry it free, revealing a shaft of indeterminable depth, bored straight into the peak. After showing his discovery to Babe, the two decided to come back later and explore.
A few days later, armed with rope and a light, Doc made his way some sixty feet into the depths of the shaft. He found himself in a small room with drawings and carvings on the wall that he posited were “Indian” in origin. At the other end of the chamber another shaft descended about a hundred and twenty-five feet further before leveling out into a series of carved out rooms. It was here Doc made a grisly discovery; a human skeleton kneeling with its hands bound behind its back and tied to a stake; apparently left to die. Further investigation revealed a total of twenty-seven skeletons secured in similar fashion.
It was what he found among the remains that was truly remarkable. Tune in next week for part two!
