It's a true story, and the research into this fact not fiction. Let's begin on April 15, 1934 in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The subject was a venture meeting called by investment banker Rafael Borega. In attendance were Leon Trabuco: Rancher and large scale miner from Chihualhua, Mexico, Ricardo Artega: Wealthy rancher from Torreon, Mexico, Carlos Sepulvedo: Wealthy rancher from Coahuila, Mexico, Professor Guzman Morada: Economical specialist called in by investment bankers from Spain, and Rafael Borega: International banker for Spain and Mexico.
Morada had a plan: "Gentlemen, on April 5th 1933 President Roosevelt of the United States issued an executive order forbidding the hoarding of gold by United States citizens. He further proposed to congress that a United States Gold Act be formulated and passed. The Committees went to work on the wording of the Act, and had the Act prepared by late 1933, passed on January 13, of this year and signed into law. my friends, I forecast that the United States dollar will de-value and that gold and other metals will gain in price. In 1929 the stock market crashed and that lost investors $60 million dollars and from 1929 to 1933, 4,376 United States banks have collapsed." Professor Morada predicted that with gold now selling on the western world market at $20.67 per ounce, that gold prices would go up soon after the gold act from $30.00 to $40.00 per troy ounce. He predicted that a wise group could reap millions in profits by accumulating the bullion at the present price and holding it in the United States for the anticipated increase in value. Only two among the group inquired as to the problems that might arise on crossing the international borders with the gold. Morada assured all that no problems would come up at the border. A plan was adopted by the group. Trabucl, being the wealthiest and with mining operation knowledge, would lead the group. Trabuco would supply much of the gold that he was personally hoarding estimated at 12 tons or 300,000 troy ounces. This would be combined with some of Ricardo Artega's gold. The two wealthy ranchers, Ricardo Artega and Carlos Sepulvedo, supplied millions of pesos in Dollar form to Rafael Borega so that he could purchase more gold from miners. Borega canvassed the mining communities and amassed five tons of gold, and estimated $3,500,000.00 worth.
The gold was stored at a rented rancho near Pueblo, Mexico. Trabuco supplied trusted guards at Puebla, and when the tonage was accumulated and ready to be moved, the gold, in ingot form, was moved north to Trabuco's mine in northern Chihuahua, Mexico. All summer long and into the winter 17 tons was accumulated. In December Trabuco was elated to locate a United Sates safe property to move the gold to. Trabuco talked to a pilot, William C. Elliot, and wanted him to fly in search of a suitable stash area. Elliot ran a charter service and was more than happy to fly to Kirtland, New Mexico to discuss the project. Trabuco and Elliot met in Kirtland and struck a deal where they would fly and locate a good area and Elliot would receive $2,500.00 per flight to move the gold from Mexico to a site in New Mexico. Trabuco wanted Elliot to locate and lease a secluded mesa top, out of the view of civilization. The Mexican partners approved the deal with the exception that Trabuco would never allow anyone, including Elliot, to know what the gold was buried once it had been flown in.
From Torreon to the United States Border is about 400 air miles. Then an additional 400 miles to the Four Corners area. Approximately 400 total air miles with the flights being planned as night runs.
Note:: Kirtland is half way between Shiprock City (not the rock) and Farmington, New Mexico. It is stated that Elliots plane could fly 1500 pounds with a safety factor. Elliot would need to make at least 23 trips from Mexico to the mesa. It is presumed that the trips were completed by mid January to the end of February 1934.
Trabuco had two trusted and well armed guards stay with the gold and cover it with tarps. Trabuco then released Elliot with his $57,500.00 Flight pay. Trabuco had traveled to Bloomfield, New Mexico to acquire tools for digging and he had his one-ton truck from his mining operations in Mexico. When everything seemed clear, Trabuco had his guards load the gold, one ton at a time, and alone he moved it to a hole that he had dug himself. After the entire 17 tons were laid in the hole, he covered it up with dirt, tarps and waxed paper, returned to pick up his guards and returned to Mexico.
On January 17, 1934 the president signed and passed the United States Gold Act. There was an immediate order for banks, storage houses and metal brokers to turn in their gold for paper dollars at an exchange rate of $35.00 per ounce. As some had predicted, the dollar devaluation did occur, and gold did raise to $35.00 per ounce. However tied to the Act, was the fact that all citizens of the United States must have all their gold traded in within five years.
Note: 34,000 pounds of gold would not require a very great area to store. Plus or minus close to 27 cubic feet. One cubic yard equals 440,000 troy ounces.
Trabuco's gold was worth $20.67 per ounce in 1933. Borega had purchased tons of gold at $25.00 per ounce and the cost of moving the gold by plane had already peen paid. At $35.00 per ounce, there would have been approximately six and three quarters of a million dollars profit if the gold had been moved in 1934, but greed ruled the group and they wanted more.
By 1939 the United States had held the gold price at $35.00 per ounce. Borega had died in him Mexico office in 1939 leaving three members of the group still alive. In 1940 Carlos Sepulvedo was killed in a car crash just outside of Monterry, Mexico. Now Trabuco was the only survivor. On December 7th 1941 the United States had declared war and in 1942 William C. Elliot enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps and was killed in action in 1944 while flying over Germany. After World War ll, Trabuco tried to sell the gold to private buyers, but all sales fell through because the buyers were leery of the old Gold Act and did not wish to enter into any illegal or gray area with the United States Government. Trabuco tried a sale with a German immigrant, but when the German learned that the gold was stored in the United States, he backed out of the deal.
It was suspected that one of the possible United States buyers leaked information to the Treasury Department about the hidden gold and in late 1945 an investigation was opened. In 1946 Trabuco hired an attorney to represent him with the Treasury Department.
President Truman himself was consulted and the Treasury Department called in the Justice Department. A determination was made that the Mexicans had direct knowledge of the Gold Act and chose to violate this U.S. Law. Trabuco could come forward and divulge the hiding place of the gold, allows the United States Government to recover it and then sue for rightful ownership and take his chances with the Federal court system. Trabuco turned down this offer and did not travel within the United States boundaries.
In 1952 a second attempt by a lawyer was made to the Treasury Department. The Justice Department then turned the case over to the Federal Grand Jury, Los Angeles, California District. The Federal Grand Jury issued an indictment, naming Trabuco as violating both United States smuggling laws and cited other open laws that may be named at a later date. It is alleged that Trabuco did maintain some guards near his leased treasure site on the mesa. Most searchers have concentrated their search on an old Spanish Land Grant Property southwest of the landmark (Shiprock, New Mexico). This theory is based on the fact that other properties surrounding the area are part of the sovereign Navajo Indian reservation and in 1933 the land available to the group had to be semi-private property. During the post world war ll era, the land grant became part of the vast Navajo Nation. This is speculation at best and some other area in the 1933-45 eras were so remote that there could be several candidate sites.
In 1958 Trabuco sold his mines and ranch properties in Chihuahua, Mexico and departed to Europe. IN 1962 Trabuco visited Mexico City and made some calls to his lawyer in Los Angeles, California. Trabuco returned to Spain that year with no action having been taken in the United States. In 1974 there were some inquiries by the Trabuco Los Angeles law firm to the United States Treasury and Justice Departments. The outcome of these inquires was not revealed but no one has seen Trabuco since that time. The law firm must have made some kind of deal because the hired agencies to locate Trabuco in Europe with no results.
Trabuco was thought to be around 45 years of age in 1933 which would make him 74 when he visited Mexico in 1962. When the search began in 1974 he would have been 86 years old.
The truck Trabuco had in New Mexico could haul one ton easily. This would mean that 17 trips were made in one day with five miles to his secret site and five miles back to the guarded tarped site. 170 miles in one day with handling and burying, could all fit into one long day time frame. No map was made and the only statement that anyone can remember Trabuco saying was "The gold is only a few miles from a major New Mexico land mark."
Other dates can be located in the book, "Missing Four Corners Area-----17 Tons of Gold." by Adaven Rivlas. Also a video of Fosters Hunt and one Treasure Magazine article. Earlier in this story I mention that one of the private United States buyers may have leaked the information to the Fed's and from later documents we find the names and the players.
1950: A prominent Los Angeles cattleman named E. George Lucky reported to the United States Secret Service that he had been asked to serve as an intermediary in arranging a large-scale bullion sale. 35,000 pounds of gold at $35.00 an ounce making this a $20,000,000.00 deal. Mr. Lucky stated that the deal had been brought to him by a man named Bruce Clews, a Los Angeles public relations man. An attorney named Prentiss Moore sat in on the meeting. Clews stated that the deal had been brought to him by a metal imports dealer named Isadore M. Nobel and an international mining consultant named Martin Hougan. Hougan, the mining consultant, had power of attorney to represent the foreign seller. The sale of the gold was to be handled through as escrow system located at the First National Bank of Ontario, California. B.J. Klepper was the escrow office of this bank. The attorney, Prentiss Moore advised the group to tell the story to the Secret Service and to get advice from both the Treasury Department and the Justice Department prior to violating any United States Laws. This advice was taken and the Secret Service handed the file to the Federal Justice Department in Los Angeles. The Prosecuting Attorneys took the entire file to the Federal Grand Jury in order to seek indictments. All known participants were brought before the Grant Jury. This included the escrow files and an affidavit from Martin Hougan, the mining consultant, that he had seen the gold with his own eyes and could guarantee that the gold did exist. Hougan did not appear at the hearings and when a warrant was issued in his name, he avoided being served by seeking foreign employment. Mr. Hougan never did surface and his whereabouts are unknown.
Angus D. McEachen, the United States Prosecuting Attorney, entered the file in the Federal court system in 1952 and again in 1960 so that the stature of limitations would not run out. The United States Government renewed the claim in 1974.
The Hougan affidavit stated that the gold was buried somewhere in the far extreme northwest corner of the state of New Mexico in San Juan County.
Shiprock has been the center of several searches for this horde. Both legally permitted Navajo searches and trespassers on reservation lands. As recent as 1990 an air infrared search was done by a California company in the Shiprock area. They covered a 20-mile circle around the rock. A potential landing field east of the rock was found and could easily be reached by truck to haul the bullion away to it's hiding place.
The filming was done with 35MM color and infrared black and white film. The films have been studied and determined that the filming and the developing was not up to the state of the art that was available. It is also noted that the alleged landing site was in an open plain where passers by could see the field for miles. The truck carrying the gold would have to cross over the highway which was between the supposed landing site and Shiprock. The facts and the stores do not go together. Another researcher from Farmington, New Mexico states that there was an old Spanish/Mexican Land Grant 20 miles south of Shiprock and he suspects that this area is now part of the Navajo Indian Reservation and could have been available to Trabuco in 1933. This area was also filmed by the California company and nothing was found by infrared filming. However, once again, the filming and developing was below par.
Ed Foster, a long time researcher for his treasure, found some interesting evidence six miles east of Aztec, New Mexico. He stated that there were some major Landmarks north of this area listed on several old Mexican maps. These landmarks were "Way-Points". He also found a rock, which has the inscription 1033/16 tons. When Mr. Fosters story is pieced together, it seems to further confuse the story. He alleges that the plane landed at Conger Mesa, which is in the center of the village of Old la Plata, New Mexico. He states that he interviewed an old Indian woman who saw a plane land on Conger Mesa near 1933. Fosters complete story covers an area of thirty miles when all of his research is placed together.
Friends of mine, field surveyed the area and can supply some data which makes Conger Mesa an unlikely landing spot. The shed that Trabuco supposedly used as a guard shack and to hold the gold for transport is far from the Conger Mesa Strip. We also interviewed some old farmers, Indians and miners that stated that during the 1920's and 1930's La Plata was a major smelting district for several active mines which operated north of La Plata and into Colorado. Several mines would bring their ore to these lower elevation smelters for final refining. Most of the ore was then sold to eastern buyers or shipped by road to Denver, Colorado. IT was not uncommon for officials to fly onto these rough landing strips in those days. This may be the reason that some planes were seen flying into the area.
In late 1994 I hoped that the snow was gone and took my chances on a quick glance of the area. Finding snow on all of the north slopes and some on the west slopes, I had my friend shoot color from the air and use the data that I had accumulated so far to isolate the most likely areas and proceed with a ground search to look for identifiable artifacts. Four candidate mesa's that could be seen from the roads were isolated. These mesas could be used as landing sites. Two spots were found that showed signs of disturbances of some type of land grading to smooth an area. This appeared to be done with some kind of drag and most probably mules were used to pull a grader. The east or back slope of one mesa showed that an old trail came up onto the mesa. Most of the trail was just wide enough for a man or possibly an animal. A very small track shows that there was some traffic the width of an automobile. We presume that the vehicle was pulled up onto the mesa by animals and could be used for more extensive areas on the surrounding mesa top.
The area of interest was isolated in the 1930's. It was considered by the Indians to be part of the old people's cave dwelling grounds prior to it's being established as the Navajo Indian reservation. All of this area was what the Indians called "Ancestors Grounds". The old people built adobes on protective ledges and caves, mostly on the south facing slopes of the high mesa. They did this for protection from the weather and hostile nomadic non working tribes who often took the hard eared stores from the working Indians. These cave dwellings were often built away from watering holes and required that potable water be hauled up to their homes. Other food items were also hauled up to their adobe homes for grinding and storage. The protected dwellings were most likely used only occasionally in the good weather months while small clans grew their crops and hunted for game that could be dried for winter use. By the winter months, the clans moved into their winter dwellings with pre-stored foods and water.
This story has been put together using all of the above-mentioned data. In June of 1933, Trabuco traveled north by truck and made a decision on what mesa was out of sight of roads, and settlements. The mesa needed to be in an unclaimed area with no mines, ranching, and no interest by the smaller Navajo Nation. Trabuco rented mules from a farmer in the old La Plata area and entered the mesa from the east and graded a landing strip. He later brought three horses for his men to use to get on and off the mesa with camp supplies. He used the mules to grade the landing site and made a camp by using flat stones from several of the old Indian rock Hogans that were on the mesa. (Associates have located these Hogans that were probably used to make a pantry under the cliff side where they could seal out rodents and keep their food stores safe.)
There were six stripped hogans where only the foundations remained near the pantry. One Hogan was located near the makeshift landing strip and had a two foot base where the bullion could have been kept with a tarp over it until it was moved to it's hiding place. I don't think that Trabuco originally planned on burying the gold because a fast sale was the original plan. The gold was all flown in by February 1934 and he and his guards could ride to town and take turns guarding the horde. Sometime in early 1934 Trabuco learned that the gold had indeed jumped to $35.00 per ounce but as the leader of the group, he decided to wait to see if the price would jump even more and that is when he decided to bury the gold. This is when he traveled to Bloomfield to purchase hard ground digging tools (factual). In February 1934 Trabuco had his guards help him tow his truck to the mesa and then sent the guards to twon. He took his time and loaded one or two tons at a time and moved the gold to his pre-dug hiding place.
When the gold was all buried, he could easily drive the truck down the east side to Kirkland and pick up his men and deliver them back to Mexico to await the possible rise in the gold market.
By late 1934 his partners were disturbed because their time and money were tied up. The United States Gold Act laws were just beginning to be defined and the project started to look bleak for hoarders of gold. By 1935 the partnership wanted guards posted at the mesa to further insure the safety of the gold. Trabuco took new help to an out post area near the gold site.
Trabuco hauled building blocks onto the mesa and had the team construct a year around type adobe to keep trespassers away from the area. This house is next to the original pantry that the Indians had built. A small herd of sheep was brought in to make the homestead look more like a working ranch. An attempt to sell some gold to private buyers in Denver was made in 1941 but the illegal sale scared the buyers away. Soon after the war broke out, the partners tried to sell some of the gold to the treasury department at a low rate but Roosevelt
