Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-08-15

| cOulC hOlCS lOOhiUS llht SttDS Cut iHiO lHt
stone, which seemed to lead up to point
where one of the peculiar stone slabs I
have described leaned against the cliff.
| The opposite side of the canon was acces-
sible, and not more than two hundred
yards distant, so we went over there, and
climbed to point somewhat higher than
! the Pueblo. | then saw the ledge or
| groove in the rock, in which the Pueblo
was built, ran along the cliff for a quarter
of mile, some distance beyond where we
| found the stone steps, and thought l saw
| signs similar to steps, leading down from
it ii little way toward the detached slab.
Possibly, l thought, this slab may have
been fast above when the village had in
habitants, and furnished them a winding
stairway. l saw, also, that the houses
were of most admirable construction,
built of fiat stones laid in mortar, and
neatly white washed inside, and that the
jOists were of massive timber, round,
nearly foot thick, and dressed with some
care. At the distance of seven or eight
hundred feet there was much uncertainty,
but fancied I also saw fragments of iron
or leather on the floor of one house the
only one into which the sunshine fell di
rectly. From the situation of the cliffs,
judge that about ten o'clock in the morn
ing the sun would be shining directly in
the front door.
A remarkable echo is observable here.
A sentence of ten words shouted from
the south side is returned clearly and dis
tinctly. Not far below we found the
ruins of another house not more than
forty feet high, with shelving rock below.
The Navajoe found steps to lead half way
up. He then walked along a fiat offset
five or six feet below the house, and held
h ha,, Goo h Ial,, bod
shelving rock and reached the house. 1t
was in ruins, and most of the material
lay in heap in the canon below. Only
the fireplace and chimney, built against
the cliff remained whole; they were of
the common Pueblo pattern, and showed
dabs of white wash. l sustained one seri-
GUS disappointment Through some
blunder of my guide or the Interpreter
who instructed him at Defiance, l missed
the greatest wonders. We ought to have
turned up the Canon de Chelley from
where we entered it. and a mile or two
would have brought us to the largest
Pueblo, one capable of containing five
hundred people, and situated on ledge
fifteen hundred feet above the canon
and three hundred below the cliff. /
had been told of this at Defiance, but
through ignorance of the locality missed
ant (name forgotten) visited it some weeks
since with ropes and powerful field
glass. From the opposite side he saw
the interior of most of the houses, all of
the common Pueblo style. Tney were
neatly whitewashed, and the fragments
of acquarra showed that they had
transparent windows. Broken pottery
lay around in heaps, but there
were no skeletons or indications of
any, showing either that the Inhabitants
had ample time to escape or that time has
destroyed all trace of them This village,
it is said, could be reached by ropes for,
above; and as have onlv- ,sr,Iv attemnt.
ed what ought to .e we'll aud scientifically
done' l ".enture suggestion. A party of
, ..uIr dozen should start from Defiance,
with ropes, ladder or two, and power
full field glasses; and thus several of the
ruins could be reached. The country is
perfectly safe, only two hundred and fifty
miles from Santa Fe, and the Navajoes
are the best of guides and servants.
Many and various are the theories
among the few whites who have visited
these places as to their inhabitants, and
how they reached their houses. Besides that
of the rope ladders previously mention
ed, it is often suggested that the bed of the
CtuOn w dS DIT tudb hClRuG WICu tuC houoCo
were built, and has since washed down.
But this will not do, for the plainest indi
cations show that it would require, at the
| very least, hundred thousand years for
such wearing down, or washing out, to
take place. Besides, the best evidence
shows that the cannon is filling, instead
of deepening, on account of the sand
| drifting down. In my opinion, these
| slabs of stone help to explain 1t. But
this is only venture, and whether there
were once projections from the cliff suffi
cient to furnish road, since fallen away,
it will take more evidence to settle. / can
only sum up as do Other visitors: The
houses are there, and l have seen them,
but how they got there is mystery.
Who were the inhabitants? Pueblos
unquestionably, l think :; of the same
general stock as the Moquis, Zunis and
Teguas. The houses are an exact repro
duction of those formerly described at
the Pueblo de Laguna, including stone,
mortar, towers, acquarra windows and
whitewashed interior The country, once,
no doubt, contained five times as many
as to-day, since swept off by the increas-
ing drought, Utes and Apaches. Their
whole existence was a continual war
They seem to have retreated from the
lower valleys to the most hidden or de-
fensible canons, and then to these cliffs,
where their orse-riding enemies could
not follow them. There they pastured
their goats in rugged gorges, and culti-
waited few little patches where they
could find water. They must often have
suffered seasons of famine, and probably
never had an abundance and by the
kind law of nature forbidding increase
with no promise but want and misery,
the nation slowly dwindled away. The
Zunis, Moquis, Colimas, New Mexican
Pneblos and the Teguas, perhaps also the
Pimoles and Maricopas, are their frag-
mentary survivors. Their ruins, and
broken pieces of their pottery, still attest
their former extent. The agency party
discovered on the San Juan the ruins of
one Pueblo which might have contained
| two thousand inhabitants. Nor was it
abandoned on account of drought; their
acecqmins still remain, and the San Juan is
ample to fill them.-ArizonG Cor. Ctncin-
| n1l GOnn7perclaL