The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1873-03-25
Ruins of Great City in Arizona.

regions of northeastern Arizona, south
eastern Utah and southeastern Colorado.
For miles on miles further than the eye can
reach, barren wastes stretch away in con-
tinous succession Of desert table-lands and
yawning chasms 1t is a wild, dreary, in
hospitable, boundless waste, very embod-
iment of desolation. Fourteen days the
party lost their trail in the desert, and
nearly perished with thirst and hunger,
and at one time going thirtysix hours with
out water.
One day, while travelling in one of the
impossible gorges, seeking place where
they could scale its craggy sides, Roberts
discovered the ruins of what was once
large and populous city. Suddenly emerg-
ing on the top of a mesa, he was amazed at
finding himself among the extended ruins
of great city, untrodden by,foot of mentor
centuries, and spreading out miles before
him. 1t covered an area of about 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 awayaand fallen, and was
covered with sand, but in many places it
was still standing six or eight feet above
the sand banks which had drf.ed around it.
The entire area inside of this had at one
time been covered with houses, built of
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 appearance of being an old Aztec
city that had been deserted for hundreds of
years and fallen to ruins. 1t is entirely of
stone, and not stick of worked timber is
to be found among the ruins. Nothing but
are now left more than 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 of them left
standing to enable him to judge accurately
of the style of architecture adopted by the
ancient builders of that city. Colonel Rob
erts estimates that there were at least 20,-
900 houses in the city. 1t was laid out in
plazas with paths or small streets from
one to the other. There was evidently one
main highway extending through the
centre of the city. This has been cut down
by the winter torrents into a 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, be-
cause the walls of many of the houses are
now overhanging the brink, and it is not
reasonable to suppose that city would
have been built ON each side of such
chasm. The walls still bear the traces Of
many hieroglyphics, cut deep into them,
showing various Indian costumes and su-
perstitions. There are also the ruins of
stately monuments, built Of square block
sandstone, well quaried, and showing good
masonry, which are worked with notches,
and crosses cut into them at regular inter
walls. The luins are covered with sand,
which Colonel Roberts says he is confident
has blown there from the desert, short
distance to the south, since the city was
tract of country when the city was built,
and that the inhabitants were forced to
desert it on account of the high winds
which blew the sand in there after the
waters, with which it is believed the desert
was once covered, receded.
This sand has become packed and soli-
: diied by the rains, and is almost as hard
as the sandstone. There is large ditch,
now partly filed up, running from the city
away back in the hills, ten to fourteen miles
from the city, and it is believed this was
made for the purpose of conveying water tC
the city for irrigating the ground and for
other purposes. The walls of the houses
are rough and worn by the storms of centu
; ries, which have worn into the soft places
in the sandstone, even in the walls over
n hanging the precipice. The sandstone does
, not bear any marks of fire, and Colone
0 Roberts is confident that the sand storms
9 which have nearly buried the city rendered
6 it uninhabitable, and compelled its ancient
Q inhabitants to desert it.
y No bones, implements, or relics Of any
; kind were found, with the exception ol
some pieces of pottery of dark color
These were embellished with paintings o
Is flowers and ornamental figures in blue col
70 lors. The coloring matter is of blue min
~