8 Victorio Peak Treasure
Victorio Peak is a part of the southern Rocky Mountains, located in New Mexico. Over the years, it has been used extensively by the United States government as it lies within the White Sands Missile Range where the government once tested nuclear weapons. Before it was taken over by the government, however, the area was open to the public. That is when—in 1937—Doc and Babe Noss entered the scene.As the story goes, they were with friends deer hunting when Doc discovered an old shaft in the side of Victorio Peak. He and Babe returned later and explored the shaft finding skeletons, gold, jewels, and historical artifacts awaiting them. In 1938 the Noss’s established legal ownership of the find, and stories began to float that Doc had found either Casa del Cueva de Oro or the treasure of Don Juan de Onate, the man who founded New Mexico as a Spanish colony. In 1939, in an attempt to expand the passageway, Doc was advised to use dynamite, which went about as poorly as it could have, collapsing the shaft altogether. Noss was never able to regain entry into the mine, and was killed in 1949 by a would-be partner after he and Babe had divorced. To this day the Noss family continues to try to regain entrance to the shaft, but no gold has ever been found. There are some rumors that the government expanded the missile range to include Victorio Peak and took the gold to Fort Knox, but there is no documentation supporting this claim.
7 Montezuma’s Treasure
Apparently if you want to find a lost treasure in the United States, your best bet is to check out the Rocky Mountains and the southwest, as this next treasure brings us to the town of Kanab, Utah, which is said to be the home of the Montezuma Treasure. Montezuma, the legendary leader of the Aztecs, was a man in possession of an incredible fortune. It was taken after he was killed during a battle with the Spanish led by Cortez. Millions of dollars worth of jewels and gold were removed from Montezuma’s treasure room by his own people in order to keep it away from Cortez.So why do people think the massive treasure of an Aztec leader wound up in Utah? It turns out in 1914, a prospector found an etching made on the side of a cliff that matched a marking on an old treasure map that was said to lead to Montezuma’s treasure. The prospector—a man named Freddy Crystal—tracked down a descendent of Montezuma to interpret the map, and it was determined the topography did in fact match Kanab. Crystal actually convinced the townspeople to help him secretly search for the gold with the promise of sharing any findings, and eventually they did manage to find a system of caves and tunnels running through the mountain. It was laced with booby traps, but no gold was ever found, leading to the common belief that if the treasure had ever been there to begin with, it had either been moved by the Aztecs or discovered by some absurdly fortunate spelunker.
6 The Lufthansa Heist
Anyone who has seen the movie Goodfellas is familiar with the Lufthansa heist, which is believed to have been the biggest cash robbery in United States history. It happened on December 11, 1978 at JFK International Airport, where an estimated five million in cash and $875,000 in jewels were taken. To put that in perspective, adjusting for inflation that’s a robbery worth over twenty million dollars today. The heist was carried out by mobsters including Henry Hill, who would later be portrayed by Ray Liotta, and to this day no jewels or currency have ever been recovered.One of the reasons it has never been recovered, of course, is due to the very violent ends many of the men who participated in the heist met. These deaths were ordered by Jimmy Burke, who orchestrated the crime and realized the theft would generate a massive federal investigation. As part of his plan to clean up, he had almost every member of his crew murdered to keep them quiet. Some of the money from the heist was believed to have been spent and used in drug deals, but the vast majority was never found.
5 The Amber Room
At first you might think something called the Amber Room is a high class gentleman’s club. It’s actually one of the most sought after lost treasures in history. The room, which is a small space created entirely out of amber panels with gold leaf and mirrors, was built in the 18th century for Friedrich I, the first king of Prussia. It was eventually gifted to Peter the Great, and remained in the possession of Russia until World War II. People who saw the Amber Room often referred to it as the Eighth Wonder of the World.And then, it vanished. As it turns out, the curators in charge of protecting the Amber Room during the war attempted to hide it under wallpaper due to its fragile state, but that did not stop the Nazis from looting this nearly priceless treasure. It was then brought to Konigsberg Castle in Germany, but in 1944 Allied forces destroyed the city and left the castle in ruin—the Amber Room was lost forever. To this day, no one is entirely sure what happened to the room, though utter destruction seems the likeliest explanation. Still, it has become the subject of popular mythology. It also carries with it a supposed curse, as several people who either possessed or hunted for the Amber Room have met with untimely and very curious deaths.
4 Flor do Mar
In 1502, a Portuguese ship called the Flor do Mar, or Flower of the Sea, was constructed. Commanded by Vasco de Gamma’s brother Estavao, the ship was part of a Portuguese voyage to India in 1505. The ship took part in several sea battles over the next six years until, in 1511, it was lost in a storm.Now, the idea of a warship with such a storied history alone would make for this being an intriguing lost treasure, but of course there is more to the story. Most notably the fact that the Flor do Mar was carrying a boatload of spoils from a recent victory. The fortune on board was said to be enormous, making the Flor do Mar the most sought after lost shipwreck in history. The ship is said to have carried the treasure of the Melaka kingdom, located in modern day Malaysia, which reportedly included more than sixty tons of gold.