Uncle Matt - not to head down the speculation highway, which IMHO is the only realistic option to pursue since there is reason to believe any treasure in VP has long since vanished; but to address
one issue that you take offense to. Namely pre-Columbian visitors to NM.
Columbus was not the first to cross the Atlantic successfully. Neither was Leif Eriksson. There are several medeival 'legends' of crossings, such as prince Madoc of Wales, Saint Brendan 'the navigator' or even Henry Sinclair, though he post-dates the Norse colonies and exploration. In the so-called 'classical' age of antiquity, one of the major cultures of the Mediterranean basin was quite advanced in seafaring, bringing spices from as far away as SE Asia, circumnavigating Africa and sending explorers out into the Atlantic, namely the Phoenicians and especially their western progeny Carthage.
Diodorus Siculus records that the Carthaginians had found a 'secret' land far out in the Atlantic, and Aristotle likewise states much the same thing, even adding that the Carthaginians had attempted to plant a colony at one time but it was ordered withdrawn by their Senate, out of fear that a "crowd" would soon resort there, and the land would be kept as a secret haven for the people should some calamity befall their homeland. Plutarch stated that documents were found in the ruins of Carthage that explained the northern route across the Atlantic as well, the same route taken by the Norse a thousand years later.
Artifacts have turned up in Phoenician tombs which absolutely came from the Americas, like a table made of Brazilian "pau" wood (a type of ironwood native to Brazil) and correspondingly some artifacts have turned up in the Americas like Carthaginian coins at a number of sites. Without going too far into this, we might add that several ancient shipwrecks have been found in the Americas as well, proving that ships did cross the Atlantic in the time before Christ.
Even in New Mexico, there is the enigmatic stone inscription and possible fortifications found at the Los Lunas site. The stone is called the Los Lunas decalogue stone, as some have theorized that it is an ancient set of the 10 Commandments, the alphabet being of Semitic type (either Phoenician or ancient Hebrew, they are very similar and the inscription can be read in either language).
It is a flawed assumption to conclude that if any contact took place, then we must find massive amounts of evidence, namely weapons, ruins, DNA etc. The kind of visits which were being made in ancient times was or were not intended to establish cities and permanent footing, these were sporadic visits by relatively small parties, generally out trying to find their own fortunes. Weapons would be the last thing such men were likely to let be transferred to strange foreigners whom could easily become hostile. Coins were likewise nearly useless, for most Amerindian cultures did not use coins. (There are exceptions of course, the 'hoe' or 'axe' money of several civilizations, which most closely resembles ancient Chinese coins of the same style, more in a moment) Herodotus even records how Phoenicians were able to trade with native peoples that they had almost no contact with, by simply piling goods on shore and the natives did likewise, until both parties were satisfied nothing would be removed by either side. Visitors whom were more like prospectors, not looking to establish permanant homes, and left very little evidence of their presence here.
There are certainly many strange parallels that point to Chinese contact with the Americas in the pre-columbian era as well; from the strange jade body and face covers of the Mayans to the 'hoe' money used by Aztecs, Incas and others. A record of an ancient voyage to what sounds like America exists in the story of the Chinese monk Fu Sang about the 7th century AD. Cross oceanic currents and prevailing 'trade' winds tend to carry ships and anything that floats directly across the largest oceans, and many accidental crossings have occurred over the centuries. Aristotle and Diodorus Siculus both stated that the first landings in the Americas by Phoenicians (Carthaginians specifically) was by accident due to being driven there by powerful storms, while planting colonies along the Atlantic coast of Africa. Columbus on his first attempt to cross the Atlantic sailed south from Spain to the coast of Africa to take advantage of the powerful trade winds located in that region which carry ships directly across the Atlantic.
Even in the bible, we have enigmatic clues that king Solomon's 'navy' of ships may well have been obtaining some of the wealth described as being imported from mysterious Ophir, really was visiting America; the voyages took three years to complete, which is the same time span required by the first Europeans to circumnavigate the world, Magellan and Drake. Plus there is a hint that the ships were departing from the Red sea port of Ezion-geber, and returning to the Mediterranean port of Joppa. This would explain why later kings of Judaea were forced to build new ships in Ezion-geber to try to re-open the lucrative trade route.
Quite a few other cultures also have left evidence of having visited the Americas including the ancient people of Japan, Arab traders of the medeival period apparently carried across the ocean by accident, black Africans depicted so enigmatically in the gigantic stone Olmec heads, Polynesians as proposed by Thor Heyerdahl, Basques, Celts, Malays, even possibly Babylonians - the famous Nez Perce chief Joseph had a clay tablet of cuneiform that he stated had been in his family for many generations!
How does any of this tie in with Victorio Peak or the Caballos? It does not, directly, just pointing out that we should not rule out ancient visitors as a possible identity of who or whom placed the treasure in the cave in the first place. Personally I doubt that it is ancient, for there were items which clearly post-date the ancient period by many centuries, which IMHO fairly rules out any Carthaginians or king Solomon as the original owners. With this treasure legend we are left with only the stories and a few photos, the legal papers from the lawsuit, and a missing treasure. If speculation is off the table, then we have pretty much already covered the evidence that remains such as it is.
Anyway just hoped to point out that there is evidence of pre-Columbian visitors coming to America, even in New Mexico, and we ought not expect to find numerous weapons, armor, pottery etc from what were rather transitory visits by relatively small groups and at sporadic times; there was no regular system in place nor any permanent presence although some believe in the Tucson artifacts as proof of a Roman-Samaritan colony in the southwest, I am far from convinced those artifacts are genuine.
If you are interested in reading further about ancient explorers coming to America long before Columbus, I would recommend several books:
America BC by Dr Barry Fell
Bronze Age America by Fell
In Plain Sight, Old World Records in Ancient America by Gloria Farley
Did the Phoenicians Discover America? by Thomas Crawford Johnston
Long Before Columbus, How the Ancients Discovered America by Hans Holzer
Fusang, or, The discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist priests in the fifth century by Charles G. Leland <this one is online @
Full text of "Fusang, or, The discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist priests in the fifth century"
There are many online articles as well, anyway even some of our historians are starting to admit that some level of contact across the oceans was taking place in ancient times.
Please do continue amigos, sorry for the long winded post and for drifting somewhat off topic.
Oroblanco
