The Victorio Peak treasure (also seen in print as the Treasure of Victorio Peak or Treasure of San Andres) describes a cache of gold reportedly found inside Victorio Peak in 1937 in southern New Mexico.
The Victorio Peak treasure (also seen in print as the Treasure of Victorio Peak or Treasure of San Andres) describes a cache of gold reportedly found inside Victorio Peak in 1937 in southern New Mexico.
The treasure was allegedly found in 1937 by American businessman and gold prospector Milton Ernest "Doc" Noss. [1] [lower-alpha 1] While there have been multiple documented expeditions to the peak, no gold has been officially recorded as being recovered from the site. [3] Noss was ultimately killed by an associate, Charley Ryan, in 1949 after Ryan accused Noss of fraud and Noss allegedly threatened to kill Ryan and his family. [3] [lower-alpha 2]
A 1961 search by the U.S. Army—the peak lies within White Sands Missile Range—was stopped following a request to state officials by Noss's first wife, Ova. [5] She later was part of an unsuccessful 1963 search. [5] During the 1970s, lawyer F. Lee Bailey represented clients who claimed to know where the treasure was located. [6] [5] By 1992, a grandson of Ova formed the Ova Noss Family Partnership to finance additional searching. [5] The partnership conducted unsuccessful searches until March 1996, when the Army suspended their access. [7]
Theories abound on the origins of the alleged treasure, including that it was pilfered from Mexico during the reign of the Austrian puppet Emperor Maximilian, or through collusion between Pancho Villa and Germany prior to World War I. [8]
The reported treasure and efforts to find it have been covered in books and on television, including:
Victorio was a warrior and chief of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh division of the central Apaches in what is now the American states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua.
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Victorio Peak is a high rocky outcropping in the Hembrillo Basin in southern New Mexico. This was one of Chief Victorio's hideouts, and was the site of a battle in 1880 between Victorio's Apaches and the U.S. Army Ninth Cavalry "Buffalo Soldiers." Additionally, an American gold prospector claimed to have found hidden treasure inside the Mountains in the late 1930s.
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What Men Call Treasure: The Search for Gold at Victorio Peak is a 2008 non-fiction book by Robert Boswell and David Schweidel chronicling the search for gold treasure inside Victorio Peak, New Mexico.
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Victorio, was a warrior and chief of the Apaches in and around Texas and New Mexico.