Hello not Peralta
Interesting theory.
I have a theory that runs close to yours. I have come across Doc Noss by accident, I do mineral surveys and was interested in a location in the Caballo's due to the mineral signatures present. Long story short before you know it I had people telling me stories associated with Doc and the whole Caballo bunch like Buster & Willie, the Gordons, the Holdens the Mitchells, the Palmers, Willie's nephew Leeland Alsup, Leno Carteago, Apache Jim wilson, Josie Bell Butler, Ms Peron and so on. I am sure you're aware of. Anyhow it was a whole new world opening up to me and in fact I thought was a bunch of BS. However I couldn't deny the mineral signatures that we were obtaining. Knowing that if, any of these stories were true well then you would have to have the source present. Off and on over the years I have revisited the area and performed many geophysical surveys with an array of instrumentation such as GPR, Infrared and Thermal imaging, EM-Pulse Induction,
AGI Supersting 8 Resistivity, Magnetometers, EMF imaging, Passive Magnetic Resonance, Satellite Digital Analysis. Having depth capabilities of data retrieval down to 300' With that said the Caballo Mountains contain some highly mineralized areas. With the approach that we had towards mineral exploration I started having some credible people contact me and share information with me stating that they felt I had a good chance in locating Doc's original area in the Caballo's. Based upon what I have discovered in the field through Geophysical surveys and files of documentation given to me by people directly connected either by relatives or research along with being brought to certain locations and shown areas of interest I have a theory of my own and of course it's just a theory.
Doc was born in 1894, did meet Geronimo in 1908/09, did obtain a rabbit skin vest map from Geronimo, did show up in the Caballo's in 1934, did locate the canyon area on the map due to obvious landmarks in the 1st day out,( "NOTE" this map was from an Indian not a Spaniard and was given major landmarks to find the location) did locate the air vent to the mine on his 3rd day out, by finding the mule's ears or rabbit ears outcropping, which also had a rock outcropping displaying the shape of an indian headdress and a side profile of a man or soldiers face, did clean out everything of value extending from the air vent to the first iron door over a period of 8 years, did find both dore bars with 20% gold 71% copper and 8% silver and Soto stalk gold bars about 89% gold, did have to work the caved in area to get the Soto Stalk bars out over time, did obtain maps to 5 major treasure locations, The Caballo's the Capitans, The Organs, Cloudcroft and Victorio Peak. Along with maps showing where 4 Spanish mines were located in the Caballos including the original one he found first, did locate Victorio Peak in 1936 from those maps, did find a completely different treasure storehouse within Vickie Peak, did revisit the original Caballo Spanish mine from Geronimo's map in 1942 and blasted the Mule's ears, Head Dress and profile of a Man's Face, Did plug the air vent with a large boulder and disguise the air vent. He did leave a total of 6 stacks of gold bars. 5 stacks in the main store room behind the iron door, the additional stack he probably wasn't aware of unless he understood the Spanish map that was in his pocket when he was killed. He was afraid to disturb the iron door fearing the whole thing would cave in that is the only reason why those 5 were not taken, did associate with other treasure hunters within the Caballo's, only to make sense of the maps he already possessed. Also NONE of the Caballo treasure hunters even knew he had a map. Nor did they know that Doc already had his own treasure, did join with Leno Carteago who had a map but Leno couldn't find the location until he partnered up with Doc, Doc had a map to that location also and between Leno's info and Doc's maps they located it right away. Doc was one of four who tortured Willie for three days, Doc did run with Willie, Buster, The Mitchells, The Palmers, Ms Perone, and a whole bunch of others trying to use their info to assist his info from the maps he obtained in the first location, "KEEPING YOUR ENEMIES CLOSE TO YOU" ALL THE WHILE NONE OF THEM KNEW ABOUT DOC'S LOCATION! After many murders and dastardly deeds happening within the Caballo's Doc fled and went to pursue Victorio Peak. Again none of the Caballo treasure hunters even knew about Vickie Peak that's why in the 1970's Willie showed up at Vickie Peak trying to claim that some of that gold was his, because he felt Doc must have moved gold bars from the Caballos to Vickie Peak and those gold bars had to come from one of his locations in the Caballo's,
That's where the rumor started with Doc moving gold to Vickie Peak. Leatha and Ova never mentioned to the Vickie Peak group(in the 1970's) about the Caballo's all along keeping the focus on Vickie Peak, Yet they knew where Doc got in first, The only people to go in that original site was Josie Bell Butler and a young Apache Indian girl that Doc was fooling around with, who lived in TorC or Hot Springs the rest of her years as late as of the 1990's, Doc never attempted to file a claim on the first Caballo site for many reasons, this is why he filed on Vickie Peak because he could.(yet even Vickie Peak had its own discrepancies) Yet he always kept a rented place in Hot springs keeping close to his original site and or sites. After 1942 Doc did not plan of re gaining easy access to the original site, In the 1990's Letha & Jerry did return to the Caballo's but did not know exactly where Doc got in, In fact all of the markers were already destroyed yet everyone was still looking for them. Today there is a Spanish map (not the Geronimo map) floating around and it has Doc's original site. Although Doc made plenty of mistakes he did a great job is keeping his original site secret enough to keep anyone else from finding it other than the two women he took to it. Which they never did return without him. The Apache Indian girl was brought in after the gold between the air vent and the iron door was gone. She described the priest and the other bodies, the smelter, the bellows and the iron door and what was behind it saying the door was buckled open about 6 to 8" allowing enough room to see the stacks of gold bars. That is what Josie Bell Butler said also but there still was gold bars located between the air vent and the iron door when Josie was brought in.
That's my Theory
Unfortunately Letha or Jerry was unable to locate Doc's original site in the Caballo's. Neither has any of the other treasure hunters who have attempted to locate it. Some in which have lost their life in pursuing this specific site. Gold does a strange thing to people and that is once they believe that it's there, they will exhaust all of their resources and others to get it. Even when all of their attempts are met with utter failure and is evident their belief is wrong they will still believe it's the right location and in many cases return to the same location to further exhaust additional resources. It's like a disease. But if one can enjoy the hunt and appreciate the history then treasure hunting is one of the most enjoyable hobbies there is. Myself personally I like gold also but I love the mystery and the history as well. Given that there are so many versions of the Doc Noss story, it truly is difficult to know what really happened. However I have been exposed to a lot of documentation, personal testimony, physical evidence and Geophysical data results that starts to paint a picture. I have based my theory upon that.
Here's a very good question for you all,Do you actually think Doc Noss stumbled upon VP accidentally while deer hunting?. If so then why did he spend so much time being shown different caves within the area, and why did he finally settle upon VP for his purposes ,Doc knew VP had nothing in it, It had been used as a shelter for many years, by both ranchers and travelers,
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