Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-01-17
A WONDERFUL COUNTRY.
The 'Unexplored Region" of Arizona
Discovery OF the Ruins CT II Great
City.

SACy'
Last August, during the diamond
excitement, party ofrough, hardy,
courageous men started off into
Arizona, looking for diamonds, it
was generally believed. The party,
however, started in search of rich
gold and silver deposits which were
discovered by an old proprietor and
frontiersman, and were under
guidance Of the informant. The
following interesting account OF
their adventures was learned from
one of the explorers, Colonel w. Il.
Roberts, and is published in the
San Francisco Chronicle. They
proceeded without adventure until
they reached the Great Desert,
which the Chronicle says is in She
northeastern corner Of Arizona,
near the boundary Of Utah and
Colorado, lying in tract otcountry
marked on the maps "Unexplored
Regions" 1t is a desolate looking,
uninhabited region, seldom trod by
foot of civilized man and Stunned by
the Indians:
For miles on miles, further than
the eye can reach, these barren
wastes stretch away in continuous
succession Of desert table lands and
yawning chasms. 1t is a wild,
drcary, inhospitable, boundless
waste, very embodiment of desola-
ton. For fourteen days the party
lost their trail in the desert, and
nearly perished with thirst and
hunger, at one time going thlrty-six
hours without water.
One day while travelling in one of
the impossible gorges seeking a
place where they could scale its
craggy sides, Roberts discovered
the ruins Of what was once Il large
and populous city. He had gone up
the gorge about two miles above
the main party, when he saw some
wild sheep and followed them for
some distance; they turned ont of
the canon, and he, finding place
where he could Chamber up on foot,
pursued them to the top. Suddenly
emerging on the top of a mesa he
was amazed at finding himself
among the extended ruins Of u great
city, untrodden by foot of man for
centuries, and spreading out miles
before him. 1t covered an area of
abon. three square miles and was
inclosed by wall of sandstone,
neatly quarried and dressed, ten or
twelve feet thick, and which, judg-
ing by the Debris, was fifteen or
twenty feet high before its fall. In
most places it had crumbled away
and talleu, and was covered with
sand, but in many places it was
still standing six or eight feet above
the sand banks which chad drltted
around it. The entire area inside
Of this had at one time been covered
with houses, built solid sandstone
which showed excellent masonry in
their construction. This ancient
city is situated in Arizona, about
ninety miles from the boundary line
between Utah and Arizona, and the
same distance from the Western
Colorado line. 1t has the appear
ancc Of being an old Aztec city that
has been deserted for hundreds Of
years and fallen TO ruins. 1t is en-
tirely of stone, and not a stick OF
worked timber is to be seen among
the ruins. Nothing but the walls
are standing, and none of them are
now left more than eight or ten feet
aboye the sand, which is eight or
ten feet deep. Colonel Roberts is
confident from the appearance OF the
walls that many of the houses were
two or three stories high, but there
was not enough ofthem left standing
to enablo him to Judge accurately
of the style of architecture adopted
by the ancient builders OF this city.
Colonel Roberts estimates that there
were at least 10000 houses in the
city. 1t was laid ont in plazas, with
paths or small streets from one to
the other. There was evidently
one main highway extending
through the center of the city. This
has been cut down by the winter
torrents into yawning chasm, 600
or 800 feet deep, and 800 feet wide.
1t is evident that this chasm has
been washed out since the city was
built, because the walls of many of
the houses are now overhanging
the brink, and it is not reasonable
to suppose that a city would have