The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1853-05-19
JOSEPHINE.
Ruins in New Mexico.

At recent meeting of the Maryland
Historical Society, a letter dated Fort
Fillmore, New Mexico, January Is, 1858,
from Colonel D. S. Miles, of the United
States Army, was read, and excited a
very deep and lively interest among the
members present. The material portion
of the letter is as follows
Lieut.. Albert, of the Typographical En-
gineers, is the only officer of the army
that ever had the opportunity of visiting
Gran Quivira. He went to deserted
village called Abo, in latitude "a degrees
25 minutes, longitude LOG west, and says
he was within fourteen miles of it, and its
direction was east. This may be correct,
but my information would lead me to in
fer that it lies further south and east from
Abo, Since | wrote the article in the
Arkansas paper, have accidentally be-
Pcome acquainted with an old man,
named Campbell, who is represented as a
respectable and truthful man, who has
visited Quivira on two occasions-thc
first time in 1889, when he was run off by
the Indians; the next visit in l842, with a
larger party, and staid there week, ex-
ploring or digging here and there for treas
ure. | will as far as my memory per-
mits give you his description in his own
words:
He found the site of the Grand Quivira
on mesa or table land, situated on the
north west point of the Sacramento noun
tains, having the appearance of a large
and populace city, regularly laid out in
wide streets at right angles. He sup
posed the city in length to be at least three
miles, running northeast to southwest,
and half mile or more in breadth, some
of the houses in part, still standing, and
built of hewn stone. There are clear in
dications of the size of the houses, and
many of them are very large size, or at
least cover much ground. One he
thought he recognized as the palace, an
other as the temple, or place of worship,
and here he thought it most probable he
would find the treasure.
He sounded about and discovered a
hollow place, cleaned away the dirt and
reached floor; dug through it, thinking
he was getting into cellar, but found "a
room entirely empty, about sixteen to
eighteen feet square, with polished walls
and paintings or colored figures over it,
and ascertained for the first time, that he
was on level with the street, which is
now ten or fifteen feet below the surface.
He and party used the room as a dwelling
while at the places, He dug out another
place, which he supposed to be an altar,
and came to a flat rock; on clearing away
the rubbish, he discovered where it had
been excavated, and nicely covered by
close-ftting, hcwn, fiat rock. He was
sure of prize, raised the rock, and found
in carved out hole in the solid rock, the
skeleton of human body, Indian in ap-
pearance, the whole perfect, but which,
in a few moments, by exposure to the
air, dissolved, not leaving particle ofev-
idence of human corpse but fine dust.
On digging further at that place he found
four such vaults and human skeletons.
He abandoned the town and went to the
hills, and found cave, but on opening
the mouth discovered it to be the shaft of
mine, This he followed for nearly
quarter of a mile, seeing throughout evil
dences of shining metal on all sides.-
At the end of the shaft, was small cham
Der, where he found crowbar of some
metal, not iron, quite black, chisel,
hammer or kind of axe, also quite black;
and curious kind of earthcn vessel. He
left these things where he found them,
and returned to the town. In rambling
round to the western part, he found what
was the reservoir, in the form of an
eclipse, its axis must be l50 yards in
length; its breadth at least 80, and its
depth about fifty feet. Bottom and sides
paved with hewn stone. At the south
ernmost end of the reservoir, was very
large house, of cut stone, several stories
high, which seems to have been place of
arms, and intended as a guard house TO
defend this pond of water, as at regular
intervals there were long Sits, and kind
I.ofapeft holes left in the wall.
The walls are four feet thick; one cor
ner perhaps half of this house is still
standing. There is no water nor wood
near Gran Quivira. The whole country
around for many miles, is a desolatc plain
of sand. At the north end of the reser-
voir, the aqueduct comes in. This he
followed to the White Mountains, forty
miles in a northwest direction. 1t is
throughout its entire length, faced with
small, cut stone, both on the sides and
bottom, and cemented Its width is
about twelve feet and about ten feet deep,
sufficient to carry mountain stream,
which no longer runs in it, owing to the
obstruction Of rubbish at its mouth, but
which now pursues its course to the Pc
cos river. There is also broad, paved
avenue leading directly east from Gran
Quivira, near one hundred feet in width
which Mr. Campbell followed forty miles